Office Christmas lunch

Louise41

Thanx Tara. I have no children so thats a no go and the ice has almost gone near me. So, I am thinking of saying my dads called and needs to see me asap. Bloody hate telling fibs but i just can't be false and sit there with a bunch of folk who wind me up (think the world owes them a favour type) and spend money that could be used for a better cause........

meritaten

do you have a pet louise? if so, then you have to take some time off as last night little fido or pusspuss came in with a rather nasty looking bite mark and you have a vets appointment at 1.30! no-one will dare complain as they dont want to look bad in front of the others!
failing that - get someone to ring you at about 11.30 pretending to be a neighbour and reporting that there is water coming out from under your front door/through their ceiling if you live in an upstairs flat or if you are downstairs they have had a flood and YOUR property is affected! then throw on your coat grab your bag and disappear!
Somrtimes you DO just have to LIE!

Louise41

Thanks Meritaten but no no pet either lol. The meal is at night so will be at work during the day and unable to leave pronto due to meetings etc. Crikey I am not doing well am I? I've got about 20 hours to convince myself I am not a bad person for wanting to cry off then about 1 hour to actually decide on what excuse to use.......
Amazing to find on the net that alot of folk don't actually like attending works do's either - very reassuring :-)

meritaten

louise - you are NOT a bad person! I hated those occasions too for similar reasons to yourself.
but, on one memorable xmas as I was about to leave work to get ready for the xmas do, I had a phone call (frowned upon except for emergencies) when mum had a flood in the kitchen and i had to go sort it out! was amazed that next day no-one seemed to harbour any resentment and accepted that I had to sort out plumber etc for my elderly mum!

Louise41

Yeah I am not a bad person. I mean I put up with the numptys 5 days a week and don't air my views about them lol.
My cousin who I am very close to has contacted me today to say her daughters grandpa (on dads side) has passed away. So although I do not know the old chap I may say use what has happened and say that my cousin needs some support. Not too much of a fib and everyone knows how close me and my cous are........ I have just got to be convincing because I am terrible at stuff like this :-o

crocks

donquine wrote: »

Being a Christmas meal, the OP is likely to have to pay a non-refundable deposit.

Lunch is also likely to be on a workday, so the OP won't be able to get out of it without taking the day off (and the OP may not have any annual leave left to take).

If anyone has a good way to get out of Christmas lunch, please let me know and I'll use it next year!

The email went round back in September for our works christmas meal, this year is the 2nd year there was no subsidy from the company (not even a free bottle of wine) the price this year was £50 per head, yes £50 per head!! for a dinner + dance *yawn* I thought this was a disgusting price and literally told them to *politely* play in the traffic.... Have not regretted the decision since and have noticed that I am not the only one to make this decision!

We normally have a small informal departmental buffet on the last day anyways so it is not a big loss really..

JC

crocks

FatVonD wrote: »

I loathe and detest work lunches, I paid my £5 deposit but sadly was ill this year so couldn't go

I feel the same about secret Santa, it's not that I begrudge the fiver (I'd happily donate it to charity if that's what everyone decided to do) but it seems a shameful waste for lots of people to each spend a fiver on tat that nobody would have bought for themselves.

For many years I'd track down who had my name and then tell them what I wanted, (being another of advancing years ) this year I just said I didn't want to take part but was more than happy for them to.

*Bah humbug*

Dont get me started on secret santa's lol, i agree its all a bit stupid, christmas is for celebrating with your family and celebrating the times you had together, not buying stupid presents for people that dont want them!

imo Secret Santa was invented as a way to make everyone in an office feel equal and encourage "friendlyness" and increase moral.

BARGAINHUNTER!

crocks wrote: »

The email went round back in September for our works christmas meal, this year is the 2nd year there was no subsidy from the company (not even a free bottle of wine) the price this year was £50 per head, yes £50 per head!! for a dinner + dance *yawn* I thought this was a disgusting price and literally told them to *politely* play in the traffic.... Have not regretted the decision since and have noticed that I am not the only one to make this decision!

We normally have a small informal departmental buffet on the last day anyways so it is not a big loss really..

JC

Ive always been disapointed with these dinner dances, a huge amount of money to pay for what is often a fairly mediocre meal and you have to pay whatever prices they are charging at the bar, not to mention outfits, taxis etc. Its a captive audience and a real money spinner for hotels that hold them. We went out for lunch yesterday with work and used a 2 for 1 voucher at Zizzis and it came to £12.50 a head!!!!! Lovely it was too!

Vaila

goodness i dont see what all the fuss is

if you dont want to go , for either social or financial reasons dont!

in this age of austerity why should we feel pressured into things like this?

mpet

In our office, my small team 'dug their heels in' a few years back as we used to get an invite to the larger team do - people we only had a passing acquantance with due to distance. We always had to put in to a drinks kitty - we were moderate drinkers and the others seemed to drink like fish:D

We said we were going to do our own thing - which initially we did, but we got fed up of going to overpriced Christmas meals - which were of a 'works canteen' standard due to catering for large numbers. We now go out for a nice lunch after Christmas when everthing is back to normal.

Don't worry about declining an invite, you will probably start a trend!