Are work xmas parties (and bonus) dead?

Cherry_Bomb

Once upon a time my work was a smallish privately owned company. Every year we'd have a brilliant party. Usually a meal in the local Indian and on to a pub if anyone fancied it. OK it doesn't sound much but it was nice to have everyone there from the directors to the cleaners. Never had to pay a penny towards it. Our bonuses were always very generous.

Then we were taken over by a huge worldwide company. Now our Christmas parties may seem a little more 'upmarket' but they cost us a fortune (last one was £120 a head :eek:) and quite frankly they bore the pants off me. Oh and the Christmas Bonus doesn't exist anymore.

SHIPSHAPE

I can think of nothing worse than a staff get together, I have my own friends I socialise with.

TrickyWicky

Cherry_Bomb wrote: »

Then we were taken over by a huge worldwide company.

And the cost slashing starts.

Why on earth do they buy other companies if they don't want to loose money? - It's like the Kraft and Cadbury issue. Kraft buy Cadbury, shut down loads of stuff because they've just spent so much money, put loads of people out of work and you're left wondering, why the hell did you idiots buy them then?

Carl31

LadyMissA wrote: »

I have always worked in the private sector and never had a bonus or an xmas party, lunch etc

I didnt say private sector, i said privately owned, although they would be found in the private sector

LadyMissA

Carl31 wrote: »

I didnt say private sector, i said privately owned, although they would be found in the private sector

and the ones I have worked for have been privately owned too

BitterAndTwisted

Acc72 wrote: »

Why did you leave ?

It's a long story. I can assure you it was not through choice.

As the complete opposite to that story I once worked in a department and at Christmas time we were inundated with gifts from suppliers and associates. The new manager's rule was that all gifts were put in his office and not retained by the named individual. There were a couple of people who didn't have direct day-to-day contact with said suppliers and associates. We assumed that it would all be shared out fairly before we broke up for the Xmas break. Wrong! The manager was seen loading his estate car with all our bottles of champagne, wine, scotch, sides of smoked salmon etcetera etcetera. You get the picture. As we did. He got his in the end.

dseventy

I gave all my staff a £2000 gift card for Tesco as a Xmas bonus in reward for their hard work this year, it not all doom and gloom from employers. (Though with the associated paperwork and tax issues to deal with it costs more than that in man hours).

I don't do a Xmas party as staff are spread across the UK and no office as such (I figure they will organise their own get-togethers if they want), what I do is add a 0.5 day Annual Leave to everyones entitlement so that they can finish early if they want to on Xmas Eve / NYE.

D70

scheming_gypsy

Cherry_Bomb wrote: »

Once upon a time my work was a smallish privately owned company. Every year we'd have a brilliant party. Usually a meal in the local Indian and on to a pub if anyone fancied it. OK it doesn't sound much but it was nice to have everyone there from the directors to the cleaners. Never had to pay a penny towards it. Our bonuses were always very generous.

Then we were taken over by a huge worldwide company. Now our Christmas parties may seem a little more 'upmarket' but they cost us a fortune (last one was £120 a head :eek:) and quite frankly they bore the pants off me. Oh and the Christmas Bonus doesn't exist anymore.

I used to work at Homeserve, when our branch was smaller the Christmas party was arranged by staff rather than the company. The company paid by the venue etc but they didn't organise it. It was always a good laugh, would be a cheap venue with a DJ and cheap / free beer and people would go into town when it finished.
When the office got bigger the company started to organise it and they just got dull, very dull. Sit down silver service meals and a few complimentary drinks. They were that crap they had to start moving them further away from town to stop people leaving; they'd have them 20+ miles away and put coaches on so you couldn't escape.

SHIPSHAPE wrote: »

I can think of nothing worse than a staff get together, I have my own friends I socialise with.

Sorry to hear you don't have friends from work.

scheming_gypsy

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

As the complete opposite to that story I once worked in a department and at Christmas time we were inundated with gifts from suppliers and associates. The new manager's rule was that all gifts were put in his office and not retained by the named individual. There were a couple of people who didn't have direct day-to-day contact with said suppliers and associates. We assumed that it would all be shared out fairly before we broke up for the Xmas break. Wrong! The manager was seen loading his estate car with all our bottles of champagne, wine, scotch, sides of smoked salmon etcetera etcetera. You get the picture. As we did. He got his in the end.

I've had that one as well... All gifts go to the company to be raffled off unless you were our boss and they got taken home. Silly little nobody tried to tell me to hand a crate of Stella in that was given to our team, didn't make much noise when I told him we were taking it home just like he took his freebies home.

TrickyWicky

dseventy wrote: »

I gave all my staff a £2000 gift card for Tesco as a Xmas bonus in reward for their hard work this year, it not all doom and gloom from employers. (Though with the associated paperwork and tax issues to deal with it costs more than that in man hours).

I don't do a Xmas party as staff are spread across the UK and no office as such (I figure they will organise their own get-togethers if they want), what I do is add a 0.5 day Annual Leave to everyones entitlement so that they can finish early if they want to on Xmas Eve / NYE.

D70

Where do I apply????