How much would you be willing to pay towards your work Christmas party?

[shineandsmile]

Assuming your company doesn’t pay for it. What would be the limit before you start thinking you won’t bother?

If I like my colleagues and enjoy social time with them I'm happy to pay £30 so long as that will get me food and a drink. If food and drink would be extra, or if I don't like my colleagues much, I wouldn't and changing the price wouldn't change my mind.

£0

Fuck all.
I'd come down with covid in order to avoid going too.

Were doing a lunch time meal this year it's a public sector department and it's £15 absolutely perfect IMO.
Big Christmas night outs are not only expensive they are a logistical nightmare and a lot of us have outside work commitments which makes it hard to commit.

Civil Service so nothing paid for. As 65% of staff are on between NMW and £39k, anything over £25 is normally a non-starter.

NHS nurse.
We usually do dinner/dancing at a hotel type thing. Mostly around the £60 mark these days, but we book at end of summer so can pay in instalments.
Obviously we all pay for ourselves. Then the drinks (we drink loads!) and taxis etc. Some staff book to stay in the hotel.
We party hard and love it! No pressure to go not everyone does, and that’s fine. But majority do, can’t wait for December!

Zero. I dont attend any work social events. I work with them, they are not friends, they are colleagues.

Absolutely fuck all. No work party? I don’t care 🤣 I’m there enough why would I pay to spend more time with them?🤣

I don’t go to work Christmas parties anymore, even if you book a party night at say £30.00 per head you still have to pay for drinks and a taxi home (if you can get one). I’d rather go out for a Christmas meal with DP and DC.

Did you miss the bit where I said I was out of touch? I don’t know anyone who works in the public sector. I’m sure you won’t know much about things I know about 🤷‍♀️

✨ Nothing ✨

I never go, I can't be arsed. It's always too close to Christmas or on/too close to my birthday.

Although the one time I did go someone booted off, threw beer over everyone and punched the manager so maybe I should go for the entertainment value.

Last few when I worked in a school was something like £45 and it included a dreadful 3 course meal and an awful disco. Plus we paid for drinks on top. The head always bought the first round and left straight after the meal. I went for the first few years and declined the last few.
Now I work in a different field entirely, our Christmas do is paid for and we get the day off work to attend which encourages high participation. I think they will buy us something like 4 drinks and after that it’s on us. I like my colleagues, quite a few of us meet up outside work for various social things so it’s always a fun day out tbh. They also pay our travel costs.

Precisely $0.

I’ve never had to pay, and am actually thinking of not attending this year’s and just having a nice evening with DP instead.

It’s at a nice venue, there will be great food and an open bar, but I’m over ‘work perks’ and corporations buying your soul. I spend enough time at work or ‘entertaining clients’, I don’t need to put myself through more work-related nonsense.

Nothing.

I hated the last company I worked for so never took part in any social event anyway.

Before that I worked for a couple of small organisations where we just had a gathering in the office in the afternoon with drinks and food and finished work early or where I went out for a Christmas lunch with my small team and I was told as their manager to put the lunch on expenses.

I think companies expecting their staff to pay for a party is taking the piss especially at a time where we have a cost of living crisis.

It would depend for me if I had any say in what the plan was, if I wanted to attend.

If we’re talking a nice meal with some drinks type of thing then anything up to £60-80 I’d say.

If, like last year, it’s 2 hours in a bar for “pre drinks” and beer pong, an hour in another bar for an hour of interactive darts & snooker tables, then onto an escape room- £0, I’m not going !😂

Private sector so I would pay nothing. It’s all paid for otherwise I wouldn’t go. Don’t think I’d go if I worked in the public sector either, although I understand why it’s not paid for.

Zero

I’ve always been prepared to pay up to £60 but I’ve enjoyed them less and less as the years have gone by. I do like my colleagues and it’s good to have a chance to actually chat rather than just work, but then I think the last big one I went to the entertainment included a burlesque dancer and I just thought what the fuck am I doing here? I can understand the argument that burlesque is ok but it’s not something I would choose to go to for enjoyment, and it was the reactions of my colleagues - all the men elbowing their way to the front in a crowd.

My small immediate team is going for afternoon tea this year, immediately after work. Even that is £25, but at least I won’t be expected to smile while my colleagues letch at a woman being paid to get her tits out.

I work in professional services so it's fully funded by the company - dinner and dancing, drinks, usually some form of entertainment in a posh hotel. We don't get a plus one, I think that's pretty rare these days. Our team also get a £50pp budget for a team meal. They also do a kids party in working hours with food and a kids entertainer. I think it's lovely. I haven't been to the big do in the last few years as I only work part time now and honestly just the travel and a new dress (it's very formal) would easily cost £150-200. There's usually a nail tech/hairdresser who comes into the office which you can pay for 😂.

People from our non-London offices get travel and a hotel paid for.

My colleagues are all pretty nice.

I'd pay £30 for a meal with colleagues but not funding it would definitely reduce the appeal. One went off on maternity leave recently though and I was happy to pay for a lunch and towards a small gift say £5 each.

Usually my immediate team do a secret Santa or small gifts too.

My first job in a shop we had to pay for a meal in Pizza Express ourselves. Seems a bit unfair that some of the lower paid roles are expected to self fund.

I guess the social events are part of the benefits / workplace proposition for my current company who, to be fair, are competing with bigger firms paying more - but we are selling that we have good benefits/culture/enviroment/nice people/flexibility/better work-life balance.

You don't have to know the intricate details of how something works to know it exists!

You were the one saying that work should always pay for staff's Christmas meals, it's hardly a complicated question to ask where you think that money would come from for public sector staff - and as a taxpayer would you be happy for the answer to be, well, you?!

I'm not attending mine this year, We pay for it ourselves and go out in our own time. There are 2 vegetarians and 2 vegans in our work group.The restaurant choice this year is a large steakhouse.
Rates pp are around £85 excluding drinks and the non meat eaters were told the restaurant would provide a stir fry for us.
The steakhouse makes a huge deal of how they carve their meat at the table, you choose your own steak etc so it's quite unsuitable for non meat eaters.

Zero

Yes, it’s seen as a work perk, and a way for a company to portray a good work culture. Except many employers with extravagant socials that are ‘free’ for staff and their other half (I disagree that plus one is rare btw - it’s pretty standard in my industry) are among the most corporate and demanding to work for.

When I was a junior I was impressed with fancy client dinners, Christmas galas and summer parties. Now I see them for what they are and try to avoid them.

Typically someone organises a set lunch which usually costs around £35, then I will chip in for wine/drinks with the other senior managers, which is usually another £30 for me.

It’s never somewhere I’d choose to go, and the food is always average at best, but I also don’t want to organise the thing so here we are

I remember a job in a medium sized private company where we were told that we shouldn’t complain about not getting a pay rise because we’d had a Christmas party. None of us remembered getting a choice. That was a firm that informed us that we were all ‘overhead’. Fucking horrible culture.