The 112th Annual Christmas Party is next week. It’s a typical corporate affair. (‘Typical’ is based on my experiences while working for a defense contractor, a credit reporting agency, and my current employer.) To wit: A ‘ballroom’ in a hotel. Assigned tables. Buffet consisting of roast beef, turkey or ham, maybe fish, make-your-own salad, a starch or two, veg, and rolls. Also too-sweet desserts. ‘Nice’ attire. Corporate news and award presentations. Lame-ass entertainment. A timetable. A DJ.
This is not my idea of a ‘party’. (I’ll go, of course.) My idea of a party is a bunch of people scattered amongst various rooms of a house, Goth/Punk/Counterculture/Whatever-You’re-Wearing attire (or costumes for Halloween, of course), Alternative/Punk/College Radio music, loads of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and a room where certain people gather to inhale white powder through their noses. Snacks are about, and there might be a whip-around for pizza or something. No schedule. Come when you want, leave when you want. Or pass out. Sit wherever. Basically, good old-fashioned debauchery. (Not that I know anyone anymore who has parties I can go to. )
I’m OK with pot. I don’t touch it anymore but I have nothing against it. Anything harder than that though, and I’m outta there. Don’t like it and don’t want to associate with it.
I know exactly what you mean about those corporate “parties”.
Huge waste of time and money; sitting next to people you usually have nothing in common with, over-priced bland food, PC entertainment with maybe an embarrassing dance by the boss and his wife/secretary at best, make nice and be sure not to drink too much to make fool of yourself or get fired. I hated those.*
A party is a minimum of 3 people, booze, cigarettes, loud conversation, laughs, food you like, gossip, puns, stories and don’t end until late (or early morning).
There was only one good corporate party I can remember - I used to work for a film studio and they really outdid themselves one year. When you stepped off the elevator, they had fake paparazzi screaming for you to look their way, taking hundreds of flash shots as you had to walk down a red carpet. Was fun to see how people reacted - I played the gracious star and posed several times. Then they had a casino theme and gave everyone fake money and whoever won the most in the table games (with real dealers and roulette, etc.) you won cool prizes like trips to NYC or SF and a large screen TV etc. Plus the food was great and drinks unlimited. They even conned a few real film stars to show up and it really was the one and only corporate party I have gone to that everyone had a great time and didn’t want to leave.
Fortunately, we’re not paying for it. The bill is being footed by our members.
We’ll be seated next to the people I work with every day.
A note on drug use at ‘my idea’ of parties: It’s not mandatory. It’s just there. The joint gets passed around, I decline. After the second time, they stop asking. Totally cool. As far as coke, people gather in another room to do that.
That’s what I meant - but even if you are not paying for it, it is still bland food that someone paid far too much. Glad to hear you are sitting next to someone you can tolerate. Often it is someone you barely know, or even dislike. Those are really horrible events, trying to make-nice and not blurt out something that will come back to bite you on Monday when you are back at work.
Which is not to say the corporate Christmas do isn’t a party; it’s just a big, expensive, formal party. At least we get to dance there, which we don’t get to do most of the rest of the year. I hate to let those years of dance lessons go to waste.
My company x-mas party is like that. Big hotel ballroom, choice of three or four mediocre dinners, free beer/wine, horrible 70s/80s/90s cover band, co-workers and spouses but you can sit wherever you want. There is a raffle with some actually very nice prizes but you have to be present to win and they space out the giveaways throughout the evening so if you bail early you forfeit your prize.
This, of course, is all second hand because I wouldn’t be caught dead there.
Corporate parties: The best I ever attended were when my first husband worked for AOL, back when AOL was still hot shit. They’d rent out a whole theme park or water park or hotel and fill it up with free food, booze, and entertainment, as well as pretty extensive gift bags for every attendant.
Casual parties I’d say food and alcohol are probably givens, possibly games, possibly music, depending on the venue. I’m having my 40th birthday party at a hotel (in a suite) in February and I’m not sure whether or not to bring something to play music on or not, since I don’t want to annoy people in adjacent rooms. It’s a pajama party with guests invited to stay over for the night, so the music could potentially go quite late if we have it. Maybe I’ll have music but turn it off at 10pm or so.
)