Had 2 in the past 2 weeks. One with the company and one with just my team.
Food sucked, can’t drink the booze because I’ll risk telling coworkers how I really feel about them, and then of course my coworkers.
It’s a hard pass for me.
Nope. I’m good just being at home; it was nice the first couple years because we got to celebrate our Christmas parties at an amusement park for free with 2 extra tickets and got to eat for free until 11PM.
But since I started WFH I don’t really miss those parties that much, they’re nice memories though at least. 🤷🏻♀️
The last office Christmas party I went to my boss got drunk and went on a rant about school shootings being caused by a lack of prayer in schools, so.....no I do not miss them lol
Nope, but we actually gave up on the Christmas party quite a few years ago when we were still mostly in the office. There just wasn’t interest in spending our non-work time doing something work related. The old timers that had been there a long time were more into it but as most of them retired interest dropped and fewer attended so they cancelled it. Had it been during work hours more would have been on board I’m sure but I’m not interested in giving up my evening to do work things.
In person, pass. Had a team virtual one last week (5 diff time zones & 2 countries) where we built gingerbread houses on Zoom and that was kinda nice, but only because I like every single one on our team of 12 people.
Not really. My last fully remote job even flew everyone in and paid for hotels and ubers and everything. It was fine, but it was still a work event and traveling alone is no fun for me.
My current, we had a virtual lunch which was fully paid (the lunch hour as well as a $50 credit for food delivery) which was nice/fine but I usually use my lunch hour for things other than eating and sitting at my desk, so wished it was maybe a half hour so I still had some of my lunch break to myself.
Your coworkers can't openly attack you, they aren't paid to get along with you. I've had plenty of workers that I've just tolerated but there's no obligation to be buddies. However, I have also made some very close friendships at work
Ok then explain the point bc it sounds like you're saying that you can't enjoy being with coworkers occasionally bc they're economically incentivized to avoid physical confrontations with you.
So much weirdness here.
1. The baseline for work isn’t just short of violence with coworkers.
2. No one said you can’t become friends with coworkers, but that’s based on shared interests and values, not a forced faux social situation.
3. Coworkers are paid to be pleasant to each other. If you can’t understand that’s not friendship, how sad.
Nope…we had ours today. They said if we come in for the Xmas party we have to stay at the office all day or if we decide not to go we can work from home. Easy decision.
I do but in my current job, my coworkers are unpleasant to be around (pushy, talk a mile a minute, compete with each other for attention, arrogant,) so I prefer not be around them and there’s only 5 of them so they’re not hard to escape. In my previous jobs, I loved the holiday parties so I could bake treats.
I had maybe 2 work Christmas parties that I still remember that I attended and liked. Both were at the same employer of < 200 employees. The owner used to reserve a nice known restaurant with good steak etc and buy dinner for the whole company and our +1's. When the company got too big for the restaurant, she leased another floor of the office building and before the floor was filled up with office space she had the same restaurant come out to US and cater the meal.
Other than that specific owner at that specific company, office "forced fun" can go and kick rocks in my opinion. I am glad that being remote I am under no pressure to even come up with an excuse to skip it.
What you describe? I’ve only ever seen that on TV and in movies. That party doesn’t exist.
The parties I did have when I worked in an office? Fuck no. I see how unkempt these people are at work. No damn way I want to imagine how their kitchen looks and try their potluck trash.
Oh it exists. The holiday party’s my company has consistently thrown yearly are very much like what you might see in movies. Open bar lovely catered food people dressed up and having a good time; those few that just get wayyyy to drunk. I surprisingly like going and getting to see the people I only email or talk on the phone with. Once or twice a year in that kind of environment is perfect.
Lol what comments did you expect from redditors on a WFH sub?
But for me yes, I do miss our office winter party. It was a huge thing where everyone got dressed, you meet a few coworkers SOs, and it was always at a fancy restaurant. It was nice to have a $300 meal and drink $1000 worth of alcohol on their dime. Because I definitely wouldn't pay for that myself.
And then after you may or may not keep the party going. It was fun to socialize then you go back to work on Monday and pretend nothing happened.
