Discussion on:

10 things you should do (and not do) at your company's holiday party

You shouldn't attend your company's holiday party in the first place. Skip it. Just say no. Then you can forget about the other ten things.

Attending the company holiday party is compulsory. I discovered that the hard way.

I took a call from a station at around 4:00 on the day of the party. The client had experienced a bad crash so couldn't do his business. This is Sev One in that world.

I spent the next three or so hours talking him through a work around that would at least give me time to get an on-site tech to him. At the end of the call, I called the team that would be sending the tech and made certain that the station had priority for the next day. Then I went home.

Bad plan. Fortunately, I didn't know it yet.

Next day I get to the office and have my senior, his senior and HIS senior in my workspace. Waiting. Not happy. We adjourn to the conference room.

Subject at hand? I didn't make it to the holiday party.

What saved me? I had badged out of the office after 8:00pm. It was snowing and the party was black tie. So I would have had to drive home in the snow, change into suitable attire from my business suit, and then drive to the location. It would have been at least 10:00 by the time I made it.

I was let know that it was a good thing that I got the station taken care of but in the future, my attendance at company events was expected.

I am so glad that I don't deal with that very much any more.

> I was let know that it was a good thing that I got the station taken care of but in the future, my attendance at company events was expected.

Happend to me once. My answer was: "Thanks for invitation, but... you know, it's bad enough to spend >8 hours a day with same people each and every bloody workday for years on end. You can't expect me to party with them on top of that. Sorry, but I just can't bring myself to it." There were no consequences, and I wouldn't care if they were.

Three levels of management to deal with non-attendance of the company party. I bet that organization was a LOAD of.... fun.

Did you have all of the hourly folks in the company submit timecards for the duration of the affair? After all, absence was considered a serious breach of compulsory attendance. The way I see it, if you tell me I need to be there as a function of work performance, I GOT to get paid!

If I'm expected to be at the holiday party, hold it during the work day or pay me to be there.

No pay, no attendance.

I suppose if these are held during work hours for which one is being paid them one could be required to attend or stay behind and work if that is possible.

If however the event is held out of your normal paid working hours then I cannot see that they can demand your attendance.

At one place where I used to work many years ago I had no wish to attend such an event on a Saturday night of all days, I had far better things to do. I phoned the manager organising it that afternoon to say that I had been stricken by a severe intestinal upset and was making frequent trips to the toilet but that I would turn up if they really wanted me to. Needless to say I was told to stay home and thus avoided a boring event that I had no wish to attend.

Telling my boss "Something I ate doesn't like me" has gotten me out of more events than I can remember.

In the ultimate irony, I have missed a few eagerly anticipated events for that very reason.

The official parties at my company do take place during work time.

For years we had a catered lunch on site and then took the afternoon off. About six year ago we started having a catered lunch at a reception facility off site so we would have room to play music and have sight lines clear enough to see everybody. Both of these formats were employees only.

Last Saturday evening was our first "off site, after hours, not on a work day, bring a spouse / date" party. Not this space cadet. I wasn't nuts about the other formats. As someone else noted, I see enough of my co-workers during the week. I'm not showing up on my time. Mandatory? Man, I knew I should have put air in the tires. Black Tie??? I couldn't find a rental in size 38 extra short.

Ours will be this friday. Work knocks off a few hours early, and everyone brings a small dish (food, not female).

The owners will have beer and some mixed drinks available. I don't partake in the drinking because I have an hour ride home afterwords.

Last year, people started shotgunning beer cans.... The "lady" in charge of marketing won the races, but when you are paid to drink with clients I guess you get a lot of practice? Some are trying to get me involved this year, not knowing I have the ABILITY to smoke them, but not the desire thanks to that aforementioned ride home.

It is on company time though, so I will be there.

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And I can't say that hourly staff were compelled to attend.
Salary staff absolutely were.

What blew me away was that their attention wasn't on
whether or not the customer was taken care of. They
were worried about a stupid holiday party. It was even
suggested to me that in the future I should bring what I
would be changing into with me to the office and change
there. That way I would have been able to attend after
fixing the customer's needs.

I can't say that it hurts my feelings any to not be working
for them any longer.

Didn't you know? It's not what you do that matters, but whether you kiss a$$!

