32% of Employers Throwing More Lavish Holiday Parties This Year.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 1999--

`Tis the season for lavish holiday parties at work, according to survey results released today by Vault.com, The Workplace Network(TM), (http://www.Vault.com).

Last week, Vault.com surveyed 531 employers and discovered that almost 32% were throwing more lavish parties for employees this year as compared to last year.

A possible effect of the booming economy and millennium fever, employers are dishing out the big bucks for this year's holiday parties. Those surveyed were asked to comment on this year's holiday parties and responses include the following:

-- "We're having a `millenium party' in January at a nice local

restaurant rather than the usual holiday party in the cafeteria.

We've got more money to spend in 2000 budget than in 1999."

-- "Our party takes place at a local hotel. The company pays for

each employee and their significant other to attend - and we

receive a cocktail hour, sit down dinner, disc-jockey dance

party, and we all have the option of staying overnight at the

hotel (on the company) and having breakfast the next morning."

-- "The party is a Bahamas cruise on royal Caribbean Cruise Lines."

-- "Our CEO feels that the party is an excellent opportunity for him

to thank everyone in the company. The affair is held at a chic

establishment, catered with fine food, hand-selected wines and

champagnes. A live band is the entertainment. All employees, from

our interns to our top executives are invited, and even our

employees in our New York, Chicago, and Dallas offices are flown

out for the occasion."

The just-released Vault.com survey also found that 52% of employers said their parties would be about the same as last year's and almost 16% said that it would probably be less extravagant.

One employer said, "We don't do a party. We just have a lunch catered that we eat at our desks between 12-1pm." Another answered, "We had a larger budget this year, but had to make it go further due to our employee numbers. Last year was dinner and dancing, this year was a cocktail buffet and entertainment."

In addition to studying workplace issues, Vault.com is well known for its award-winning "insider" company and industry profiles on companies such as Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Disney (NYSE:DIS), and NBC (NYSE:GE).

About Vault.com

Vault.com (formerly VaultReports.com), The Workplace Network(TM), is the Internet's leading destination for career information. Vault.com's mission is to help professionals advance their careers through "insider" career information, online networking, online courses, job listings, and more. Just named one of the "100 Best Sites for 2000" and "the best way to scope out potential employers" by Yahoo! Internet Life, Vault.com provides "insider" guides on over 3,000 companies and 70 industries. It also offers the much-praised Electronic WaterCooler(TM), the Internet's first-ever network of company-specific message boards for employees. In addition, Vault.com offers a free job board that contains over 200,000 job postings - one of the largest job databases on the Internet. Vault.com was founded in 1996 by H.S. Hamadeh, Samer Hamadeh, and Mark Oldman, recent graduates of Stanford and Wharton.