[Drinking] Work Christmas parties

Happy Exile said:

Reading the Amateur Drinking thread, and with the Bell cheeses at Work thread being a favourite of mine, just wondered if there's some unholy Venn diagram crossover opportunity for tales of the worst/most cringesome/most outrageous work Christmas parties.

My contribution: there was a place where we went out for a team lunch paid for by the company. Very much a team where people got on OK most of the time but outside the office it was a bit awkward. We had a budget of something like £40 a head for 12 of us for lunch, everyone stuck within it except one woman who kept ordering cocktails (where others would get a diet coke or nurse a pint) and got completely hammered, then she decided to order mulled wine and then prosecco for everyone (3 or 4 bottles) even though several people weren't drinking at all for preference or driving or medication.

When the bill came, with service added too, it was over £150 over our team budget and she tried to insist that the difference should be split equally because the extra drinks had been for everyone. The pay differential in the team was wide, with a lot of junior staff and she was one of the higher earners. It went down like the proverbial lead balloon, most refused to contribute, she claimed her Christmas had been ruined, and I don't think the team ever really recovered.

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Happy Exile said:

Reading the Amateur Drinking thread, and with the Bell cheeses at Work thread being a favourite of mine, just wondered if there's some unholy Venn diagram crossover opportunity for tales of the worst/most cringesome/most outrageous work Christmas parties.

My contribution: there was a place where we went out for a team lunch paid for by the company. Very much a team where people got on OK most of the time but outside the office it was a bit awkward. We had a budget of something like £40 a head for 12 of us for lunch, everyone stuck within it except one woman who kept ordering cocktails (where others would get a diet coke or nurse a pint) and got completely hammered, then she decided to order mulled wine and then prosecco for everyone (3 or 4 bottles) even though several people weren't drinking at all for preference or driving or medication.

When the bill came, with service added too, it was over £150 over our team budget and she tried to insist that the difference should be split equally because the extra drinks had been for everyone. The pay differential in the team was wide, with a lot of junior staff and she was one of the higher earners. It went down like the proverbial lead balloon, most refused to contribute, she claimed her Christmas had been ruined, and I don't think the team ever really recovered.

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Bry Nylon said:

It was the NSC Moderators Christmas Party this weekend just gone.

Mindful of costs, Bozza kept it low-key this year, so it was just two days at the Salle Belle Epoque in the Hotel Hermitage, Monte Carlo.

Most of the budget went on champagne, escorts, massages, oysters, cocaine and roulette and whatever was left over we just squandered.

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Bry Nylon said:

It was the NSC Moderators Christmas Party this weekend just gone.

Mindful of costs, Bozza kept it low-key this year, so it was just two days at the Salle Belle Epoque in the Hotel Hermitage, Monte Carlo.

Most of the budget went on champagne, escorts, massages, oysters, cocaine and roulette and whatever was left over we just squandered.

Click to expand...

Weststander said:

A worked briefly for a very small professional firm owned by a young entrepreneur. So that it looked good on social media/Linkedin content, he arranged for our Xmas do at the posh Institute of Directors. Where you share tables with other business folk, some lovely demure women on our table.

He couldn't handle booze at all, unlike this experienced campaigner. After just two drinks he was shouting random expletives such as "cu*t" and didn't know he was doing it! He also didn't have a volume button. The rest of us cringed.

He then took us to an exclusive bar off Regent Street, where this carried on. So much so that colossal Russian doormen circled and asked us to leave.

Thanks AS .... what a crap night, because of you.


Regarding the money side, I've a slightly different view from the OP. The worst thing is a tight fisted person who turns the paying bit into a protracted scientific exercise of theirs should be £12.41 less because they only had two drinks. Fun killer. Loved it when they went home and everyone else moved on to pubs/clubs.

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Weststander said:

A worked briefly for a very small professional firm owned by a young entrepreneur. So that it looked good on social media/Linkedin content, he arranged for our Xmas do at the posh Institute of Directors. Where you share tables with other business folk, some lovely demure women on our table.

He couldn't handle booze at all, unlike this experienced campaigner. After just two drinks he was shouting random expletives such as "cu*t" and didn't know he was doing it! He also didn't have a volume button. The rest of us cringed.

He then took us to an exclusive bar off Regent Street, where this carried on. So much so that colossal Russian doormen circled and asked us to leave.

Thanks AS .... what a crap night, because of you.


Regarding the money side, I've a slightly different view from the OP. The worst thing is a tight fisted person who turns the paying bit into a protracted scientific exercise of theirs should be £12.41 less because they only had two drinks. Fun killer. Loved it when they went home and everyone else moved on to pubs/clubs.

Click to expand...

Berty23 said:

Work Christmas lunches are not like they used to be. The stuff that went on in my job straight out of uni in 2002 would see people sacked and cancelled (as they probably should be tbh). I swear the yoof don’t drink stupidly like we used to. It is probably for the best because some awkward moments followed.

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