To think organising the work Christmas meal is a thankless task?

[WinditupSlowitdown]

So half the people never responded to my email suggesting locations. I spent ages looking over different restaurants too.

These are the people that I know 100% would come to the meal

Just so annoying! How hard is it to look at the menu and say yes or no?

The company even pays for it, so it's not a money issue.

You need to be more like me.

Tell them what is happening.

Have a reputation for never extending deadlines. If I say reply by X date. There are no chances after that time.

Organise all payments through salary deduction.

Gotta be mean.

I quite like organising, but agree its thankless. My current office arrangement works very well - no staff, just me. There's still someone who finds something to moan about and that could be better next time (that'll be me then)!

I find giving a small number of choices and not too long to feedback, maybe a week, with one quick reminder tends to work fairly well.

So planning is underway for the department Christmas do. We have three venue proposals that are up for your vote venue a we can book on fri, sat, venue b available on fri, venue c available on fri or sat.

Quick reminder: thank you for all the feedback. Venue a on Sat is our current hot favourite (even if thats just your prefference because no ones bothered to respond) please voice your personal prefference by fri so we can make a booking.

If you've ever booked one i've been too I am grateful and do appreciate the effort involved.

Actually, the thing that gave me the rage about mine was that I collected up the extra money for drinks and tip at the end and was £30 short. Went around the table, everyone had paid up. Went around again and two guys admitted that they hadn't paid for their drinks or share of the tip and tried to argue about it.

I had lost my sense of humour by then after listening to ungrateful cunts whinging about how some Sarah, Tracey and Colin had smoked salmon for starters and that must cost more so why did they have to pay the same £20 and why didn't we just go to Pizza Express and it's all soooo unfair.

That was when I said they could organise it next time and just held my hand out at them.

I genuinely do not understand why people have to be such fucking shits in these kind of situations.

Escape, id never organise one where people had to pay, in fact when I worked at places where you had to pay, I just didn't go. Paying to socialise with colleagues is one thing if you're a high flier but I'm not. One year a director suggested a place that a set menu of £80 and got annoyed because so many lower staff refused to go. I couldn't believe he expected anyone to pay that in the first place!

Set menus are the only way to go for groups with 1 or 2 drinks included.

Everyone pays the same

YANBU. Haven't got over organising one 20+ years ago where everybody had a fantastic time. The directors were brilliant and kept ordering pitchers of cocktails so everyone was quite tipsy (but in a nice way), and everyone joined in dancing after the meal which was good too. Most stayed till very late, so must have been enjoying themselves. Came into the office on Monday morning to find everyone saying how shit it was. Couldn't believe they'd been at the same place from the way they were describing it! Absolutely thankless task!!

It is a thankless task ( unless someone is in it for the money , which can happen) people will say ' oh , yes, thats a good idea', then you ask for the money for deposit and suddenly they are not keen at all or mess you about.
I gave up years ago. not worth the effort and pub grub tends to go a bit downhill at christmas time i've always found too.

Why Re you all so keen on work xmad parties? They're generally crap.

I've never organised a staff one, but I remember at one workplace some bolshy people didn't want to go but demanded the cost of their meals etc in cash from the boss. The boss's reply was fruity, to say the least.

4th year of running this. Booked venue in July, asked for deposits in August and every week since then. Have 70 seats to fill, 90 people saying they will come 20 actually confirmed and food choices made and deposits paid. Just sent an email saying that I will be finalising booking this week and cancelling any spaces not confirmed.Cue complaints, its too early, cant decide, cant I book somewhere else?
We pay for whole thing including transport for them and a plus one they get deposits back when they come to the event.
No one has ever said thank you, no one has ever offered to help EVERYONE complains constantly. On the 2nd December only half will turn up and on the Monday I will be paying for taxis which were not used and food no eaten on the Tuesday the mother of all migraines will hit as the stress hits.

I love Christmas parties

YANBU.

There are 2 things I would never do:
1 - Rota
2 - Christmas do

I agree with the others, tell them where they're going and if they don't get back to you with menu choices, choose for them!

I refuse to organise every year - I will do every other year but that's my limit.
Top tips as mentioned above.

Set menu - everyone pays the same.

Places are not confirmed until ALL the money is paid upfront. Last year two people didn't bother coming (or telling us) and we were charged for their meals which ended up coming out of the tip money we had collected so now I'm getting all £20/25 upfront. I only choose cheapish places for this reason.

Everyone buys and pays for drinks at the bar. NO ADDING IT TO THE TAB.

Print personalised menus for everyone with their choices on it. I also keep a spreadsheet in case of arguments. I can happily send you my templates for these!

