Are you going to your work Christmas party?

Pac1Man

MadDog76 wrote: »

I've never been more embarrassed for a poster upon reading his post than I am for you right now ........... you really should get out more.

That's the height of 'embarrassment' for you?

elefant

This thread is making me appreciate my job more. I don't particularly want to be best buddies with my work colleagues outside of work, but I don't dread the thought spending time with them or hate the idea of spending money on a dinner together at Christmas.

Thankfully, I've never had a job where I've disliked my co-workers that much; it must make the day-to-day working life horrendous.

Threads like this remind me how lucky I got when I started for the company I'm with now. We go out for pints and a meal a couple of times a year with the boss and the Christmas party is free drink. Everyone is sound and it's great to get a chance to get properly drunk together as during the year we all have different commitments that stop it really happening.

Aglomerado

Definitely going this year. I used to work in a very small unit and all we did was go for lunch then back to work. This year I'm working in a larger unit and the senior managers are doing a kitty for drinks. I've booked a local hotel so I can leave when I want as well, if I get fed up. (Which I won't if there's free booze.)

I don't bother with the social club 'do' which is huge.

Kimbot

Not going to the work one, never really got to them anymore but the Boards mods one I'll be all over. Free coke and hookers, who couldnt go to that like.

valoren

Our place has a black tie ball every Christmas at the same swanky hotel.
A complete waste of time and money imo.
That you have to wear black tie pisses me off immensely.

LirW

Hot chocolate and whatever I'll cook for myself after the kids are in bed while himself is at his Christmas party.

Stay at home parent here

Malari

It's in London. And black tie. So no, don't think I will go.

LordSutch

Small affair, restaurant & a few drinks, end of. ..

Goodnight.

Wanderer2010

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Not a chance. Its incredibly awkward and false to be spending hours necking drinks and making small talk with people you dont even like. I went for the first few years just for show until i made the decision not to go purely for my own comfort.
Ive never ever understood the need to mix work and pleasure. I mean, on a dancefloor with your fcuking boss?? Having to watch what you say all night because you cant cut loose. Workmates are not your mates. I seem to be in the minority when i say its weird to mix with your boss but that remains my view.

I'd be on the totally opposite side. I'm out nearly every week for pints with people from from work (I consider some of my work colleagues as very good friends). In fact I'm out more with friends from work than my friends form outside work, even call to each others houses, go on weekends away as a group etc etc.

I'd hate to be working in a place that I didn't have the craic with people hand have a regular social scene. This coming weekend for example I'll be out fri, sat and sun with people from work.

Martina1991

Hospital Christmas party. Buffet meal in a hotel with band and DJ.

I'm looking forward to it. People are great craic with a bit of drink on them and ya talk to people you only see in passing at work.

I'm not working all weekend so I'm going to get flithered.

Pintman Paddy Losty

Kathleen Melted Vendor wrote: »

I'd be on the totally opposite side. I'm out nearly every week for pints with people from from work (I consider some of my work colleagues as very good friends). In fact I'm out more with friends from work than my friends form outside work, even call to each others houses, go on weekends away as a group etc etc.

I'd hate to be working in a place that I didn't have the craic with people hand have a regular social scene. This coming weekend for example I'll be out fri, sat and sun with people from work.

3 nights out on the trot? The work toilets will be a hazard zone Monday morning!

elefant

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

3 nights out on the trot? The work toilets will be a hazard zone Monday morning!

Any good pintman knows that three nights on the trot makes for a day with the trots.

andekwarhola

elefant wrote: »

Thankfully, I've never had a job where I've disliked my co-workers that much; it must make the day-to-day working life horrendous.

Agreed.

While you don't have to best friends with everybody, I'm tempted myself to think if somebody has such a blanket dislike of everybody in a workplace, it says more about them than their colleagues.

Outkast_IRE

Depends on what they organise -

Hotel with formal sit down meal - not a chance i will attend - went last year and food was mediocre, band was dire and bar service terrible.

