I have to. It’s a small party at my manager’s house, and I like almost all of the staff, so it shouldn’t be too bad… I hope. I hope I can get people up and dancing. I’ve promised to teach my manager’s husband to bellydance.
I went to my fiance’s Christmas party last year, and it was dismal. Big, with “free” drinks and dancing to bad music. Bleh.
I’ll go…I consider it an obligation.
I like most of the people I work with, but it wouldn’t be my choice to socialize with them. I see all I want of most of them during work hours, thank you very much.
However, it is four hours or so out of my life. Why complicate my working relationships the REST of the year by being unsociable?
So, I will go, and as I said in the other thread…last year was actually fun, so maybe this year will be just as good. One can only hope.
I usually go, for semi-political reasons. In other words: “Here I am. This proves I take the job seriously. Please remember me when it comes time for raises and stuff.”
If it weren’t for that, I’d rather stay home. Watching a bunch of pasty middle-management types writhing awkwardly to an 80’s cover band is not my idea of fun.
i don’t go to the office holiday parties. they are against my religion.
i saw die hard, i know what happens at holiday parties.
the weather outside is frightfull…
The office Christmas party is in a cabin across the road from a ski resort on the north side of Lake Tahoe. Free lift tickets, food, drinks, and we can stay in the cabin if we want to. Everything’s donated, since I work for a non-profit environmental group. Of course I’m going.
It’s things like this that balance out my $200/week salary.
I have a strict policy against going to off hour company events. I tend toward the anti-social in the best of situations and work events make me doubly uncomfortable. Holiday parties are even worse because Christmassy things give me the willies.
I know that a lot of people live for these sorts of events so I am glad that the company has them. On the other hand, a large percantage of the people there are there because they feel that they should be there and would rather be somewhere else.
Haj
Yeah, I do go. Actually, the people I work with are some of my best friends anyway, but that’s not the main reason:
If I were in a typical business, I’d go and feel like a social shark. I’m pretty outgoing in large groups, and I like to sense who’s confident and who isn’t. I’d watch who socializes with who. I’d watch who drinks and who doesn’t. I’d go just to observe people somewhat outside of their typical work environment. And sometimes, hoo doggie, it’s a hoot.
Call me KGB if you will, but I think it’s a great social tool. 
Tripler
I’m a “people watcher”.
I’m really new to my present job, and don’t even know if they have a party for the holidays or not.
But at my old (many moons ago) job, we had terrific Christmas parties. I mean, the works. Live bands or disc jockeys, free booze, free food, and dancing til the wee hours. Many people came from out of town and the company footed the hotel bill for the folks that had too far to drive. My boss used to pay for cab service for those that had had a little too much Christmas party.
You could come stag or bring along your wife/hubby/date/whatever.Everyone was welcome. (I later learned that many other places don’t allow anyone but the employee or possibly a spouse to come…we were very “ahead of our time”, at the time.)
We all knew each other very well, and were great friends at and away from the workplace. I worked there for almost fifteen years.
(sigh)…I miss those guys. 
My last workplace, however, was too damn cheap to even allow us to leave early on Christmas Eve, let alone have some kind of get together. We had to literally request in writing if we could all bring a dish for an in-house Christmas luncheon (they did condescend to supply the plates, cutlery and napkins. Yep, real great guys, these asses…). They ok’d it, and we had a decent time, sorta, except we had to carry on during the luncheon like we were actually at our desks, so the phones and customers interrupting our meal somewhat dampened our spirit.
Anyway, yes, I’ve been to some great company parties and some not so great. From the way this new job is turning out, I’d love to have at least a lunch with everyone (there aren’t but six of us) because they’re really nice, fun people.
Maybe next year I can talk them into a shindig.
I’m not going this year. I’ve already given my notice (last day - January 31st!!! wooooohoooooooo) and some friends of mine are having a party the same night. That said, this was the agenda for last year’s party:
Friday
6:00 arrive at boss’ house for cocktail “hour”
9:00 go to local restaurant
9:30 listen to boss rant at restaurant manager for setting up tables to seat 10, instead of setting them up to be in a big circle so we could all look at each other while we eat
10:00 still waiting for restaurant to get tables repositioned and re-set with plates, etc.
10:30 still waiting (uncomfortably, in a little cramped area of the restaurant bar)
11:00 sit down to dinner
12:00 boss announces that he’d like to see everyone back at his house for drinks and asks for a shows of hands for those who plan to join him :rolleyes:
12:10 husband and I high-tail it home
This is the same boss who cut off our hot water this week because it’s too expensive to have us wash our hands in hot water after we use the restroom. Dick. I am SOOOOOO out of there!!!
We have two, a company provided dinner in December and a potluck shrimp boil at our District Manager’s bay house in the summer. Spouses comes to the dinner, and whomever you feel like dragging along can come to the summer thing - that means kids, primarily.
We’re a small office - six that work for the company that employs me and five that work for the other company with whom we share offices as well as our common corporate owner. The political gravitas of skipping the company sponsored one is slighter than that of skipping the summer do. But neither packs enough punch for me to attend for that reason alone.
