CheapEats.ie - a blog about food and value

Christmas Do? Or Don’t?

Now's NOT the time to tell the boss what you really think!

Now's NOT the time to tell the boss what you really think!

Christmas work do’s are a funny affair. Depending on who you end up sitting beside at dinner, they can either go really well or just be brutally boring. In either case I always looked forward to them – free meal after all.

Then of course, there’s always someone who gets too drunk. I remember one year, one colleague hit the pints way too early and before dinner had even started he was standing on his chair at the dinner table, giving his boss and colleagues a full rendition of “Oh what a feeling…something..something..dancing on the ceiling” by Lionel Richie – air guitar and all.

After some awkward clapping from his bewildered work mates, our drunken friend started to look a bit woozy and vomited all over the dinner table while people were still eating and was later found face down in the toilet. Priceless.

Well, according to BBC online, Christmas parties are becoming a thing of the past, with “fewer than four in 10 office workers definitely having a Christmas party this year”.

Are you attending a Christmas party this year or has the free dinner been scrapped?

7 Comments

  1. My company are having two; one for this office and another larger at HQ. I have always worked in the financial industry and while the parties have become more casual they are still a lot of fun. Interestingly, I worked for one of the main banks for 4 years from 2001 to 2005. In that time, the main Christmas party was cancelled twice due to company cut backs.

  2. Our party has been scrapped this year, the first time in 25 years…owing to the current economic climate of course…!!!!

  3. Id say alot of places are using it as an excuse Lorraine. Its a shame really, I think the Christmas party is a great time to get to know colleagues if you dont usually socialise outside work and doesn’t hurt morale either.

  4. I’ve never had my Christmas party paid for. Always had to pay my own. But then I’ve worked in the public sector for the last ten years and I’ve never experienced a bonus either. So no change this year.

  5. I took redundancy from my job in August, and went back to college. My lovely workmates have kindly invited me to the work party. A restaurant are coming in to cater, and there will be lashings of beer and wine. It’s definitely on a smaller scale than other years, as was last year’s, but I think more fun for it.

  6. Must add that I have always paid for one of the usual two Christmas parties but then I dont have a job for life. 😀

  7. Ha ha! Rercy, I just stumbled across this post again. Vomited on the table! Wonderful.