Don't ask for opinions on dates or locations - tell people what has been chosen. They can come or not - everyone is invited but nobody is expected.

The first person to complain gets told they can organise it next year.

It sounds harsh but it's the only way to keep my sanity. It's only for 25-30 people but we were spread out over 6 different offices so it wasn't a case of just announcing to everyone loudly. There were lots of back-and-forth emails. I kept everything.

I thought it would be nice to give people a choice

ERROR!

Have you organised big social events before? Pain in the butt, people will always moan and will always be rubbish at replying.

Book a venue that yo like, that is in budget and you think will suit the majority.

The most successful ones we have done have been private rooms in pubs. So you have a meal then they clear away the tables against the side and can mingle and chat. The worst ones are where you have one big long table in a packed restaurant.

I sympathise - they're horrible to organise! We don't get anything paid for, so we've moved to having a party in work. Book a big room, managers all chip in to buy enough booze, other teams bring in nibbles/etc. Someone organises a quiz or something, but generally just mingle and drink. Seems to work better than going out to eat!

I don't mind doing ours. The fact that it's all paid for probably makes it x1000 easier though.
Choice of two venues
Date is set in stone in January (customer support issues rather than super organisational skills).
If you don't reply to the second chaser, then you're not coming.

Spreadsheet for meal choices (if you don't pick then I choose for you)

The hardest bit is trying to get everyone on the coach at the end of the night when I'm too drunk to read my coach spreadsheet

I've never ever been given a choice of venue or date or anything. Management pick that and tell people where it i. The only thing you get to choose (occasionally) is dinner choices. Giving choices of venue leads to friction anyway as some will want closer to home or whatever. You can't please everyone.

Pick a venue, book it, email people and record the responses on an spreadsheet. Job done 🙂

My dd has organised her first Christmas meal for her work colleagues this year - there had been complaints because every year they went to a Chinese restaurant because that was a tradition but some people don't like Chinese/allergic to the ingredients.

She rang a local tapas type place, got 2 dates - sent out details on Friday stating needing confirmation by Monday evening if wishing to attend, deposit to be paid within 2 weeks if not place cancelled. 17 out of 18 people contacted accepted by the Monday evening with the same date, the remaining person saying don't worry about her because she does not normally attend!

All deposits paid within the week, don't have to choose meals until they arrive at the venue so no chasing for choices. Venue serves dairy and gluten free as well. Centre of town so round corner from local club if people want to go out afterwards, if not bar stays open until 1 am.

Is that beginner's luck?

2014 "Why Re you all so keen on work xmad parties?"

not all, I said I didn't even go when it wasn't paid for. I now don't go even if it is paid for!

what's all this getting on coaches malarkey? Surely somewhere local is easier?

I totally agree OP that it's a thankless task. I was probably one of the major culprits by either moaning about suggested venues or not replying at all. Voting on a Christmas night out in March.

I do ours and it's the same people who complain (last year the only negative comment was they would have liked more veg ).

I leave as much as possible to the venue to sort out beforehand and try and keep table plans totally secret until the night

I suggested we gave the money to charity one year when everybody was so moany about it. I don't understand when people say they're shit (I'm looking at you 2014) and then behave as if you've exposed Father Christmas as a paedophile when you suggest not having one.

I used to work for the head office of a charity, maybe 80 people on site, and all the people who had joined that year formed a committee to organise the Christmas do. This worked really well. Mind you, it was a nice place to work, we all had afternoon tea at 3.30 on Wednesdays.

The only time I've ever had a moan about the Christmas do was in an office I worked in a few years ago. It had a real problem with a few members of staff forming a horrible clique, and guess who organised the meal? It was one of those where we'd have had to pay the full cost ourselves and they pre-booked the top price package with no consultation or cheaper option available. The real kicker though was when they announced there was also a seating plan - I dropped out at that point as I could see how that would go. They'd sat everyone in their little clique together and then just stuck everyone else on random tables with people they didn't know. Who does a seating plan for a casual Christmas do for crying out loud?? Oh and it was at 9pm, so not even in work time.

I've just volunteered to do this year - and I never complain. I'm always up for any kind of shindig.
Wish me luck - I'm giving no options and I'm 💯 sure it will be the usual suspects.

what's all this getting on coaches malarkey? Surely somewhere local is easier?
We're based in a bit of a one-horse town and we use the local 'nice' restaurant for our staff meetings. We have a lot of staff who work off-site, away for weeks at a time so management like to splash out for the Christmas do. We don't go that far and the coach driver is someone's brother (I think) so we get a good rate.

I've been all booked up since May. I've even got my menu choices spreadsheet completed.