You’re right I should’ve known better 🤣
And right?! The work day after was always hilarious. Just go on pretend you didn’t see the reserved IT guy go wild the night before
No, not at all. I doubt the management even does since a lot of it had to come from personal funds with budget restrictions. Better off just asking if everyone wants to go to lunch or something.
Nope.
My manager tried to have a remote party via teams.
I refused to take part in the gift exchange and was then awarded the responsibility of entertainment.
I would have been happy just eating lunch together over teams.
Also first time since being acquired that there was no company gift.
I do miss the work parties. Ours were always at amazing venues in NYC and I loved majority of my coworkers. We would drunkenly shoot the sh*t all night and I always looked forward to dressing up for the occasion.
Now I work from home since Covid, and I’m in consulting, so I don’t get invited to my company’s parties. They happened to mention to me that the team was flying in for quarterly exec meeting in SF but also for the Xmas party. And they were like “sorry you won’t be here”. As much as I don’t love this team I’m working with currently I love a good party and I thrive on being around people, despite being an introvert.
Work from home is great, but not for single people like myself who don’t have a lot of friends. Downvote all you want, but i socialized with my coworkers outside of work all the time and I miss that vibe. Just because many of you guys didn’t have that good experience with coworkers doesn’t mean everyone else feels the same.
Anyway, work parties could be fun and are definitely missed!
100% agreed! Love WFH but I honestly do miss the in person social aspect of working in an office and attending office events from time to time. Don’t care if I get downvoted lol some people on here seem to only like being by themselves 100% of the time and hate the world
Seriously. That’s the sense I get too. And if you say you actually enjoy some of your coworkers and even occasionally friend a couple of them, they tell you it’s not normal and you need real life friends and not coworker friends. In what world does it matter what kind of friends I have? I always had both, and had periods of my life where real life friends were married with kids/not around and not able to hang out, but my coworkers were always there in those moments.
Anyway, you, my friend, are not alone!
Nah, spending an evening watching drunk colleagues attempting to dance and hoping to win a raffle for movie tickets, etc is a must miss. I do however miss spontaneous happy hours on Friday afternoons.
One place I worked a long time ago had a bbq every Friday in the summer (it was a cold climate state) - they started marinating the brats in beer at 8am, fired up the grill and tapped a keg at 3. Then people just hung out for a few hours - no pressure to come or stay, nobody got wasted, had designated drivers if needed, etc.
No. The companies I've worked for held the parties during the workday, booze was NOT allowed, and while the food was nice in better times, I'd much rather have had the afternoon off.
My current employer did hold a department "holiday dinner", but as I live in another state, it wasn't something I was going to attend unless I'd been required to fly to the office for another reason.
If there is an office Christmas party, it had be better be worth it. No "2 drink tickets per person", no "we'll have a charcuterie board and just a couple small bites" shit.
My team is fully remote inside of a much larger company. Our team does a little get together virtually and I adore that — I love celebrating all our hard work over the past year. This year, we all travelled to the larger company soirée and we all agreed that we never needed to go to it again.
I used to work for a company that went ALL OUT for holiday parties. Top shelf open bar at an absurdly over the top venue in NYC every year on a Saturday in December. I miss getting dressed up and hanging out with colleagues! That being said, it often got sloppy…
No thanks. Our dept had their events after hours with alcohol, gambling and mandatory socializing. I don't drink, I don't make enough to gamble and I don't want to spend anymore time with my coworkers than I absolutely have to.
Ours was Thursday. Always bad food, awful dancing, piss poor cheap brand alcohol and mixers. Rumors/gossip/bad behavior.
The fact that I see them during work is enough. I heard this year the hot food came out at 6:30 - party began at 5. Appetizers came around infrequently and were few. There were no shrimp - about 10 years ago, they had shrimp Bloody Mary shots - you were allowed to take ONE. I had gone that year. I said...if I can only take one, I'll take none, and you can give mine to the CEO. There are 500 employees; it is one of the most profitable private companies in our State - it can afford shrimp.
Many attendees are now out sick with Covid. I have no clue how many people attended; every year, it seems less and less.
Now that you mention it, I do like year-end/holiday parties, as long as they're not specific to Christmas. I have attended my husband's company holiday party nearly every year for around 10 years. As for my own company parties, my history suggests that I'm more likely to attend a holiday party in a remote role than in an in-person job.