Good bar with a sectioned off area with good quality finger food - i will go alright.

Mint Sauce

No. Only because I am working the day of, and the day after.

Pintman Paddy Losty

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

3 nights out on the trot? The work toilets will be a hazard zone Monday morning!

Will be more than nights out , Friday from about 4pm, all day Saturday and early enough start Sunday too. Its a bank holiday so might be a few monday afternoon even. It's Tuesday the toilets will be under pressure

Pac1Man

Kathleen Melted Vendor wrote: »

Will be more than nights out , Friday from about 4pm, all day Saturday and early enough start Sunday too. Its a bank holiday so might be a few monday afternoon even. It's Tuesday the toilets will be under pressure

G'way outta that. We know by now you gleefully tell us these extravagant stories for the shock value.

Like me, you'll be sipping warm milk by 9 o'clock on Friday with a couple of custard doughnuts, like real men.

Pac1Man

Pac1Man wrote: »

G'way outta that. We know by now you gleefully tell us these extravagant stories for the shock value.

Like me, you'll be sipping warm milk by 9 o'clock on Friday with a couple of custard doughnuts, like real men.

No chance, Oct bank holiday weekend is always a big session weekend for us.

Pintman Paddy Losty

Kathleen Melted Vendor wrote: »

Will be more than nights out , Friday from about 4pm, all day Saturday and early enough start Sunday too. Its a bank holiday so might be a few monday afternoon even. It's Tuesday the toilets will be under pressure

Good God!

That's a serious session. I presume you break it up. There's no way you could drink solidly throughout that. How many pints are we talking?

Pac1Man

Kathleen Melted Vendor wrote: »

No chance, Oct bank holiday weekend is always a big session weekend for us.

Fine then. I'll throw in a hot Captain Morgan's with a squeeze of lemon and honey. We can turn on Orange Is The New Black and count how many times the pipes creak when we turn the heating on.

seamus

moonlighting wrote: »

exactly my problem also the cost for a taxi for a single person out to the country.

Guy I used to work with used to book into a cheap hotel for work nights on the piss. He figured that €50-€60 for a bed in any old dive was cheaper and easier than a taxi to the sticks and affordable if you were only going out once every month or two months.

I also learned later on that it was a handy cover for playing away with one of the ladies in the office.

There's also the case that after a lady died on her way home a few years back, it was determined that companies had a reasonable duty of care to ensure that employees' transport needs to and from any company event were taken care of.

So if you genuinely have no way to get home from a company event, your employer is legally obliged to provide busses or taxis.

I love Sean nos

I only go to work and deal with my colleagues because they pay me to do so. Outside of those hours, why would I spend my time somewhere for free where the company code of conduct applies?

A few drinks with a select subset on a Friday night, that's okay.

Cee-Jay-Cee

The 6 of us in our office are going for a bite to eat and beer afterwards but we're not inviting our boss as she'd only kill the mood and no one would turn up if they thought she was going to make an appearance. Our Christmas parties are always shrouded in secrecy so that she doesn't know anything about them. Ssssshhhhhhhhhhh!!!

whoopsadoodles

elefant wrote: »

This thread is making me appreciate my job more. I don't particularly want to be best buddies with my work colleagues outside of work, but I don't dread the thought spending time with them or hate the idea of spending money on a dinner together at Christmas.

Thankfully, I've never had a job where I've disliked my co-workers that much; it must make the day-to-day working life horrendous.

Same. I love my job and my colleagues are a very big part of the reason why. I can't imagine dreading seeing the people I spend so much of my life with.

Sue Pa Key Pa

Kailani Helpful Poster wrote: »

I've been to lots of social events connected with work. They've rarely ended badly.

When you say rarely, that implies that it can and has happened at least once. There are serious implications for employees these days who may step out of line at a work function. The sort of thing that might occur when out with your mates, can usually be sorted by an apology the next day. With work, it can mean dismissal. Not worth a few free beers IMO

I love Sean nos

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

I love my job and my colleagues are a very big part of the reason why.

