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Just got an "meeting request" in my work email (anyone who uses Outlook at work should know what I'm talking about) for a baby shower in the middle of the work day on Friday, held in one of the large conference rooms, and as far as I can tell at least the entire building was invited. This isn't a small company by any stretch (in total we have thousands of employees..our LinkedIn page says 5,000-10,000 employees, and I'd wager its closer to 10,000 than 5,000).
The shower is for a gal that holds a senior position in the IT department, but not management level (not that I think the position held changes anything, but I suspect people would ask anyways).
Doing a baby shower during normal work hours on company property just seems wildly inappropriate to me in the first place, and double so to invite thousands of people you don't even know. This is also the first time I've even seen such a thing here, and I've worked here for several years, so it's not like it's an otherwise common thing that I just haven't seen before.
Would you consider this inappropriate to be done at the workplace as well, or am I just still living in the distant past?
[quote=Wmsn4Life;37161694
In terms of inviting the "whole building," though ....
I would wager that someone screwed up the invite.[/quote]
This is most likely what happened. They just sent to the wrong list. I have been to baby showers where the whole department was invited. They were held during work hours too.
If you don't know this person well, feel free to ignore or stop by and enjoy some of the food.
Agree they meant to send to a specific department or floor and put the wrong email group. Just ignore, they will probably send a cancellation notice once they realize!
Also agree it's very normal to have a brief shower during the day - people stop by for a short time, extend their well wishes and give a present (if they want and if they haven't just collected some money for those who wanted to kick in a few bucks), grab some food and leave.
Inviting the whole building is a bit much. However a higher level employee would have all the departments she works with notified. This is common. It is not inappropriate to do it during the day or at lunchtime.
People who know the mom-to-be contribute, go the party, say hello, get something to eat, and then go back to work after 15-30 minutes. People who work directly with her stay longer. People who do not know/like her don't go.
We do gatherings quite frequently for births (typically after the baby is born), wedding showers, going away parties, milestones (big birthdays or work anniversaries), and I even got a bon voyage party before I took a 2 week trip. If people can't make it, they don't go, but I find most people appreciate a quick afternoon break and free food. It's not an obligation to go, especially much bigger gatherings.
I think it's inappropriate to have any kind of party during work hours.
Who is throwing the party? Is it a friend of hers from the job? Or did she do this herself.
If the entire company IS invited, I think that's hilarious! Talk about a 'gift grab'!!!! Even if she got $1 from everyone, that's $10K!! Talk about a windfall!
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