OK, it’s bad enough that practically everyone in my office is gone to the company Christmas party. Why didn’t I go? Well, temps aren’t invited. That I don’t mind.
I just got off the phone with my sister, and she and other sister have already decided that the Christmas gift exchange is off. So basically instead of a Best Buy gift card, which is the usual gift my sisters would give me, I’m gettin nuthin for Christmas. Nice of them to inform me about it, even though I’ve already got them theirs. Well, I got my sisters and my niece but I was worried about getting stuff for my nephews and brothers-in-law. So at least I don’t have to worry about them.
Merry Fucking Christmas!
Gee, maybe I shouldn’t send the girls their gifts.
OH and the punch line? Do you want to know what I got them? My sisters and my niece?
Not to be too “corporate,” but temps aren’t employees of the company. If something were to happen to a temp at a company function, there could be consequences.
Can you not go as a “guest” of one of the employees?
Oh, and thirded with the gifts to your sisters. Have fun!
If you bring temps/contractors, that can be used against you in litigation regarding overtime, benefits, etc. It is one of the tests to see if someone is a real employee vs. a contractor - are they invited to company fun events. Lots of companies will keep people employed as contractors, to avoid paying some benefits and taxes. Those contractors can later sue (or the local labor relations folks for the state will do it), and use the Christmas party invite as evidence of status.
I would return the Coach purses and use the money for yourself. Let the neices and nephews have their toys though.
Or maybe I can use them to pick up chicks.
OH and I totally understand about not being invited to the office party, but being almost alone in the building is just a little salt for my wounds.
I find it very odd that your company won’t invite employees, albeit temps, to the Christmas party when the company I work for opens it up to suppliers, customers, and friends and relatives of employees. Not that I doubt you at all. I just sympathize, and glad that for all the bitching I do about the people I work with, Technical Thingies is still a very worker-friendly company.
I’ve never understood the whole notion of a “gift exchange”. There’s something terribly paradoxical about the phrase to me. It’s more like a purchase, where I give you something of value (money) and you give me something of value in return (a trinket or what-have-you). In fact, if you both value what you got more than what you gave, you have conducted an economic praxis by definition, according to von Mises.
So, if they really weren’t gifts anyway, then I’d join the “sell them” chorus. If they were, then I’d give them to the people for whom I bought them. “No exchange” shouldn’t mean “no gifts”.
But those people — suppliers, customers, friends, and relatives — do not belong to any class of people who could make the kind of claim
Algher described. I don’t think a jury would ever buy into an argument from a customer who claimed to be a full time employee deserving benefits just because he attended a Christmas party. But a part-time employee could make a better claim since he already at least has employee status of some kind.
On the one hand, sure, that could be part of the proof that you’re a real employee and not a temp. On the other hand, if things are that much in the balance, they’re doing a lot of other things wrong.
This summer I temped–at a temp agency. They loved me, and they invited me to every event, including the going-away lunch they had for me at the end of the summer. I figure that the temp agency itself has a pretty good handle on what’s copacetic and what’s not. If they can do it, I’m pretty sure other companies can do it safely.
(That wasn’t a standalone experience, BTW; when I temped during the nineties, my going away party was held at a country club.)
I say that you go ahead and send the Coach bag to your niece, because she had no part in the cancellation of the gift exchange from the sound of it. No need to punish the innocent.
But be sure to include a note to your sister saying, “Hey, I got you one too but when I heard that you and I weren’t exchanging gifts, I went ahead and took it back and bought myself something fun. Thanks, sis! Merry Christmas!”
Sorry about the way your Xmas take for the season appears to be shaping up.
Not to be Captain Obvious, but have you inquired with your real employer (the agency that’s sending you to the client) if they have any seasonal festivities planned to show their appreciation for the folks who make them so much money?
I know, delusional thinking. It could happen, though.
Ha! Hahahahahahahaha! That’s a good one. Thanks for the laugh. I’ve been a temp for over 11 years - the appreciation my agencies have shown me has been…well, none. Ever. Oh, no, wait, one gave me a coffee mug one Christmas.
I had the same thing happen one Christmas season, Zebra. Everyone went out for a nice Christmas lunch and left the newest temps (not even all the temps) in the office. They were kind enough to tell me when they would be back, so I too had a nice two hour lunch that day. I have to say, though, most companies these days are very good to temps they have on site. Calgary’s really becoming a temp-loving city (with our massive worker shortages, they kind of have to be).
Here’s hoping your Christmas season perks up, Zebra.