All of your colleagues or some of your colleagues?

Part of the problem is that some people can't tell the difference between their colleagues and their friends. They are then surprised when something happens.

For me, if you haven't been inside my house, you're not my friend.

If you have been inside my house, you may also have changed your mind about being friends after.

eviltwin

No I won't. I will find some personal thing I can't get out of to avoid going. In saying that I get on well with my team and we will have our own night out, it just won't involve management.

whoopsadoodles

I love Sean nos wrote: »

All of your colleagues or some of your colleagues?

All of the people in my department.

Pintman Paddy Losty

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

Good God!

That's a serious session. I presume you break it up. There's no way you could drink solidly throughout that. How many pints are we talking?

Break it up? Well with sleep at night (and obviously not getting up too early on sat and sun morning) and grabbing a bit of food but not really otherwise.

For example this weekend last year we were drinking cans in the house for the cure with breakfast on the sat and sunday and into two for around lunch time and were out until 2:30am. Who knows the number of pints double figures anyway and then onto spirits later in the night. This year might be a little less mad but will still be a big session.

Aongus Von Bismarck

I always make sure to go to my office's Christmas party. Though I am not a heavy drinker and the "food" they usually serve at those events disgusts me, it gives me a chance to keep tabs on who among us can handle their drink, or are prone to filling their boots at the free bar and buffet.

It was only last year that a recent recruit named Wolfram (we used to nickname him Tungsten, but he didn’t get it, which speaks volumes about his intellect) approached me, stinking of beer, and asking if he should ask one of our accounting girls out for a date. I placed my hand on his shoulder and urged him to reconsider, reminding him that office romances are a bad idea and that he might already have had too much to drink. He thanked me for the advice and left early.

When his contract wasn't renewed at the end of the year (I veto'd it; that kind of drinking really isn't welcome in an institute on the cutting edge of European finance), I made sure to stop by his desk and remind him that my advice regarding office romances no longer applies now that he is unemployed. His response proved my instincts about his temperament right, no doubt flared by a "heavy" lunch.

I also like to visit those parties to network, impress everyone with my innumerable hilarious anecdotes and erudite observations, and to show the younger employees an example of someone who's "made it" "cutting loose."

Those parties tend to be populated only with the members of the upper echelons of our company, however (apart from some of the senior accountants). We used to have subsidised events that encompassed every department in the company, but one year when I had the ear of a senior member of the planning committee I suggested we segregate by salary. People from facilities or reception will hardly be expected to pay top dollar for a bottle (or glass!) of 2009 Georg Breuer Rüdesheimer Berg Schloßberg Riesling, and I can't imagine the company's CFO standing at the bar in a heavy metal club next to an IT slob in a Slayer hoodie, fingering his Batman wallet. This policy has remained in place since, and is working out extremely well.

And, of course, I have something of a winning streak regarding attracting the positive attention of some of the female guests present at the end of the night. Let's just say a lot can "add up" after a few years!

harry Bailey esq

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I always make sure to go to my office's Christmas party. Though I am not a heavy drinker and the "food" they usually serve at those events disgusts me, it gives me a chance to keep tabs on who among us can handle their drink, or are prone to filling their boots at the free bar and buffet.

It was only last year that a recent recruit named Wolfram (we used to nickname him Tungsten, but he didn’t get it, which speaks volumes about his intellect) approached me, stinking of beer, and asking if he should ask one of our accounting girls out for a date. I placed my hand on his shoulder and urged him to reconsider, reminding him that office romances are a bad idea and that he might already have had too much to drink. He thanked me for the advice and left early.

When his contract wasn't renewed at the end of the year (I veto'd it; that kind of drinking really isn't welcome in an institute on the cutting edge of European finance), I made sure to stop by his desk and remind him that my advice regarding office romances no longer applies now that he is unemployed. His response proved my instincts about his temperament right, no doubt flared by a "heavy" lunch.