I think it's a branch off the old "It's not what you are that matters, but what you appear to be" attitude.

... a Down-Town Manhattan bank I used to work at in the mid-'80's. We were located in a "satellite" building while construction of the new corporate headquarters was underway.

For years afterwards I kept a copy of a memo that went around, reminding staff that even though it was permissible to remove one's jacket in one's personal cubicle, that it was NOT acceptable to use the toilet without a jacket, because there was only a single set of toilets per floor, and bank officers were forced to mingle there with staff.

It seems that the sight of an employee in shirtsleeves, washing their hands or combing their hair after "doing their business" might have caused emotional distress to a bank officer. Before receiving the memo I'd never realized just how delicate bank officers were....

And what about the comment
"what, you are pregnant, who in the world would f**k You?"

I think that should be banned as well

Never expected that one Scummy! I read that one halfway through a drink and Diet Coke went up my nose!

Totally worth it though!

(That was something I have wanted to ask some women in the past!!)

If you drink enough, they get real pretty.

Even physically unattractive people need luv!

one of the classes I had to take was "Presentations".

Many nurses in the class, all doing serious presentations on skin wasting diseases and such. (hate that)

They asked what my report was on, so I told them "The benefits of drinking beer", but they thought I was BSing them, UNTIL I started to give the report. Great the look on their faces. Nothing in the requirements said it had to be a SERIOUS presentation.

The first half was about the medical benefits.

The second half was about the social benefits, including allowing white men to dance and ugly people to have sex.

Turned out, the instructor makes his own beer, and planned on taking my report home to his wife to justify his hobby. I got my "A".

TFF! I love it when people have a sense of humor about their professions!

No, why?

Because I can't believe someone would f##k you more than once.....




that one always makes me laugh....

you don't use the old:
I wouldn't f%^k you with HIS Dick!

or:
How much did the sperm bank charge?

Some of the stuff listed is overboard. Drawing attention for eating to much???? Who cares!!

The main thing you don't want to do, is have fun. Some people might think you're up to something. God I hate office politics. Even more than real politics, because it's usually more meaningless.

I have a very safe policy indeed. As a matter of principle I NEVER attend any works Social Functions. They get 37.5 hours of my time each week for which they pay me and I have no wish to carry my work into my precious leisure time.

I can then relax with people with whom I actually wish to associate in comfort, not those I am forced to be with, eating what and as much as I wish, having a drink as I desire, taking a cab home if in a bar or restaurant and I do NOT have to talk shop.

Perhaps in these times of "Credit Crunch" businesses may abandon annual Dinner Dances, BBQs etc , my employers have to save money.

I believe exactly the same way. I hate Office Politics. Office Holiday parties? Bah! Humbug!

no punching the boss in the stomach?

damn, so that is what went wrong

You mean your resignation wasn't effective before the party started? Silly boy!

I think punching the boss is somewhat of a worse idea than getting drunk and vomiting on his (or her) shoes.

But I can assure you that you can be fired for the latter! ;^)

Of course, a friend of mine was fired because he parked in the CEO's spot for "just a moment" as he ran upstairs to show us the brand new car he'd just picked up at the dealer. Of course the boss chose that moment to pull in to work.

A.T. had the last laugh, though. The boss didn't know that while he was relocating the company had put him up in a corporate apartment (which is why he was also buying the new car.) So after being told that Friday that it was his last day, he took his severance pay and called up everyone he knew, posted signs at the local college, and had the BIGGEST party you ever saw.

The company was even less amused when they were given the police complaints for noise, on top of having to repair damages both to the corporate apartment and to various neighbors' windows, the shrubbery that was run over by a car, etc.

It was a H*** of a revenge, and I've always kept a warm spot in my heart for that crazy Russian. (I was fired from that job two months later because I was caught doing crossword puzzles in my cubicle during my lunch break. "Projecting an unprofessional image" don't you know? :-/ )

And I'm reminded again why I love my job so much. We have one big luncheon during business hours for the entire office. You don't have to go but nearly everyone does ... free food, funny carols and our annual charity auction take up most of an afternoon. Most of the individual units have their own after-hours parties. Some are fairly formal but most are not, one invite I got this year said "shoes optional" (it's nice living in a climate where you can have a Holiday Party at the beach).

