Office Christmas Parties- Should you go?

[Devils_Advocate]

Being it's that time of year again many of you may have already faced the age old decision of whether or not to go your office Christmas or New Years party.

Should you go? Etiquette for not going?

 

[Devils_Advocate]

That should be:

Poll: Should you go to your office Christmas / New Years party?

Damn polls! Why can't you edit the question line?

 

[twoblues]

Yes, you should go. No, you should not drink/drink much.

This is the opportunity to show your boss that you are more than a mindless drone and that you actually have social skills.

 

[bcneil]

They are 2 different things......

Sure I go to my works xmas party, we take the afternoon off and all go for a buffet lunch as some random golf course.
You have a single drink if any, have lunch, then go home. Beats staying at work.

New years party....as in new years eve? No chance I want to waste that with my coworkers

 

[mercyshooter]

Office politics, eh?

 

[Ray]

Our company also doesn't have Christmas parties, mainly due to liability issues with drinking and driving. Those of us that get along well will get together for dinner/drinks in the evening on our own time without company sanction so there are no liability issues.

 

[luvsdaty]

Hell yeah:thumb: lots of drunk horny office girls! Something about xmas makes girls especially horny.

 

[ThisEndUp]

Go, drink straight coke and take notes...

 

[wolverine]

Hell yes, I ain't passing up free grub and drinks!

 

[chuckanut]

my company throws huge hotel bashes every year for xmas. it's pay for ur own drinks, but everyone just ends up bringing their own stuff anyway. usually get a room at the hotel for the nite. get ur drink/grub/dance on at the party. of course take it easy with the drinks at the actual party, then go balls to the wall at the after party in the room. and hey, if u happen to be that mistake the hot girl in the office makes..... at least u'll be prepared. lol.

-chuck
**retired**

 

[Miss*Bijou]

Go, drink straight coke and take notes...

Totally. That's pretty much what I did. Gawd, some people never fail to entertain by making fools of themselves every year. The whole thing was always equally enlightening and disturbing. I saw some pretty crazy stuff, I always wondered if they'd regret it once they sobered up. Considering they'd do the same thing the following year, my guess is they either didn't care or just didn't remember. I know I wasn't the only one to look at the director very differently on Monday after watching her have a great time at the party, getting wasted and spending a good part of the evening groping and putting the moves on one of the very married managers. Ugh.

Definitely go. You need a REALLY good excuse if you don't want to go (ie someone's death bed or out of the country) because it doesn't look very good. And if you go, don't drink at all - or no more than 1 or 2 glasses.

It's much better to be the one who remembers others making fools of themselves. IMO anyway.



Edited to add:

It depends on if you are in a job where you need to network or not. If you need to network, some people get their panties all bunched up if a person demonstrates that they "aren't a team player". I drink coke if I can get away with it and red wine otherwise. I can make a single glass of wine last 6 hours and I'm good at getting my hand over the glass to prevent re-fills. Getting drunk and hitting on the women co-workers is as bad as not attending in the networking environment. Just look at what happened with RIM. Their founders liked "party men" because they like to "party hard" themselves. Now they have two executives that are going to cost them a lot when the legal actions are over and people have one more reason to not want to own their stock.

Acceptable business deportment is pretty conservative these days. Everyone is risk adverse and you are being judged at the Christmas party.

If you really don't like to attend the office christmas party - the best excuse is that you are on holiday. I used that at one workplace after attending the office party the first year.

Just read your reply now. Totally agree. (wow did I just write that?!lol )