[Closed] the office xmas party

Our usual xmas do (meal, booze, hotel stay) has been downgraded this year to a xmas lunch. 🙁

I can't think of anything worse that spending christmas with work folk.

i work for myself

my christmas party will consist of spending christmas day with my wife 🙂

and possibly a night of drunken mayhem with other freelancers in nottingham although this year i may be working 🙁

Yeah, just lunch out on the company tomorrow. Been low key for a few years now after a particularly <cough> 'hilarious' </cough> evening event a few years ago 😉

Nothing here - there was an night out organised by one of my co-workers that we would have to pay for ourselves, but as the mrs was being made redundant at the time then we skipped that.

She has had a large xmas do at her work for 600 people with full three course, transport and alcohol!

We're off out for lunch (all paid for) on Friday then it'll degenerate into a drunken bar crawl from about 5pm onwards.
Discounted drinks for at least the first part of the evening and discounted hotel stay for those too late/drunk to get the train home.

We've got £40 a head behind the bar - a Vodka bar. It's going to get messy

A few drinks from the company director (my wife)

Meal out with some ex colleagues revealed that RBS aren't fronting up or subsidising a thing this year (at least in IT), rather surprisingly. 😕

No office party last year, only a subdued team lunch (we'd just made 25% of my team redundant, it was hardly a time to celebrate).

This year, we had a distinctly average office party at one of Manchester's sh*te bars (Barca), where the only black employee was made to dance for us (yes, really), and one of the partners turned out with his band and played som poor dad-rock covers of wedding songs.

I made a point of arriving late, having been riding at the track first.

I can't think of anything worse that spending christmas with work folk.

I'm not sure anyone is suggesting you have your Christmas works party on Christmas day itself.

We generally go to a flash hotel (with other half) for a 3 course meal, all you can drink (beers, wine, etc) ALL FREE but this year we are going to a scabby little place (Joe Rigs) for 2 hours from 3 til 5pm on Friday, shocking! Even though I work for a £100m turnover company, its a poor effort. Oh & no pay rise, as promised but don't get me started on that............... 👿 😈 👿

Not been to my company's official xmas party since they did away with the free bar a few years ago (which coincided with me being escorted out and put in a taxi by a director...).

ok so it seems that quite a few companies are still putting towards the xmas party, I feel a bit hard done by now!!

I work for myself so I guess I'll go out for a ride on my bike! 🙂

Ours has gone from lots of little lunch time do's to one gigantic evening do. I can just about tolerate my work colleagues if I'm paid to, but come back and see them out of choice in my own time!?

After some arguing we have ended up having a DIY meal/party in the office - with a brai, food from employees' home cultures and £500 of booze. Oh, and a wii fit.

Your a miserable bunch of gits. I actually like most of the people I work with, have a lot of respect for them and am more than happy to share (or buy) a beer with them.

The company laid on a do, meal, disco, free bar etc saturday night with subsidised rooms at the hotel which was quite good fun, although they took away the chocolate fountain after one of the managers tried coating his head.

My team are going out on Friday night for another meal (self subsidised thsi time) which seems to be expanding numbers all the time as everyone wants to come along, even ex-staff!

We've all worked hard this year, its going to be harder next year, so a chance to have a laugh outside work for a change is more than welcome. At the end of the day, if you dont approach everything with a positive attitude you wont succeed, even if its just a night out.

2 xmas parties so far with work. An office wide one and a team one. Haven't put my hand in my pocket once at either of them. Totally company paid.

Our place takes over a city centre pub for the evening, free bar for all 150 staff, and hotels for those that live too far to get home.

It's all very generous.

And every year I avoid it like the plague in favour of going out with my friends instead.

For the first time since I joined the company 9 years ago, there's an official xmas party.

Not wanting to break with 23years of (my) tradition, I won't be going.

Besides, it's in Barnsley & I live 30 miles away.

Our company Christmas party is tonight.. in the building cafeteria, which as result was closed for decoration during lunch time today ( no great loss )

"party" begins at 5.pm with an address from our Director General and it's for employee's only.. no spouses, etc.

I think I might give it a miss.

None for us this year - instead we've been given an extra half day holiday

suits me

I have three parties. One for the branch, and two team parties. Sadly as a civil servant it's all in my time and on my dollar.

Great fun, if a little expensive!

I work for myself so no xmas party for me 😥 have to start group on Facebook or something for all us lonley bu&&ers working alone to meet for our own xmas party, in out local areas.

going out on friday with good customers and the staff from the shop...just a curry but its better than nowt!

We have two Parties an official drink and dancing based one in the evening and an unoficial dinner and conversation based one at lunch time organised by those with families or an aversion to office party type discos. Usually they are on or around the same day.

Officially you are supposed to choose one or the other, but as we have to foot the bill ourselves you can do both.

I opt for the day time as
A, Being in the presence of inebriated and lecherous senior officers doesn't appeal ( see TV's Gene Hunt for example)
B, I tend to keep my perosnality in check at work and hide behind a shirt and tie, I have little desire to try and perpetuate this in my own time after work.