I also like to visit those parties to network, impress everyone with my innumerable hilarious anecdotes and erudite observations, and to show the younger employees an example of someone who's "made it" "cutting loose."

Those parties tend to be populated only with the members of the upper echelons of our company, however (apart from some of the senior accountants). We used to have subsidised events that encompassed every department in the company, but one year when I had the ear of a senior member of the planning committee I suggested we segregate by salary. People from facilities or reception will hardly be expected to pay top dollar for a bottle (or glass!) of 2009 Georg Breuer Rüdesheimer Berg Schloßberg Riesling, and I can't imagine the company's CFO standing at the bar in a heavy metal club next to an IT slob in a Slayer hoodie, fingering his Batman wallet. This policy has remained in place since, and is working out extremely well.

And, of course, I have something of a winning streak regarding attracting the positive attention of some of the female guests present at the end of the night. Let's just say a lot can "add up" after a few years!

That's the way to get sh*t done! The pair of us would definitely make strange bedfellows but that offer of a few drinks still stands, and I'm sure we'd get on famously. You've been offside a while, missed ya bud.

Pintman Paddy Losty

Kathleen Melted Vendor wrote: »

Break it up? Well with sleep at night (and obviously not getting up too early on sat and sun morning) and grabbing a bit of food but not really otherwise.

For example this weekend last year we were drinking cans in the house for the cure with breakfast on the sat and sunday and into two for around lunch time and were out until 2:30am. Who knows the number of pints double figures anyway and then onto spirits later in the night. This year might be a little less mad but will still be a big session.

Jesus. That must be near 50 pints! That's some going.

To be honest. I imagine you're exageratting a bit. If you were drinking cans with your breakfast you'd be in bed by early afternoon.

Pintman Paddy Losty

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

Jesus. That must be near 50 pints! That's some going.

To be honest. I imagine you're exageratting a bit. If you were drinking cans with your breakfast you'd be in bed by early afternoon.

Not exaggerating at all, have done the early house at 8am until night club close at 2:30am on plenty of occasions. Few cans with the breakfast around 11am or 12 noon isn't that early of a start for a heavy weekend. Hit town around 1pm and have a bit of grub soon after and then on it for the day, grab a bit of food somewhere for dinner in the evening and then drive on until closing.

_Dara_

Early houses are grim places.

Pintman Paddy Losty

Kathleen Melted Vendor wrote: »

Not exaggerating at all, have done the early house at 8am until night club close at 2:30am on plenty of occasions. Few cans with the breakfast around 11am or 12 noon isn't that early of a start for a heavy weekend. Hit town around 1pm and have a bit of grub soon after and then on it for the day, grab a bit of food somewhere for dinner in the evening and then drive on until closing.

That's outrageous alcohol abuse.

LirW

As long as he doesn't drive after that

irelandrover

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

That's outrageous alcohol abuse.

Is there any chance we can have a thread that doesnt go for 2-3 pages about Nox's drinking, if he wants to drink like that its his problem.

I won't be attending the christmas party as my company doesnt throw one. They throw a big party in November which i'll probably head along to. Its easy enough to avoid the people i dont like and spend the party with the people i do actually get on with.

JupiterKid

Nope, as I work part time for an educational institution and I wouldn’t be bothered. They do usually hold a mulled wine and lunch thingy in early December which I’m invited to each year but I politely decline. I’m a recovering alkie so it’s just not worth the hassle.

Years ago, though, I used to go to work Xmas dos. They’re fun in your 20s and when the boss leaves early, you can cut loose with your colleagues. And back then, I got on really well with my colleagues. We would regularly go for pints after work on Fridays and occasionally on weekends away down the country.

I can’t imagine Rylie Tiny Seaside would be safe in his job working under Aongus Von Bismarck.:eek:

I love Sean nos

Kathleen Melted Vendor wrote: »

early house at 8am

Some of them open at 07:00. Lightweight.

