It’s that time of year again. We are right at the beginning of the season where every PR person in America (or so it seems) will be touting dubious workforce and HR “experts” to give us advice about the perils of the traditional holiday party.

Last year, for example, I got some wonderfully festive suggestions about “preventive measures” that companies should take to make sure they don’t get sued as a result of something that takes place at the annual holiday party. My favorite was the wonderful suggestion to “circulate anti-harassment policies before the party to remind employees that it covers the party, including prohibiting offensive touching and joking (e.g., sexual, racial, ethnic, etc.).”

Well this year, I have a better suggestion, and it comes from an unlikely source: media giant Viacom, the company that owns such well-known brands as Paramount Pictures, Comedy Central, VH1 and Nickelodeon. According to the Viacom memo posted on the gossip Web site Gawker, “Viacom just sent an internal email to employees telling them that the holiday party is canceled—but everyone gets two extra days of vacation instead! To ‘relax and recharge for the coming year.’ ”

The days off come with a couple of strings attached, it should be noted. First, the two days must “be used between December 22 and January 1,” according to the memo from Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman and CFO Tom Dooley, but in my experience, most people are more than happy to take off time during that period anyway. And as Gawker rightly points out, Viacom is under huge financial pressure and layoffs are likely coming as chairman of the board and majority owner Sumner Redstone struggles with how to deal with $1.6 billion of debt. It may be that the time off is just a bone thrown to a lot of people who are going to lose their jobs anyway.

But, days off in lieu of an office party is a terrific trend I can certainly get behind. It’s probably something most HR people would embrace as well. After all, who wouldn’t rather ditch the dumb party for a couple of paid days off, chilling far from the office?

In fact, is there anyone anywhere in America who would rather have a holiday party rather than an extra day or two off? If so, I’d love to hear about it, either with a comment at the end of this blog or as an e-mail to me at jhollon@workforce.com. Or, if you have any other suggestions to holiday party alternatives, I would like to know about those as well.

Given the state of the economy, this may be the year that the annual office holiday party gets zapped, once and for all. Is there anyone who will be sorry to see it go?