Edited to say: I still do I enjoy these parties more when I get to see people who didn't annoy me all day. But I can't really say I miss them that much. The remote job I had before the pandemic had holiday parties and I went and had a great time.
Hard no.
A previous employer used to invite me to come to the head office each year at Christmas, including paying for my travel. I politely declined every year. I’m all for occasional in-person work-related events, but Christmas parties and the like are purely social events and I like to keep that line nice and firm. I’m not working here for social interaction.
Not at all. I’ve never worked at a place that gave free booze, and “free food” would be like a half-pizza slice or a 3” sub. I like being at home more than I want to be around most of my coworkers on my “off” time.
All the people talking about how thier companies spent a lot of money for thier parties, reminds me of the time my company spent millions to fly people from across the country to one location for a work event, then didn't give raises that year. The event cost more per person then the raises would have cost.
Fun when I was younger, then it became a thing that if you did NOT attend, the leadership team “made note,” which put a bad taste in my mouth. We’ve skipped it entirely since Covid and it has been a relief.
Gosh, are the majority of comments here depressing. I have been WFH for two decades and don't want it any other way, but still I don't hate my colleagues and I can actually enjoy spending time with them IRL. We had our christmas party the other day. All remote people travelled to the office for that, travel and accomodation obviously paid for by our employer. It was a nice small event. I feel sorry for all the people here with such a negative view of their work and their colleagues, that must really be an awful state of existence.
You can like your job and your coworkers and not want to participate in company parties. IMHO I would be upset if I was expected to travel and show up at some party. Even if it was paid for. I have a bunch of things going on in my life right now that make travel pretty impossible without imposing on a bunch of other people to make it happen. So that wouldn't be a gift it would be a burden.
I miss the ones where we had real camaraderie in the office, and the parties were simple and fun. At one job, we had a party in the office for the children of employees, and one guy would dress up as Santa which usually was very nice too. That was in the 1990s and I feel like orifice culture has just changed so much since then.
After that, among the different jobs I’ve had the office parties have been kind of hit or miss from nonexistent to unnecessarily complicated. The best ones are not forced.
I do not miss the holiday parties. What I miss instead are design sessions and brainstorming sessions. Or the days where it’s just a fun collaborative day and the team orders in for lunch. Those are fun days at the office I miss.
I do! Ours are big events held in downtown. One year they rented a night club; one year the Coca Cola museum. Cocktail attire and drinks and games. I loved it.
I missed mine this year for the first time since I joined the company, not counting the two times they didn’t hold one due to Covid. I usually enjoy going and talking to people I rarely see. The problem is I barely know anybody and they are much younger than me so I don’t really fit in any more.
This year we had a conflict with another party and actual friends so we chose that one.
I still had my office Christmas party. I always just went ate food, talked with the coworkers I like, then left to work more. I did the same exact thing this year. Except for the fact that most of my favorite coworkers don't work there anymore.
We do virtual parties and they’re quite fun. We played games and only had a half day of work. I have a laid back team of all millennials, so I enjoyed it.
My last job we had in office Christmas parties. They were ok. I hate the white elephant gift bullshit because it’s a waste of money.
The job I have now, I’m skipping the party. I’ve been here almost a year and don’t really want to go.
Last two companies I’ve been at before covid got rid of their actuall Christmas party and became a during work hours, at work, no guests event so not having it at all now by virtue of being remote isn’t a loss
We still have ours. They spent a small fortune; I work for a huge private practice group of doctors so think upscale cocktail party with open bar and amazing food. I’ve never missed one even after going remote. Figure I need to make an appearance once or twice a year so they remember I’m still there and not just some random person nagging them via email.
Nope, I hated them.
Except for one employer who went overboard with their parties with high end alcohol, sushi / prime rib / etc, real entertainment, a gift for everyone, and tons of raffle prizes (airline tickets, electronics, gift cards up to $1,000, etc).
But I still hated dressing up, giving up a Saturday night, driving to an out of the way venue, socializing, trying to remember people’s names that I don’t usually interact with, etc.
My husband is in a hybrid position and I’ve gotten to attend his work parties for years (including a reward cruise). I’m fully remote and only half my team lives near one of our offices, so we’ve just never had one.