That was the first thing my company cut when the economy started tanking seriously this year. They're nice to have, but they're also a completely unnecessary expense. Now my office location is still having a potluck lunch, but the company hosted party is gone for at least a year and probably more.

I remember those things from a few years back.

We used to call them Christmas parties, had them just before Christmas, to celebrate Christmas. But some people got offended by the name Christmas parties and what they were celebrating, as it doesn't apply to their religion.

So we started having "seasonal" parties, hosted some time in the New Year, plenty of food and drink to be had by one and all. But some people got offended by the fact that alcohol was being served in the same room as them and alcohol was against their religious beliefs.

So the company doesn't fund nor host alcohol-free seasonal parties anymore.


I know that some people may think what I've written is racist or whatever, it's not meant to be, especially seeing as a couple of months ago, the Diwali party went so well.

I'm pretty sure they're out of their gourds.

don't need a reason.

I still think that people that don't believe in Christmas should not take the day off, nor should they get holiday pay for it. Treat it like any other day, keep the business running, and give them a free day of their choosing later in the year.

Merry Christmas.

We have some devout muslims here, and some Hindus, and they attend our formal Christmas parties, the ones that serve alcohol and pork products, and as long as there are alternatives made available, they are happy. Some people are just looking to complain.

The same devout muslim family comes to the kids' Christmas party, and the kids sit on Santa's lap. We make sure we have a few pork free pizzas and everyone is ok.

I don't see any racism in what you wrote, and I've taken diversity training.


James

Some people are just looking to complain.

My first job was working at the local burger hut. One family that came in quite regularly ALWAYS had something to complain about. If it wasn't the food it was the store being dirty or a window had a streak on it or whatever. One time one of the managers was pretty fed up with these people and asked why they kept coming in if they always had something to complain about. That pretty much left them speechless and they didn't come back in for a while. Eventually they started coming back and complaining as usual. Some folks can never change.

If I attend a company-sponsored party at off-company property, then I may act in a fashion as I would as if I was at a bar.

I am not there in a professional role, nor am I on the clock. So long as I do nothing to break the law, I don't let them tell me how to behave.

As for standing around the food table, any good party goer knows the most acceptable place to stand...is the bar!


(P.S.- yes, I will flirt with the boss' daughter if she's cute enough and of age...i can always get another job )

We will maintain the illusion of respectability.

is for people who have no pride in what they're really like and have no issue with misleading people or lying about their true intentions or attitudes.

I'll keep job hopping, and you and your kind can keep being deceptive to people you supposedly respect or have some professional relation.

Enjoy living a lie...lifer.

they are on a "need to know" basis.

Some of us have enough self control that we can keep our professional lives and private lives separate.

I also am not so hard up for a drink that I have to take advantage of an open bar.

The main thing preventing me from boozing is my hour drive home on the highway afterwords.

You call it need to know, I call it you hiding your true self in shame :-p

I have enough control to keep my personal and professional lives separate. I have never dated nor asked out a co-worker. Have you, Mr. Control?

I am never hard up for a drink. I keep plenty of booze at my house, thank you

I know what you mean. A couple of co-workers said i should go out with them to the nudie bar up by where they live...2 hours from my house. I don't feel like:

a) having to get a hotel room for $90.
b) having to drive the next morning, rather than being home already
c) spending a bunch of money on women who are just out for money

Anyways...I'm heading home...to my rum stash

I have never had any romantic or sexual interest in co-workers.

You don't **** in your own back yard, ya know? If/when things go bad, you still have to be able to work with that person, and I have never met anyone at work that was worth quitting my job over.

Well, you have your rum, I am off to the bar. Last night of dart league, and I took tomorrow off because we are going to be closing the bars tonight.

as long as we don't lose, we will hold out being the first place losers.

where I worked until 2 years ago, there was a woman who was always cow-eyeing me...smart, nice looking, etc etc.

but, i would never even consider asking her out as a co-worker. i would be too worried that things would go wrong and i'd have to walk by her cubicle to go to the copier or my boss' office or the door to get to my car.

i feel awkward enough being around a lot of people, let alone one i know dislikes me over personal issues.