Christmas lunch / party

j.e.j.

Uncertain wrote: »

I really do wonder how many people actually honestly enjoy the "works do". I suspect it is not many!

It is like a lot of things we all (well most of us) get swept up in because we don't have to courage not to conform.

If the firm was paying I would much rather have the cost as a bonus and spend the money on doing something I would enjoy with my own choice of friends.

Couldn't agree more

It's a bit bah-humbug I know, but honestly it was enough to work with certain colleagues 7 hours a day 5 days a week without being coerced into being drinking buddies with them out of hours!

Pupnik

LadyMissA wrote: »

why are you not asked?

I think it is just because they are very cliquey, I have only been there since June and for a lot of that time I was based in a different building from the rest of my team so they just tend to forget about me. It isn't just me, the person who started at the same time as me was also always left out whenever they did social lunches and things over the summer, so I wasn't surprised to overhear that the Christmas lunch had already been arranged and they hadn't bothered asking me. I wonder if they will give me the cash though as the company is paying for it?

ajaney

Wow, there's lots of different scenarios here!

I work in Local Government. We don't get any time off for Christmas Lunch, no Christmas party & no Christmas bonus. People normally organise something on an office-by-office basis after work at their own cost on an optional basis.

LadyMissA

Pupnik wrote: »

I think it is just because they are very cliquey, I have only been there since June and for a lot of that time I was based in a different building from the rest of my team so they just tend to forget about me. It isn't just me, the person who started at the same time as me was also always left out whenever they did social lunches and things over the summer, so I wasn't surprised to overhear that the Christmas lunch had already been arranged and they hadn't bothered asking me. I wonder if they will give me the cash though as the company is paying for it?

surely then that's discrimination if you aren't included?

caledonian_princess

ajaney wrote: »

Wow, there's lots of different scenarios here!

I work in Local Government. We don't get any time off for Christmas Lunch, no Christmas party & no Christmas bonus. People normally organise something on an office-by-office basis after work at their own cost on an optional basis.

Same for me, except we're going at lunch time. We're allowed to take a long lunch on flexi, normally core time starts at 2pm but on that day we're allowed to key in later; it's still on our own time though.

I've worked in the private sector and parties have generally been generous. One company took us to Edinburgh all expenses paid, for an overnight and dinner dance - that was good, plus what was effectively two days off work. Another hired an entire nightclub and threw in a free meal and a drink, no time off to recover mind. Yet another took everyone out for a meal with all drinks paid for.

lady1964

Where I used to work (got made redundant in July), we got nothing paid for.
We organised our own lunch time meal but didn't go back to the office afterwards but we did used to go on Thursdays when our centre was closed to the public and we put the phones on voicemail (with permission). We paid for the lunch ourselves and it was optional.
We also had an evening 'do' again organised by ourselves, paid for by ourselves and attended in our own time. We always went on a Friday evening so no-one had work the next day.
When we were made redundant, we organised our own 'big fat redundancy bash' which was a bit like a Xmas do in that we went to a hotel, had a 3 course meal, entertainment & disco. We paid for that ourselves, although one very generous training provider did give us some money as a 'thank you' whch we used to pay for the wine on the table.

sharnad

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Are you being given time off for your Christmas lunch or party or are you being allowed to do it in company time?

Where I work it is being left to "management discretion" but that is leading to inequity as some managers are more generous than others.

Just wondered about how other organisations were approaching things and if opinions has changed since the hard times have hit the economy.

We have ours at night as all the section would not be allowed off at the same time

sharnad

nirelandguy wrote: »

Our company is fantastic, can anyone beat this? They have a dinner, its at night so no time of, they book the restaurant but you have to pay for your own meal, needless to say its only the brown nosers that go.

we have to choose our own place and its at night yes we pay for ourselves

lizzielondon

only had one so far, looking forward to this year's!

we finish about 3.30-4 and go out for drinks. dinner and then on to another bar, all paid for, no bar limit etc

everyone has some grace time the next morning!

and in the run up the week before we had quite a few long lunches out on expenses, I was amazed! But it was apparently a much bigger dael pre 2008

I'm amazed at all the people wanting cash instead or to go home instead. We have quite a few socials and it's great to have a bit of fun with people you work with!

floss2

ajaney wrote: »

Wow, there's lots of different scenarios here!

I work in Local Government. We don't get any time off for Christmas Lunch, no Christmas party & no Christmas bonus. People normally organise something on an office-by-office basis after work at their own cost on an optional basis.

Same here - we're having a team do one evening, paid for by ourselves.

In a previous private sector job we had an all-paid evening do with partners, drinks vouchers provided, early finish to go to the hairdressers and all the bottles given to the managers by suppliers were shared out between all the staff. That was fun - working out what a litre of JD equalled in white wine & chocolates!