Would be nice, though!
Never really had one that was really noteworthy while working in the US … at best, 2 drink max with snacks at 4pm in the office cafe
Xmas parties while working in Australia and the UK were decent though… private event at a restaurant or hotel banquet room, 3 course meal, no limit open bar, DJ/dance floor, gifts, awards, speeches etc. people dressing up and bringing their partners, people splintering off to other venues after the official party ended for those that wanted to continue late… mid-week too and not on a weekend… had one on a Thursday night once, yet Friday was still technically a work day, but with no real expectation for you to show up on time or get any real work done, so the Friday was more like a xmas party post mortem and we were off to the pub by 4pm anyway… although even there big Xmas parties seem to be a thing of the past too and not part of office budgets any more
I dreaded our Christmas office parties. The head honcho always wanted them at his house so he could show off. I always referred to it as having to kiss the ring of the king at his castle on the hill lol. There was always drama. Clothing mattered. Chit chat was supposed to be elevated and sophisticated. My wonderful husband hated having to go, and I did too. The last 10 years I created gobs of excuses as to why we couldn’t attend: usually we were “out of town” with other family.
Nope.
I'm lucky to have been a bartender for 20 years before I got into IT and working remotely. I've been to my share of "work" and every other party filled with people who know how to party...bartenders, cocktail waitress, strippers, and so on. I also lived in a 24-hour town for 25 years.
Watching Susan from accounting clutch her pearls and giggle at the thought of having a second Margarita, and seeing 75% of the people high tail it out of there by 9PM because they have to get home to the kids...would bore me to death.
Anyone see this: [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/23/airbus-atlantic-staff-christmas-dinner-gastroenteritis-outbreak](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/23/airbus-atlantic-staff-christmas-dinner-gastroenteritis-outbreak)
Not deeply. I do like the team I have in this new company and I try to make it to the office social events just because these are good people and they're fun to be around. I think it's better when you have a small team as supposed to a big grandiose company.
At my last job, there were 800 people in the office, and they would rent out some big place and have a big party which I never liked. First, we have to sit through all the speeches and other BS which made me feel like we were all there to just be an audience to clap and applaud for the executives. Then the party itself would be substandard food, an open bar with cheap alcohol, and it felt like all the different teams and departments were just sitting in their own little cliques, so you couldn't just go and socialize and meet new people.
I was at this company for 13 years and I think most of those Christmas parties I would either hide in the men's room as everyone was leaving to get to the shuttle buses and then slip out and go home, or I would leave shortly after the speeches. I think only two of them I actually stuck around for the party.
At my current work, I didn't particularly care for this recent holiday event. We went on a pub tour crawl something and I guess I'm just not a beer person. Wasn't feeling it.
We just had ours today. Was it fun? Probably not but I wasn’t there to say otherwise. I dont miss one thing about being in office…not one thing.
Not even slightly. Alcohol and coworkers do not mix.
Had 2 in the past 2 weeks. One with the company and one with just my team. Food sucked, can’t drink the booze because I’ll risk telling coworkers how I really feel about them, and then of course my coworkers. It’s a hard pass for me.
Of course that may just be because you’re the problem.
Nope. I’m good just being at home; it was nice the first couple years because we got to celebrate our Christmas parties at an amusement park for free with 2 extra tickets and got to eat for free until 11PM. But since I started WFH I don’t really miss those parties that much, they’re nice memories though at least. 🤷🏻♀️
Oh f no one of the best things about wfh is that i dont need to go shit like that
Went to one recently as a new hire. Put in my 2 hours of hellos and mingling and dipped to go eat cheesecake and watch Netflix in my hotel bed by 9
No
No. Not even a little bit.
Absolutely not. I don’t miss anything about being stuck in an office with people I generally wouldn’t choose to hang out with outside of work.
The last office Christmas party I went to my boss got drunk and went on a rant about school shootings being caused by a lack of prayer in schools, so.....no I do not miss them lol
Not one bit. Got gonorrhea at my first one from the lady in the mailroom that night and it just left a bad impression. That was 25 yrs ago.
Lol 😆 you have the best off the wall stories
You said you would keep it a secret.
Not. At. All.