Usual deal, dire meal in clubhouse of a godforsaken golf club in the middle of nowhere. Why on earth we can't use one of the many vibrant city centre venues on our doorstep and find something to do after the meal instead of standing around bored at a shitty 'disco' and clock watching I do not know. It'd also be easier for 90% of the staff to get home again.

I nearly didn't go this year, but that'd leave the other chaps in the shite.

Worst one I had was a three line whip deal with no notice in Oxford when I was working for an investment co' in Notts. So I had to upsticks and get to Oxford there and then for a tray of party rings and to hear an MD open his speech with a quote from Hitler 😆
You couldn't make it up!

i dont go to ours anymore, infact hardly any of the staff do.

in the words of my old manager

"just because i work with the w*nkers, doesn't mean i have to socialise with em!"

well said!

Nothing this year and never anything paid for by work, although I have been known to chuck in a nice lump of cash for my staff to get some rounds in.

As a 'boss' I have to organise the thing....people moan if they don't get a party and then say there's no teamwork or time to get to know one another then moan when there is an organised function. If you had to organise it within a budget what would you do? Probably the same thing!

We have a decent do every other year, with lower-key departmental dinners in between. The decent do was cancelled last year as we'd just made about 3000 people redundant 😯 and there has been no mention of anything for this year either 🙄

I predict we'll never have another one 🙁

Cheers, Rich

only three this year!!

did one last friday night (payed for by us but my boss stuck £100 behind the bar)- don't remember a lot but i'm never allowed in my brothers car after the lift home (and i bought him a tank of petrol for a 5 min trip) and today my boss bought some tyres and said 'here're the tyres you asked for' I know what there for but don't recall telling him that i needed them!!

£40 quid for a meal that looked like a school dinner - and £22 house red that was only £12 on the pre-order list and supposed to be the same price!

one more thursday whole day thing paid for by the school profits (uni school that is)- much bigger group and one more monday for the techs(again paid for by us).

not bad. really - expensive though!

Last year we cancelled ours because of a bereavement of one of the team and this year nopbody fancies it. There's a lot of stress in our team just now and I think people'd rather spend time away from their workmates. Suits me as I never have enjoyed socialising with people I work with.

We're off out for a department night out tonight, then everyone goes to a dinner on Friday lunchtime (we close at 1 on Friday for *ahem* sound educational reasons) followed by hitting a few pubs.

Usually the governors pay for a drink on arrival and some wine on the tables (there's always wine left, so we gather it up and drink it) at the main one, but we pay for the rest ourselves.

Don't see the point in works dos - I spend enough time with people at work when I'm working. Many of them I wouldn't choose to spend time with, so I'm blowed if I'm going to xmas do (which just happens to be on my birthday as well) and sit around at a back-slapping awards ceremony when we've just let several people go, with their last day being about three days before xmas. "Yeah, seasons' greetings, and here's your P45."S#d that for a game of soldiers...
Rant over, and breathe...

Just back from my second Xmas lunch of the week, three more this week then two next - thanks to those whose taxes are paying for it :hic:

Wow - what unhappy work places some of you inhabit! We have had cut backs over the past couple of years and ths year we had a team meal - food paid for but we had to pay for drinks. Many of the people in the team I work in are very rarely together and these events are a great way to catch up. There's a good number of them that are great company and a few of them are very good friends. We don't get enough chances in the year to meet up but we have a blast when we do.

Ours was due for last week but got cancelled 🙁

Too many people with exams apparently, so it's rescheduled for January... by which point I'll have left!

We went out for a big curry. It was nice, although the food was so nice and provided in such large quantities that I over-ate and actually had to leave at about 9:30, before the real drinking started as I was too full and starting to fall asleep.

It is much better than my last job, in that a)everyone I work with is nice, and b)we go for a decent curry rather than some stupid horrible 'christmas meal and disco' ripoff.

Joe

xmas do in January? methinks someone doesn't "get it" 😉

As the boss I donate a decent wodge of cash to the local rescue helicopter instead of Xmas cards and client parties. Took the crew to the pub for beers and then for dinner, pretty low key. What they don't know is that the missus and I are helicoptering over to a flash hotel on Sunday for a champagne three course lunch and then flying back - thats my personal christmas treat to myself thanks very much. But i suppose I am paying for it , being my company and all 😀
We've seen a massive drop in Xmas parties etc this year which is good as we try to not attend or if we do its only for networking reasons. Saying that we have a new office space we're moving to in Jan and everyone has chipped in for the new Fusbal table, coffee machine and it being directly attached to a hi-fi shop we have co-erced them into loaning us a lossless IP streaming sound system for the office in return for rack space in our server rack. Should be party central in there, oh and it has a hanging bike rack and a parking space for my new 911 😀 What recession ?