That being said, I’ll attend both. The upcoming December one will be at a place called Magic Island, which is sort of a magic show dinner theater and, what the heck, I’ve never been to something like that and it’s on the company dime. And I get along with the co-workers, there’ll be no Big Dogs there and at least two of the wives of my co-workers will keep it lively.
The summer time deal is actually enjoyable - shorts, dogs, kids, beer, the bay - I enjoy it.
But, I’ve worked in other situations and can understand not wanting to attend functions that you know you’ll not enjoy, and may be dangerous to your livelihood should the free booze or some such work against you. My very first corporate Christmas party saw me arrive at home in custody of a very inebriated secretary who’d lost some of her clothes and set my car on fire, and the time taken to get over that was not worth it.
The company I work for isn’t together enough* to have the holiday part during the holidays, so it’s in March (i suppose you could say it is for St. Patrick’s day).
Decent Meal. No Dancing. Cash Bar. Door Prizes. Casual Dress.
I hardly ever pass up free food, so I go.
Brian
*plus they figure december is already hectic enough
The holiday party that I attended last year featured one of the supervisors getting totally trashed, slow dancing with me, and grabbing my package. Hopefully, th isyear (new hospital) will be different.
Oh, I’m going.
So many people owe me beers for the shit I’ve done for them I’m going to be drunk in the first hour.
And they know it too.
I don’t really look forward to them, but I’ve never regretted going. Once things get going, it usually turns out to be a great time. And in the “old days”, the booze would flow freely wherever the party was held. Now days, everyone has more sense.
But employers can’t win. If you they invite everyone for an office party, half the people need to be convinced to go. And if they said we’re not going to have a party, everyone would bitch and moan about how cheap the boss was.
Go. And have some fun!
I have to go. The hubby is a manager so I have no choice. Last year, one guy, who claimed to be a great dancer, took to the dance floor by himself. He looked like a bad Elvis impersonator trying to dance like Michael Jackson while doing the Macarena. Hard to picture, I know, but at least three of us came up with the same description. I’m actually looking forward to this year’s party to see it again, even if they are cutting off the booze. Plus this guy has a huge crush on our HR girl, who I don’t especially like. Tension is fun!
Our parties are spotty, one year big and fancy formal deals at a nice restaurant, the next year cheap finger foods in the big break room at the end of a regular work day. Depends on the big chief’s mood. Who knows this year?
I never go, when I was still in college I was too busy with sutdying for exams at the same time. Now I hate my job and most of my co-workers. Besides, why should I go be social with people in other departments who treat my department like shit the rest of the year?
I definitely won’t go this year, no matter what kind of party it is, since most of my friends there (the few that I cared about) have either quit or moved away in the past year. And too many people will be there who make me regret every day I work there (see above).
I work wth nice people, and the Christmas offie party is at the finest hotel in town, so yes, I look forward to it.
Echokitty, I hear you about being a temp. Let me list a few of the Christmas parties I ran across while temping:
Company A - great people, great Christmas party. Didn’t even occur to them to NOT invite temps.
Company B - temps who had been there for awhile were invited to the three hour long Christmas lunch. The other temps (about 4 of us) who had started the week before were not invited. They said they would be back at 2:00, so that’s when I came back from my three hour lunch too (stupid people - take all the supervisors, leave four temps, and tell us when you’ll be back. We got SOOOOO much work done while they were gone.)
Company C - great fancy office party for employees, $30 bucks per person. Temps were allowed to go if we wanted to; we both said we wouldn’t be going because of the cost. Our supervisor, a really decent man, gave us three hours worth of pay so we could go (he signed off on our hour sheets for three hours we hadn’t worked).
Company D - big, fancy free party for employees - $20 per person for temps. That got a big “kiss my ass” from all the temps (and this was a company that had about 50% long-term temps), and most of the permanent staff, too, when they heard about the screw job.
Let me say for the record that no company has any obligation to pay for anything for temps except their hourly wage. That said, I wouldn’t take a permanent job with a company that has so little regard for human beings doing work for them that they can’t spring for a Christmas party invitation for all the people working there. There’s a reason that temps feel like “disposable employees”.
I’ve got to know where Kirk works… drinking beer from various ewe orifices? Whoa!
I have to go to mine since I’m the one responsible for PLANNING it. Though being somewhat of a watcher and not so much of a socializer myself, I did make a point of putting the white elephant gift exchange FIRST, so those who want to avoid it can!
We’re also at a location where people can leave the banquet and DJ and go wander around exploring their own interests (I hate to be ‘locked in’ somewhere!). But since I am the one who’s planning it, I cut back a bit on the food and invited the spouses, dates, and/or significant others! That way everyone has at least one person they (theoretically!) enjoy talking to… <chuckles>
a.) As a student I’ve never really worked anywhere long enough to want to party with any of my coworkers. I’m not such a sociable person I guess.
b.) There are some people I’m very sure I don’t want to see during work, never mind while I’m trying to enjoy myself.