NegativeCreep

Very cliquey attitude where I work so no I won’t be going to either the team or company Christmas party to watch the as$holes talk ****e to each other.

DeiseDoll

Nope, not going to mine. Work is too cliquey and full enough with one-upmanship as it is - I'm not paying for a night out where that's cranked up 10 notches with alcohol thrown in the mix. I have a decent and polite working relationship with pretty much all my colleagues, I don't normally socialise with them and am therefore happy enough to skip the Christmas do.

dinorebel

mfceiling wrote: »

I'll go with my work mate for a bit of grub and a few pints in dublin.

Was working for a fairly big crowd last year and we went to galway. Never again. Lads coked off their head and whatever else they were on. Boss lad hired strippers who had lads on the floor like dogs and whipping them with their belts. Lads openly cheating on their other halfs and telling stories about their infedelity.

I'd worked with these lads over the years and it was then that I realised I had nothing in common with them.

Can you PM me the company name


for a friend obviously :cool:

.......

This post has been deleted.

CruelCoin

This year for the lads we're doing: Clay pigeon shooting + target rifles, followed by dinner at the greyhounds, onwards to a pub, then bus them home.

Hell yeah i'm going to every bit of that.

_Dara_

_Dara_ wrote: »

Early houses are grim places.

On the contrary I find them great fun and always a great and unique atmosphere. Great characters in them too.

Pintman Paddy Losty wrote: »

That's outrageous alcohol abuse.

Ah stop, it's a bit of craic no need for sensationalist comments.

I love Sean nos wrote: »

Some of them open at 07:00. Lightweight.

They all open at 7, but as the early house always follows a very heavy night the night before it's hard enough to get up and be there for 8am we will make it for 7am someday yet though.

harry Bailey esq

_Dara_ wrote: »

Early houses are grim places.

Haha for you maybe! I don't frequent early shops these days as I'm out in the further reaches of the 'burbs. If you know where to go, you'll have a ball. One place I used to frequent was the White Horse on the quays, gone now sadly but it certainly wasn't grim. My go to place if I'm in town early and feel the need for an eyeopener is Molloys at the corner of Talbot St and Store St, beside the station. You won't be getting a foot in the door however, unless you are accompanied by one of the faces. It may be a public bar located slap bang between the two of the busiest transport hubs in the country, but between the hours of 7.30 and 10.30 it's very much like a really fancy country club. You must be informally 'nominated' and if you get black balled by just one member, usually done by whisper in the barmans ear informing him about misdeeds the newcomer is guilty of, whether they be true or not) you can forget about it. I'm a member and I'm very proud to be one! Had some great sessions in Charlies in Cork too, actually seen people shaggin there on two separate occasions, never a dull moment in there! Grim? Hardly.

ohnonotgmail

wouldn't normally bother but we're getting a free night in a nice hotel so i'm going to head along.

Spanish Eyes

I think whether you go to these work gigs or not depends on many things.

If you like being together with your colleagues for a long night out, fine. If you think you will feel ill being seated beside some lech or bore for the night forget it.

If you like forced jollity and howya DOING, false drunken laughter and messing, off with you.

If you dislike such forced gatherings forget it.

Each to their own.

But I really dislike that in some places it is expected that you attend. In one place I worked I asked to be paid overtime for 8 hours so. No answer so I didn't go, left soon after. Imagine!

I tried to go to as many as I could, but only for the pre dinner drinks and get together. An hour or two, enough already. Scarpered after that. At least I tried.

I am not a Bah Humbug, I just don't like the forced, often false jollity associated with them, when all I want to do is get into my PJs and pour a nice glass of wine in front of Netflix or whatever.

I hope those who go have a blast, and those who like me are lukewarm if not cold, survive!

hynesie08

Kathleen Melted Vendor wrote: »

They all open at 7, but asvthe early house always follows a very heavy night the night before it's hard enough to get up and be there for 8am we will make it for 7am someday yet though.

Do you not go straight from the lock in to the early house? And here I was thinking you're a real drinker.