How do you feel about going to the Christmas Party being around Phony co-workers? (employees, work)
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I worked for a wonderful Fortune 500 insurance company for 5 years. Every Christmas, the SVP of the department and his wife hosted the department Christmas party at their home. No expense was spared. No one was asked to bring any food or drink unless they just wanted to. They provided all the food, all the booze and all the soft drinks, coffee, etc. These parties were -- BY FAR -- the BEST Christmas parties I've ever attended in my entire adult life. They made sure everyone had whatever they wanted and felt at home. I was his EA and during the following week after the party, there was never one complaint about the party not having this or not having that. Nothing but kudos and compliments.
HOWEVER, on the other side of that coin --
At the big law firm I was fired from last year, their Christmas parties were along the lines of fraternity parties. Beer pong, poker and the like. The SAME attorneys who generally treated support staff like crap from 9 - 5 was now treating them like BFFs. The first one I went to was semi-entertaining, but the second one was the real eye-opener. I discovered so many people that I "thought" were fairly decent and professional people were IRL borderline alcoholics. Especially the young ones. It was like the more booze they could consume, the better they liked it even though they were making complete fools out of themselves while doing it. The next day, they were all back to their annoying, obnoxious selves.
I went to two of my ex's office Christmas parties where quite a few people got hammered. It was not impressive.
I once worked at a place where the boss thought we would like her better if she threw parties. You couldn't say no, could you? One was held at a casino in NY. I had ONE drink, my coworkers had SEVERAL. Why are people dumb enough to get intoxicated in front of their supervisors? IMHO that is just not good judgement. Then we were given some tokens and told to go have fun. I did not find that fun at all and scooted out as soon as I could.
Another time we went to a bar. Again, I ordered one drink and chatted with coworkers. Then the boss comes around with a tray of shots (something gross-sounding, like Strawberry Cheesecake) and made each of us take a shot. We all took one because she would not take no for an answer, but many of us hid them under our napkins until we could get rid of them. I think she though she was being cool because some of the young staff made a big deal about those shots, but we still hated her crazy guts.
My point being...It was ridiculous to me that this awful boss had some idea that this was the socially correct thing for a boss to do. We would have much happier if she had spent the money to have subs brought in one night a month (oh, and also, being treated with respect would have been cool also). I think it is very telling who gets drunk and who doesn't, and if I were the boss, I would definitely take notes.
Were my coworkers phony at the parties? no, in fact i was able to get to know them better, after all, their defenses were down. In my experience, people who wont give me the time of day at work generally don't give me the time of day at a party either, regardless of alcohol served.
office parties are a great place u lose your job. all u got to do is say or do the wrong thing, its the same as if u were at the office. anybody there that does not like u, u r fair game. if they can bait u to say or do something wrong they got u.
office parties are a great place u lose your job. all u got to do is say or do the wrong thing, its the same as if u were at the office. anybody there that does not like u, u r fair game. if they can bait u to say or do something wrong they got u.
No offense, but you should lay off using u for you. It looks ignorant.
How do you feel about going to the Christmas Party being around Phony co-workers?
I'm not perfect but i'm pretty much a for real person. There's some co-workers that barely speak or want to be around you, which I don't have a problem with, my problem is.
One day out of the 365 days in the year at the Christmas Party, these same people are in your face laughing & trying to have a conversation with you.
Don't let them have some alcoholic beverage in there system, they are really going to be all up in your face!
Normally our Christmas Party is on a Saturday.
Here's the Shocker, come Monday morning back to work, these same fake co-workers return to being well, fake.
By me being genuine, a few times, I didn't want to attend the party simply because of experiencing this type of thing.
This year our party is on December 14th Again i'm thinking long & hard whether or not, I want to go.
Some of you have dealt with this at work & know exactly where i'm coming from.
Bottom line, do you suck it up and go on to the Christmas Party?
I just go to make appearances and make it look like I am being 'apart of the team' for promotional issues. Other than that I don't care. Let them be fake aslong as I get my paycheck.
Well, I was in my 20's, working 3 jobs and going to college. I didn't really have a life, very quiet, etc.
At work, I actually met a girl who became a good friend. However, she was very pushy and was after me to go to this Christmas party. She told me what she was going to wear and I just decided I was tired of being the girl on the outside - so I went had my makeup done, bought a new outfit and just looked different, I guess.
Well, I went and no one (other than my friend) recognized me. It was the funniest. I even took pictures b/c I knew in 30 years, my children would never believe it was me. At the end of the party, I told them who I was. (Some of the people were quite embarrassed to not have recognized me a bit).
PS - After that, the VP paid more attention to me and actually signed off on a few of my requests!! LOL!
PPS - My kids and I were just talking about taking risks late night and this came up. They were like "Mother......!!"
PPPS - When I had my own company, we sometimes had them at our homes and it was much more personal. Very nice, actually.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
26,711 posts, read 41,899,665 times
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Find the best excuse you can to either avoid the party altogether or to duck out early after enough time to get seen by most.
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A great memory of one