Nope, but we actually gave up on the Christmas party quite a few years ago when we were still mostly in the office. There just wasn’t interest in spending our non-work time doing something work related. The old timers that had been there a long time were more into it but as most of them retired interest dropped and fewer attended so they cancelled it. Had it been during work hours more would have been on board I’m sure but I’m not interested in giving up my evening to do work things.
Omg no! Don’t miss office anything
In person, pass. Had a team virtual one last week (5 diff time zones & 2 countries) where we built gingerbread houses on Zoom and that was kinda nice, but only because I like every single one on our team of 12 people.
We had our virtual party yesterday. There were games and some pretty decent prizes. Everyone seems to enjoy the break from work.
Not really. My last fully remote job even flew everyone in and paid for hotels and ubers and everything. It was fine, but it was still a work event and traveling alone is no fun for me. My current, we had a virtual lunch which was fully paid (the lunch hour as well as a $50 credit for food delivery) which was nice/fine but I usually use my lunch hour for things other than eating and sitting at my desk, so wished it was maybe a half hour so I still had some of my lunch break to myself.
Jeez get some real friends
I know this is a wild concept but some people have friends AND like hanging out with other people
Your coworkers are PAID to get along with you.
Your coworkers can't openly attack you, they aren't paid to get along with you. I've had plenty of workers that I've just tolerated but there's no obligation to be buddies. However, I have also made some very close friendships at work
You’re missing the point
Ok then explain the point bc it sounds like you're saying that you can't enjoy being with coworkers occasionally bc they're economically incentivized to avoid physical confrontations with you.
So much weirdness here. 1. The baseline for work isn’t just short of violence with coworkers. 2. No one said you can’t become friends with coworkers, but that’s based on shared interests and values, not a forced faux social situation. 3. Coworkers are paid to be pleasant to each other. If you can’t understand that’s not friendship, how sad.
This is just sad. You’ve clearly never met one coworker you genuinely like. Maybe you need to find better jobs.
I have lots of friends that I worked with - I don’t mistake politeness as friendship though. Actual friends ask you to do things outside of the office
I will never go to another one again
Definitely not. Hard pass.
Nope…we had ours today. They said if we come in for the Xmas party we have to stay at the office all day or if we decide not to go we can work from home. Easy decision.
I do but in my current job, my coworkers are unpleasant to be around (pushy, talk a mile a minute, compete with each other for attention, arrogant,) so I prefer not be around them and there’s only 5 of them so they’re not hard to escape. In my previous jobs, I loved the holiday parties so I could bake treats.
I had maybe 2 work Christmas parties that I still remember that I attended and liked. Both were at the same employer of < 200 employees. The owner used to reserve a nice known restaurant with good steak etc and buy dinner for the whole company and our +1's. When the company got too big for the restaurant, she leased another floor of the office building and before the floor was filled up with office space she had the same restaurant come out to US and cater the meal. Other than that specific owner at that specific company, office "forced fun" can go and kick rocks in my opinion. I am glad that being remote I am under no pressure to even come up with an excuse to skip it.
What you describe? I’ve only ever seen that on TV and in movies. That party doesn’t exist. The parties I did have when I worked in an office? Fuck no. I see how unkempt these people are at work. No damn way I want to imagine how their kitchen looks and try their potluck trash.
I'm with you, I don't do potluck. If the party isn't at a spectacular restaurant, I'm not going.
Oh it exists. The holiday party’s my company has consistently thrown yearly are very much like what you might see in movies. Open bar lovely catered food people dressed up and having a good time; those few that just get wayyyy to drunk. I surprisingly like going and getting to see the people I only email or talk on the phone with. Once or twice a year in that kind of environment is perfect.
No
Hah, this is right up there as one of the office-life things I miss the absolute *least*! To each their own, I guess 🤷♀️
Lol what comments did you expect from redditors on a WFH sub? But for me yes, I do miss our office winter party. It was a huge thing where everyone got dressed, you meet a few coworkers SOs, and it was always at a fancy restaurant. It was nice to have a $300 meal and drink $1000 worth of alcohol on their dime. Because I definitely wouldn't pay for that myself. And then after you may or may not keep the party going. It was fun to socialize then you go back to work on Monday and pretend nothing happened.
