“Dear all,

The time has come where we must start thinking about Christmas…Please find below a doodle poll of 3 suggested dates in December. The exact time of the meal is yet to be confirmed, but it has been agreed that we will be able to finish work around 2:45-3ish for our Christmas party.

Please can you also email me suggestions of potential venues.

If you could let me know both these things by next Wednesday afternoon, that would be great!

Merry Christmas!

Thanks.”

I’m new here (this office). Is this normal or MENTAL?

Normal. For some reason everyone books their Christmas office parties at the same time of year.

normal and MENTAL unfortunately

Both. If you want somewhere decent, it’s a necessary evil I suppose.

pretty standard if it’s likely to be a big party, decent venues that cater for large numbers can be scarce.

My first thought is usually. What makes you think you or i will still have a job here then? ….. Am i to much a pessimist ?

I’d rather my office booked something good far in advance, than ended up booking something shite, because they only remembered about it too late

This isn’t even the first “It’s only bloody….” Xmas thread we’ve had this year, there’s a large prominent Hotel in Cardiff that’s had its Christmas Window open since April telling us all to book ahead – the question of whether it’s worth taking it down between Jan and Mar has already been asked, it may become a 12-month thing.

As a small, almost 100% male office we’re resolutely ‘old school’ as in we’ll all moan about it “only being Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec, Dec the 15th” and decide on the last Friday before the ‘big day’ we should finish early and go to the pub. The best ones IMHO are low-key, barely organised casual things – all these big event when you have to dress up and every minute detail is planned with military precision seem too forced to me, boring.

I got that email 3 weeks ago!…

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/our-md-has-just-emailed-us-a-possible-date-for-xmas-do

decent venues that cater for large numbers can be scarce

20something of us, like every other place I’ve ever worked, where the christmas do gets sorted 4-6 weeks beforehand. Never experienced any availability crisis as a result of this.

Oh well whatever, I’m the grumpy one who probably won’t go anyway.

Why is your office Christmas party in July?

Let me check with the office….

oh, it’s only me.
I can’t be faffed. Bah humbug.

You do realise that the kind of people who think Christmas parties are a good idea, at all… EVER are the kind of people you should avoid at all costs. It goes without saying that Christmas parties should be avoided at all costs.

The kind of people who start planning them in July are fully deserving of being ‘disappeared’ during the night by a Pinochet style Death Squad, for the benefit of society as a whole

I’d rather my office booked something good far in advance, than ended up booking something shite, because they only remembered about it too late

+1

They may have just got confused as we had summer in April and its been resolutely autumnal since May?

What makes you think the firm will still be running by xmas?

what makes you think you will still be employed at xmas?

what on earth makes you think the firm or you will be able to afford a do?

would be the response round my office. We are quite generous as a firm (really nice restaurant open tab ) but the party is very much last minute and dependant on funds.

A few years back our office party didn’t get planned until September, at which point it ended up being booked for mid-February as nowhere reasonable was available.

pretty normal TBH
our office normally books around this time…i expect to hear something in the next few weeks
we normally end up somewhere half decent

my wife’s work place always leave it to the last minute and always end up somewhere shite

our boss is often so disorganised that our Christmas do sometimes *is* is July. Cheaper I suppose 🙂

I was designing christmas brochures for venues in March.

March? Thats organisation. I designed my first Christmas cards at the beginning of June

I’ve been to office Christmas meals organised close to the time at a small choice of atrocious venues, and I’ve been to nice ones organised around now.

I’m glad to see they’ve already decided on a time to leave the office. Usually ours involves a cheeky, but not planned until the last minute, early departure.

Binners, you’re a crabbit bastard, are you gagging for a Friday beer perchance?. 😆

I’ve been lucky enough to avoid the “Christmas do” for nearly 10 years, waste of time (mine) and money (company) imho. If there is to be a company event have it at a better time of year when superior quality is available for less money (its the whole roses at valentines day argument). That plus give the staff an early end of day for some Christmas drinks.

What the ‘f’ in hell is a doodle poll?

Madness.

Mind you, it’ll be Easter soon 🙂

We had to get our bookings in by mid May. I’m a contractor, I might not still be there at Christmas.
Besides, it’s in Harrogate so would also need an overnight stay and probably public transport home the next morning. Think I’ll pass

Thanks choppersquad, was about to ask the same. Anyone got an answer?

Normal, they’re already talking of which bars they’ll be going to afterwards.

Joy.

Not sure I’ve ever been to a works Christmas do. I already spend more time at work than I do with friends and family. Unless I can book overtime for it, I’m not interested, I’d rather be at home.