X-Mas Retail Season.... Boom or Bust?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

mewbie wrote: »

Because in return for my services they provide me with money. It's an arrangement that I find quite satisfactory.

My employer does that too. Plus they make the effort to treat us well, and keep us happy and motivated.

It's also an arrangement I find quite satisfactory.

Cannon_Fodder

mewbie wrote: »

More interested to see when the sales start. November?

Hadn't realised last year's sales had stopped yet...

baileysbattlebus

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

I've never worked for a company that threw a bad X-Mas party, and I think the money they throw at it makes a huge difference.... I like my colleagues and bosses, so it's not a problem for me.

Mewbies tale of staff canteen misery is a world away from booking out a whole 4 star hotel and conference centre with open bars, fantastic food, bands, DJ's, rooms for the night, etc, which is what our company did last year. I suspect this year will be just as good.

The companies I've worked for have usually had both - the staff xmas lunch in the canteen - served by senior management all wearing silly hats or flashing antlers - minus the plastic glass of wine.

And what we called the xmas disco - 4 or 5 star venue and there were enough of us to take over the whole place - you couldn't do it in a smaller company, we had to pay for it though - it was normally about £3 per head - no partners or spouses - everyone knew each other - at least by sight and there was no warming up period it was full on from the start - made for a very interesting evening and gossip that kept us going for weeks. They didn't provide rooms though - if you wanted to stay you normally got a pretty good rate.

They also provided money - though not the full cost - for departmental "do's" - I worked in manufacturing companies with 24/7 production so a 1/4 of the manufacturing workforce weren't able to attend the "disco"

But the canteen lunch was done several times - so everyone could go.

Cleaver

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

I've never worked for a company that threw a bad X-Mas party, and I think the money they throw at it makes a huge difference.... I like my colleagues and bosses, so it's not a problem for me.

I like my colleagues and bosses too. And we often go out for a spontaneous beer after work or the occassional lunches which are always enjoyable. It's the mass, communal, organised, forced fun specifically at Christmas which I don't find much fun. Lots of people from Finance and IT who are normally lovely drinking loads and acting like ars*holes. But glad you enjoy yours Hamo and each to their own.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Mewbies tale of staff canteen misery is a world away from booking out a whole 4 star hotel and conference centre with open bars, fantastic food, bands, DJ's, rooms for the night, etc, which is what our company did last year. I suspect this year will be just as good.

I'm not just saying this to be argumentative Hamish, but the idea of spending a night, no matter how oppulent, with all of my organisation at a 'conference centre' listening to a DJ is pretty close to my idea of hell. It isn't about the money.

Probably my favourite Christmas do ever was when I was working with a mental health organisation. We spent an evening cooking Christmas dinner with some of the service users (patients in non-pc world), made up of random food donations from the public. We were in this ramshakle mental health ward in an old scary building and I taught one of them how to chop an onion in an quick way and he was made up. I still think about it when I chop onions now.

Cannon_Fodder

History is littered with defunct organisations who continued to fund the "appearance" of their success, right up to the moment they locked the doors...

nearlynew

People don't have money anymore. They have "equity"

The past decade's growth and propsperity has been based on debt. Take away the debt fuelled by HPI and their is no money.

Debt is not wealth.

Never has been, never will be.

Cleaver

nearlynew wrote: »

People don't have money anymore. They have "equity"

The past decade's growth and propsperity has been based on debt. Take away the debt fuelled by HPI and their is no money.

Debt is not wealth.

Never has been, never will be.

Ye gods, does this tiresome, empty sloganeering ever stop?

mewbie_2

Cleaver wrote: »

Ye gods, does this tiresome, empty sloganeering ever stop?

Guess who you are sitting next to at the Xmas dinner.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Cleaver wrote: »

Ye gods, does this tiresome, empty sloganeering ever stop?

I've never seen him make an effort to discuss the issues at hand, just the same old parroting of hpc catchphrases.

I actually wonder if he exists at all, or is just a netbot put here by Martin to keep the forum lively to prevent us getting bored and venturing out to some of the other boards.

Cleaver

mewbie wrote: »

Guess who you are sitting next to at the Xmas dinner.

Nearlynew to the left of me in his Che Guevara T-shirt banging on about Christmas being the ultimate consumeristic !!!!!! filled debt-orgy for equity monkeys and Hamish to the right of me; cuban cigar, whiskey, hat at a januty angle and two twenty-something admin workers from accounts payable on each knee hanging off his every word concerning his property acquisitions.

I can almost smell the cranberry sauce.