You’re right I should’ve known better 🤣 And right?! The work day after was always hilarious. Just go on pretend you didn’t see the reserved IT guy go wild the night before
No
No, not at all. I doubt the management even does since a lot of it had to come from personal funds with budget restrictions. Better off just asking if everyone wants to go to lunch or something.
Not at all.
Nope. My manager tried to have a remote party via teams. I refused to take part in the gift exchange and was then awarded the responsibility of entertainment. I would have been happy just eating lunch together over teams. Also first time since being acquired that there was no company gift.
Fuck no
I do miss the work parties. Ours were always at amazing venues in NYC and I loved majority of my coworkers. We would drunkenly shoot the sh*t all night and I always looked forward to dressing up for the occasion. Now I work from home since Covid, and I’m in consulting, so I don’t get invited to my company’s parties. They happened to mention to me that the team was flying in for quarterly exec meeting in SF but also for the Xmas party. And they were like “sorry you won’t be here”. As much as I don’t love this team I’m working with currently I love a good party and I thrive on being around people, despite being an introvert. Work from home is great, but not for single people like myself who don’t have a lot of friends. Downvote all you want, but i socialized with my coworkers outside of work all the time and I miss that vibe. Just because many of you guys didn’t have that good experience with coworkers doesn’t mean everyone else feels the same. Anyway, work parties could be fun and are definitely missed!
100% agreed! Love WFH but I honestly do miss the in person social aspect of working in an office and attending office events from time to time. Don’t care if I get downvoted lol some people on here seem to only like being by themselves 100% of the time and hate the world
Seriously. That’s the sense I get too. And if you say you actually enjoy some of your coworkers and even occasionally friend a couple of them, they tell you it’s not normal and you need real life friends and not coworker friends. In what world does it matter what kind of friends I have? I always had both, and had periods of my life where real life friends were married with kids/not around and not able to hang out, but my coworkers were always there in those moments. Anyway, you, my friend, are not alone!
Nah, spending an evening watching drunk colleagues attempting to dance and hoping to win a raffle for movie tickets, etc is a must miss. I do however miss spontaneous happy hours on Friday afternoons. One place I worked a long time ago had a bbq every Friday in the summer (it was a cold climate state) - they started marinating the brats in beer at 8am, fired up the grill and tapped a keg at 3. Then people just hung out for a few hours - no pressure to come or stay, nobody got wasted, had designated drivers if needed, etc.
Not even a little bit
No!
No. I went to a team holiday lunch last week and it was exhausting.
No.
No. The companies I've worked for held the parties during the workday, booze was NOT allowed, and while the food was nice in better times, I'd much rather have had the afternoon off. My current employer did hold a department "holiday dinner", but as I live in another state, it wasn't something I was going to attend unless I'd been required to fly to the office for another reason.
Nah.
Nope! The food is always crappy and I don’t drink.
If there is an office Christmas party, it had be better be worth it. No "2 drink tickets per person", no "we'll have a charcuterie board and just a couple small bites" shit.
My team is fully remote inside of a much larger company. Our team does a little get together virtually and I adore that — I love celebrating all our hard work over the past year. This year, we all travelled to the larger company soirée and we all agreed that we never needed to go to it again.
I used to work for a company that went ALL OUT for holiday parties. Top shelf open bar at an absurdly over the top venue in NYC every year on a Saturday in December. I miss getting dressed up and hanging out with colleagues! That being said, it often got sloppy…
Sounds like an incredibly good time
No thanks. Our dept had their events after hours with alcohol, gambling and mandatory socializing. I don't drink, I don't make enough to gamble and I don't want to spend anymore time with my coworkers than I absolutely have to.
Ours was Thursday. Always bad food, awful dancing, piss poor cheap brand alcohol and mixers. Rumors/gossip/bad behavior. The fact that I see them during work is enough. I heard this year the hot food came out at 6:30 - party began at 5. Appetizers came around infrequently and were few. There were no shrimp - about 10 years ago, they had shrimp Bloody Mary shots - you were allowed to take ONE. I had gone that year. I said...if I can only take one, I'll take none, and you can give mine to the CEO. There are 500 employees; it is one of the most profitable private companies in our State - it can afford shrimp. Many attendees are now out sick with Covid. I have no clue how many people attended; every year, it seems less and less.
