Week of October 26th- Holiday event horrors...

[andream]

Good morning! I'd taken a little break from Sound Off because I thought you all were getting bored.  Now we're back in the saddle with a most important (and potentially fun!)  question...  
What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you or your colleagues during a holiday party?  Did the caterer not show up? Did the guy in marketing tell the guy in production what he really thought of them? We're all seen company holiday soirees go horribly wrong, What's your story? What happened? how did the company or your co workers deal with the situation? Who got the blame and why?

Do tell....
Andrea

[gee4]

Fortunately I have no stories to report - boring huh?

G

[radaro]

When I was working in high tech many of our employees did not have enough work experience to understand that a company party is still a company function and they should behave accordingly.  I generally avoided the Holiday Party and only attended twice in eight years.  However, I did get to hear about the stories afterwards.  Some were probably overblown but a few could be substantiated including an employee and her friend having "relations" underneath the band's stage.

[jahdra]

Hmmm. Do you want to hear about the office manager & A/P clerk who did a striptease on one of the dining tables? How about the drunken founder/CEO who had to be phyisically restrained and removed by the VP of Marketing (the party was at a winery, no less! ) $40,000 bar bills for approximately 350 people (many of them teetotalers due to religious beliefs, and who therefore did not contribute to the total cost)? Or drunken groping on the dance floor by married couples - married to other people, that is. People who drank until they threw up, and came back to drink some more? How about when the cops (and the paramedics) came? Why, yes, yes I did work in Silicon Valley during the boom, how did you guess? These were mostly different parties (and companies), by the way.

[kjorg]

I'm with Gee,  no stories.... The owner tried it about 5 years ago, but I guess it cost him too much money.... we haven't had one since. I didn't go. Probably a good thing - the only story I heard (guess I do have one) was that the owner-bossie got a little carried away with his gifts to us. We got coats with the company name on them. However, instead of just giving the coat to my female co-worker, he wanted to put it on her right then. My husband would've probably socked him if we had been there! Bossie has a tendancy to say and do "improper" things. Luckily, we only see him maybe once a week.

[sobriquetnic]

Hi all

We have an Annual Christmas 'Do' about the second week in December.  It's a great night that is held in the dining hall of the very beautiful Kings College in Cambridge and is attended by all of our branches, our Head Office and our sister company.

It's always quite a quiet affair other than people getting rather jolly of course!  However, a few years back I recall a Hypnotist being hired who made one of my colleagues do something very embarassing with a chair.....'nough said!

All the best,
Nicola.

[raindance]

I read lurid stories in those newspaper articles that always seem to appear from about now till mid-December about "The Time When an employee did/said xxxx to whomever", but I've never experienced it in any of the employments I have had.  On the other hand I HAVE heard little tales about certain colleagues getting so drunk they fall over - but I've never seen it happen.

My question would be: how would you know you had had a fun time if you were unable to remember it?  

Raindance

[donnap99]

There was this one party where a friend, who BTW doesn't drink any more, had a really good time at thsi party.  She and the other 7 co-workers at the table polished off 10 bottles of wine between them.  Learned a WHOLE lot about each other.  No dancing on the tables, but when it was time to leave she did stand up and lost her balance and pretty much fell into this guy...  

She was having such a good time that she forgot that she had class that evening.  Yes, she went to class (didn't have to drive there), and tried very hard not to giggle through the entire class.  Especially after she told her friends in the class where she had been and what condition she was in, and they kept provoking her with funny faces and tickling jabs in the side when the instructor wasn't looking.  

Memories... not mine, of course!  


DonnaP99

[jelly]

I do recall a party held by a a previous employer at a top class London hotel where they were only serving wine & beer, neither of which I drink.  So I popped out to the local "offie" and bought myself a bottle of gin which I put in my room.  During the night I made numerous trips up in the lift to refill my glass, each time taking longer & longer!
By the end of the night my husband was holding me up on the dancefloor and I passed out later on in our room.  Trying to be cool and sophisticated at breakfast the next morning was quite an effort!

Jelly