Ours is normally a good crack, mainly because lots of the people who work for us are a laugh. I have fond memories of the chaos caused by a batch of [i]unbelievably[/i] strong organic grass a few years back. We get a good lunch, a free bar for 6 hours and then a buffet. Might have to sabotage the kareoke this year though. We also get the aftoon off, so technically we get paid to get hammered 😀

COach from the office into That Manchester on friday. Sit down meal at some trendy place (we've been to Stock before now, which is bloody nice), with a free bar. Few more free drinks afterwards, then we'll venture out into the Northerb Quarter ending up, as though gravitationally attracted, in Fab Café. I have *NEVER* heard of a night out involving more than 5 employees (past or present, paid for nor not) that did not end up in fab Café. and it's shit.

I enjoyt the earlier part though, maybe I work with nice people or something

Maybe see you on the train home on friday, james. Wake me up if I fall asleep

Just in from my first Christmas party, at a Mexican place above a goth shop. I'm sober and in before 10:30, which probably means that I'm getting old.

we had our xmas bash a couple of weekends back - everyone+partners off to a hotel for Saturday night > Sunday morning. Golf tournament in the morning if you're that way inclined then a champagne reception followed by 3 course dinner with speeches then DJ until 1am. Finally it's everyone off to the hotel bar until some idiot kicks off the fire alarm at 3am and they send the survivors off to bed. The company picks up the tab for everything with the exception of room service (one year someone took the michael and was discovered to have ordered cigars at £50 a pop and vintage champagne up to their room at 4 in the morning, now it's your card that's swiped for those extras)

The hotel itself was lovely this year but the staff and service was appalling in places. It's a small company and everyone works bloody hard so it's good to go and blow off steam together once a year.

I took my staff out a couple of weeks ago to the Lymm hotel.

I paid for a 4 course meal and a voucher for £25 work of drinks each, also paid for the partner to come as well.

Later at the bar my partner and I kept them topped up as well.

It was our way of saying thank you to folks who have helped make me a lot of money (we do other things in the year as well)

I am glad to say all enjoyed it as well, next year it is their choice of venue

we're having a token gesture of a Christmas do. Early finish tomorrow, out for a meal, home for 8.

I'm in the 'I spend every day with these people, why would I want to socialise with them too' camp. Someone even suggested that we should have the office christmas do IN THE OFFICE. the place where I spend the majority of my waking hours? f*ck right off.

as per normal for my NHS working life so far - meal in pub paid for by us - ended up having lots of beer which was good as I very rarely go out these days (sad dad).

I'll never forget reading about a girl who got wasted at her office do and thought she'd be sassy and sit at the very front of the bus on the way home, hooking her legs up on the rail at the stairs into the coach. She did, however, (somehow) forget that she wasn't wearing any knickers and the entire coach party got a view they wouldn't forget in a hurry. She never ever set foot in the office again, such was her shame.

WNO's should be renamed WMD's!

Had 2 last week. One down in London at some fancy bar, all paid for including a hotel, food travel etc... then had another one in leicester the day after. Needless to say Wednesday inbetween was a right off! Great night both nights, all paid for beer and food, meaning I was in around 4ish both mornings 🙂

First Christmas at this company and it was quite a good do.

We had a party at Duxford Air Museum, held in the main hangar with dinner served under the wings of Concorde.
We had a decent meal with wine on the tables & then a free bar and the usual cheesy disco.
There was a coach arranged for people who live near work and then for those who live further afield, either a hotel was booked or a taxi laid on.

We've also got a lunch get-together tomorrow which I think is a summary of how we've done this year with lunch thrown in and then a secret Santa too.
All in all, I've been quite impressed.

*Bookmarks thread for next time people working in the private sector whinge about the public sector having it easy*

😉

I work for a small company so there is no xmas do this year as times are very tight at the moment, just the same as last year.

To be honest I'm not bothered (actually think i prefer not to have one) as its always a bit of an anti climax with the MD trying to show off by splashing the cash at a casino (i don't like gambling) and his 50yr old wife trying to feel some of us up while he's not looking. 😯

Last Saturday night, about 400 of us, Hilton Hotel Deansgate Manchester, diner, dance, group, DJ, free bar, hotel room(21st? floor), breakfast all free, corporate speech from the chairman, all that guff.

bloody good do.

C

Before I arrived the company had done a chrimbo in Paris, a chrimbo in a big house in the lakes somewhere. When I joined we did a weekend in Amsterdam...noooice Then we did Oasis one chrimbo with our sposes invited as well. Then we did go karting followed by some pottery, (both fun when drunk).
Recently we've done flip all exciting and it's been getting worse and worse.

Leave work at 2 on Friday for a few drinks with my team, boss will get the first few rounds in....then once it's 5 and no one is being paid to be there, that will end and it's off to the do organised by us 'youngsters' on the floor, maybe 40 or 50 of us have an area booked in one of the locals, all organised and paid for by ourselves, ensures only the good people will be there, partners will come along, as will people who have left/had babies/been made redundant, I have a babysitter booked and my GF will come up and I'm actually really looking forward to it