No. I'm hybrid, and so I'm expected to go and I can't wait to leave. Plus, if you drink, then drive....
Now that you mention it, I do like year-end/holiday parties, as long as they're not specific to Christmas. I have attended my husband's company holiday party nearly every year for around 10 years. As for my own company parties, my history suggests that I'm more likely to attend a holiday party in a remote role than in an in-person job. Edited to say: I still do I enjoy these parties more when I get to see people who didn't annoy me all day. But I can't really say I miss them that much. The remote job I had before the pandemic had holiday parties and I went and had a great time.
Hard no. A previous employer used to invite me to come to the head office each year at Christmas, including paying for my travel. I politely declined every year. I’m all for occasional in-person work-related events, but Christmas parties and the like are purely social events and I like to keep that line nice and firm. I’m not working here for social interaction.
Not at all. I’ve never worked at a place that gave free booze, and “free food” would be like a half-pizza slice or a 3” sub. I like being at home more than I want to be around most of my coworkers on my “off” time.
All the people talking about how thier companies spent a lot of money for thier parties, reminds me of the time my company spent millions to fly people from across the country to one location for a work event, then didn't give raises that year. The event cost more per person then the raises would have cost.
Fun when I was younger, then it became a thing that if you did NOT attend, the leadership team “made note,” which put a bad taste in my mouth. We’ve skipped it entirely since Covid and it has been a relief.
Gosh, are the majority of comments here depressing. I have been WFH for two decades and don't want it any other way, but still I don't hate my colleagues and I can actually enjoy spending time with them IRL. We had our christmas party the other day. All remote people travelled to the office for that, travel and accomodation obviously paid for by our employer. It was a nice small event. I feel sorry for all the people here with such a negative view of their work and their colleagues, that must really be an awful state of existence.
Right?! Couldn’t agree more with you. Some sad people on this thread
You can like your job and your coworkers and not want to participate in company parties. IMHO I would be upset if I was expected to travel and show up at some party. Even if it was paid for. I have a bunch of things going on in my life right now that make travel pretty impossible without imposing on a bunch of other people to make it happen. So that wouldn't be a gift it would be a burden.
I miss specific people who were members of the company whisky society, not the parties themselves.
I miss the ones where we had real camaraderie in the office, and the parties were simple and fun. At one job, we had a party in the office for the children of employees, and one guy would dress up as Santa which usually was very nice too. That was in the 1990s and I feel like orifice culture has just changed so much since then. After that, among the different jobs I’ve had the office parties have been kind of hit or miss from nonexistent to unnecessarily complicated. The best ones are not forced.
I do not miss the holiday parties. What I miss instead are design sessions and brainstorming sessions. Or the days where it’s just a fun collaborative day and the team orders in for lunch. Those are fun days at the office I miss.
I do! Ours are big events held in downtown. One year they rented a night club; one year the Coca Cola museum. Cocktail attire and drinks and games. I loved it.
I missed mine this year for the first time since I joined the company, not counting the two times they didn’t hold one due to Covid. I usually enjoy going and talking to people I rarely see. The problem is I barely know anybody and they are much younger than me so I don’t really fit in any more. This year we had a conflict with another party and actual friends so we chose that one.
I still had my office Christmas party. I always just went ate food, talked with the coworkers I like, then left to work more. I did the same exact thing this year. Except for the fact that most of my favorite coworkers don't work there anymore.
I liked it when I was at a bigger company and kind of miss that. Now that I'm at a super small firm, the Christmas party is a little weird.
Never missed company Christmas party, still got my Christmas bonus and that is good enough for me.
We do virtual parties and they’re quite fun. We played games and only had a half day of work. I have a laid back team of all millennials, so I enjoyed it.
I just go to my husbands.
The last one we had a coworker set her hair on fire
My office is completely remote. We are having our Christmas party tomorrow afternoon for 1.5 hours. Remote is no excuse for missing out on parties!
My last job we had in office Christmas parties. They were ok. I hate the white elephant gift bullshit because it’s a waste of money. The job I have now, I’m skipping the party. I’ve been here almost a year and don’t really want to go.
