Company Christmas parties

[JackReacher]

To piggyback off the Christmas Bonus thread....

Does your company have a Xmas party?

My first newspaper stop did not. My last had one in the 2+ years I was there. It was at the EE's house. Plenty of food and he bought a ****-ton of beer for everyone, so that was cool.

My current gig is a little different. My division is the third-tier inside a couple larger divisions, so we have essentially three different Xmas parties we can attend. Then, one for my company (Remember, I'm a contractor.). Then another one just for the contractors in the division. Whew! All of these have been during work hours at some bar/restaurant in the DC area. Kinda nice to work half a day in that instance.

Then, there's another one hosted by one of the managers at her house on the weekend. That one will get a little crazier, I'd imagine.

I've never seen so many damn Xmas parties. What does everyone else have going on?

 

[imjustagirl]

My company discontinued the Christmas party last year.

 

[JackReacher]

Damn. That sucks. I figured yours would be kick-ass.

 

[imjustagirl]

I heard it was.

 

[Ace]

We don't have one and I wouldn't want one.

 

[Moderator1]

Since my company is me, I'm throwing myself one HELL of a party.
I'm going to get drunk and feel up the boss' wife.

 

[copperpot]

Even though we're a small shop, in '07 we had an unbelievable party at a nice restaurant. Prime rib, open bar, chocolate fountain. It really felt like we were at a wedding reception.

They canceled that last year and just did an in-house affair where everyone brought something. As cool as that first party was, I didn't mind seeing it go if we needed to save a few bucks.

 

[TrooperBari]

Potluck dinner at my first two stops, fancy dinner at the yacht club for the last one (too fancy, in fact, for my blood). I'm told we had one here last Christmas, but I'll be damned if I can remember it.

There are rumors of one this year, though I imagine I'll pass.

 

[cranberry]

We're having a little office get-together tonight at a local pub.

 

[StaggerLee]

Ours was discontinued three years ago (Gannett's always ahead of the curve).

Before it was discontinued, though, I heard it was a pretty nice, little shindig. Of course, nobody in sports ever had any first-hand knowledge, since they always had it on Friday nights, usually the week of the semifinals or finals.

 

[outofplace]

We have a lunch thing, which is mandatory (unless you want to use up vacation time to miss it). They even station the boss's secretary near the door to make sure we don't leave to early. Seriously.

 

[JackReacher]

Mandatory? Damn.

 

[expendable]

We had a pot-luck lunch last Friday. I think I'm still full from it.

 

[JayFarrar]

Potluck here.
Company provides ham and turkey, we bring the rest.
I've heard tales that we used to have fancy Christmas parties with booze and catered meals. Not anymore.

 

[outofplace]

Mandatory? Damn.

Yup. I think they even have somebody go through the office about the time it starts to make sure everybody is gone. Because it isn't like there might actually be work to be done, right?

On the plus side, the food is pretty good. The entertainment, however, is awful.

 

[playthrough]

My wife's was discontinued last year. It was unfreakingreal. Took up the entire two-floored lobby of its swanky downtown office. Casino theme, with roughly 50 tables spread out all over the joint. You'd get chips by turning in fake money with the company CEO's face on it. Free food and booze everywhere you turned; I remember one year there was a Maker's Mark station, you'd get a tumbler dipped in the red wax to take home. At the end of the night you'd turn in whatever money you won (though it didn't really matter) and they'd draw names for raffles. The absolute worst thing would be a $50 restaurant gift card. Others got $500 jewelry gift certificates, free hotel nights, airline tickets. The company would stockpile these gifts from advertisers all year long.

Then the biz went to hell, and that was the end of that.

 

[chase.colston]

I mentioned on the bonus thread, but my paper had its "96th annual Christmas party," as the publisher made sure to mention, yesterday.

They cater pretty solid food and give service awards to people who have worked there 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years and so on. People who manage to make nothing for 25 or 30 years usually get pretty sweet stuff. They also do door prize drawings for cash, gift certificates, Greenberg turkeys, etc. No booze, though.

On the service awards, a few years ago the then-city editor (who is a huge baseball fan) got an all-expense paid trip for two to Cooperstown because he had never been to the Hall of Fame. I mean, an incredibly thoughtful and pretty expensive gift from the paper. What did he do? Traded it in, got the money and bought a new TV. I ripped him a new one after that. So shallow.

 

[SoCalDude]

Ours used to be catered pastas and salads. Not bad.
It has descended to a rented popcorn popper, cookies and punch. The entertainment has remained the same. Several musically inclined newsroomers practice a few times then play some rock. Some try to sing. Some of the younger ones try to rap. And there is a kids choir comprised of employees' children that has maybe one rehearsal before singing Christmas carols at the party.
In a quirk of the work sked, I am off that day. Not going in for this event.

 

[zeke12]

I work in sports. I was at a game.

But I heard the food was decent.

 

[outofplace]

I mentioned on the bonus thread, but my paper had its "96th annual Christmas party," as the publisher made sure to mention, yesterday.

They cater pretty solid food and give service awards to people who have worked there 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years and so on. People who manage to make nothing for 25 or 30 years usually get pretty sweet stuff. They also do door prize drawings for cash, gift certificates, Greenberg turkeys, etc. No booze, though.

On the service awards, a few years ago the then-city editor (who is a huge baseball fan) got an all-expense paid trip for two to Cooperstown because he had never been to the Hall of Fame. I mean, an incredibly thoughtful and pretty expensive gift from the paper. What did he do? Traded it in, got the money and bought a new TV. I ripped him a new one after that. So shallow.

My company does those stupid service awards, too. Man, I hate that. Nobody gives a damn and it is really boring.