I work for a company that embraces diversity, but I think they went about it the wrong way with one of their Christmas parties. Several years ago they had one with a Japanese theme.

I, along with my colleagues of Asian descent, were uncomfortable with the idea as we felt it would lead to cultural appropriation and people from other backgrounds mocking our traditions. And that did happen; people walked around with chopsticks in their hair and white face paint, pretending to be geishas. It was humiliating and embarrassing.

We ended up walking out in disgust, but what should we have done to address this with the organiser and HR in case this happens again?

Cultural celebrations in the workplace are important and, when done well, have numerous benefits. But they don’t always go as planned.Credit: John Shakespeare

I asked Dr Raymond Trau, a senior lecturer at Macquarie University and currently a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford, about your question. Much of his research concentrates on workplaces, and he has........

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