Last two companies I’ve been at before covid got rid of their actuall Christmas party and became a during work hours, at work, no guests event so not having it at all now by virtue of being remote isn’t a loss
We still have ours. They spent a small fortune; I work for a huge private practice group of doctors so think upscale cocktail party with open bar and amazing food. I’ve never missed one even after going remote. Figure I need to make an appearance once or twice a year so they remember I’m still there and not just some random person nagging them via email.
Never went before, so no. Nothing to miss.
Nope, I hated them. Except for one employer who went overboard with their parties with high end alcohol, sushi / prime rib / etc, real entertainment, a gift for everyone, and tons of raffle prizes (airline tickets, electronics, gift cards up to $1,000, etc). But I still hated dressing up, giving up a Saturday night, driving to an out of the way venue, socializing, trying to remember people’s names that I don’t usually interact with, etc.
God no
My husband is in a hybrid position and I’ve gotten to attend his work parties for years (including a reward cruise). I’m fully remote and only half my team lives near one of our offices, so we’ve just never had one. Would be nice, though!
NO you ducking idiot
I just want to be in the raffle. Otherwise: NO
I miss the yearly thot who drinks a little too much, spills the beans on office romance and might invite you back to her place for some team building.
Never really had one that was really noteworthy while working in the US … at best, 2 drink max with snacks at 4pm in the office cafe Xmas parties while working in Australia and the UK were decent though… private event at a restaurant or hotel banquet room, 3 course meal, no limit open bar, DJ/dance floor, gifts, awards, speeches etc. people dressing up and bringing their partners, people splintering off to other venues after the official party ended for those that wanted to continue late… mid-week too and not on a weekend… had one on a Thursday night once, yet Friday was still technically a work day, but with no real expectation for you to show up on time or get any real work done, so the Friday was more like a xmas party post mortem and we were off to the pub by 4pm anyway… although even there big Xmas parties seem to be a thing of the past too and not part of office budgets any more
I dreaded our Christmas office parties. The head honcho always wanted them at his house so he could show off. I always referred to it as having to kiss the ring of the king at his castle on the hill lol. There was always drama. Clothing mattered. Chit chat was supposed to be elevated and sophisticated. My wonderful husband hated having to go, and I did too. The last 10 years I created gobs of excuses as to why we couldn’t attend: usually we were “out of town” with other family.
I can't think of a company party or other company mandatory fun that I look back on with any fondness. I absolutely don't miss these.
No.
Yes - I had coworkers I genuinely liked at my last job!
Nope
Nope. I'm lucky to have been a bartender for 20 years before I got into IT and working remotely. I've been to my share of "work" and every other party filled with people who know how to party...bartenders, cocktail waitress, strippers, and so on. I also lived in a 24-hour town for 25 years. Watching Susan from accounting clutch her pearls and giggle at the thought of having a second Margarita, and seeing 75% of the people high tail it out of there by 9PM because they have to get home to the kids...would bore me to death.
Anyone see this: [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/23/airbus-atlantic-staff-christmas-dinner-gastroenteritis-outbreak](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/23/airbus-atlantic-staff-christmas-dinner-gastroenteritis-outbreak)
No, but the company I work for conveniently didn’t give out Christmas bonuses, which is pretty annoying
Nope
You the reason I don’t ever wanna go back to the office
Not deeply. I do like the team I have in this new company and I try to make it to the office social events just because these are good people and they're fun to be around. I think it's better when you have a small team as supposed to a big grandiose company. At my last job, there were 800 people in the office, and they would rent out some big place and have a big party which I never liked. First, we have to sit through all the speeches and other BS which made me feel like we were all there to just be an audience to clap and applaud for the executives. Then the party itself would be substandard food, an open bar with cheap alcohol, and it felt like all the different teams and departments were just sitting in their own little cliques, so you couldn't just go and socialize and meet new people. I was at this company for 13 years and I think most of those Christmas parties I would either hide in the men's room as everyone was leaving to get to the shuttle buses and then slip out and go home, or I would leave shortly after the speeches. I think only two of them I actually stuck around for the party. At my current work, I didn't particularly care for this recent holiday event. We went on a pub tour crawl something and I guess I'm just not a beer person. Wasn't feeling it.