Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

Staff Xmas party......I don't get it

76 replies

whatisforteamum · 01/01/2019 22:41

It is a.but late however we.Have a.staff do coming up.I don't go as I don't like eating out.As a way to persuade me someone said were not strangers as we work together all week around 55 hours on shifts.
I can just pop in for a.drink.We will work all a end prior to the do.I have no idea.why people love to socialise with colleagues they see.all day?The staff are friendly most of the time.I just dont.get the point tbh.
Do you love of hate the staff do?

OP posts:

Nanny0gg · 01/01/2019 22:43

I used to be good friends with my colleagues (before I retired). I used to love socialising with them.

CrispbuttyNo1 · 01/01/2019 22:46

I socialise with my colleagues. They are friends out of work as well as in it.

I don’t understand people who make no effort to be friendly with their colleagues when they have to spend so much time working together. 🤷🏻‍♀️

ReaganSomerset · 01/01/2019 22:49

My work friends are proper friends. We still keep in touch even though I don't work there.

RLOU30 · 01/01/2019 22:50

I used to actually have the best nights out with my old team at work.

ShartOfGold · 01/01/2019 22:52

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Gazelda · 01/01/2019 22:55

I often get to know work colleagues a lot better through socialising - we can let our hair down, chat about interests, etc. All the sort of stuff that we generally don't get time for during work hours. And after the social event, we often enjoy working together more because we know we genuinely like each other.

PurpleDaisies · 01/01/2019 22:56

I actually like my colleagues. It’s great to go out and let my hair down with them.

SouthWestmom · 01/01/2019 23:00

I hate people generally. I work to get paid and do a good job. So I'm the wrong person to ask because I'd rather go hungry than sit through a staff meal out

GCAcademic · 01/01/2019 23:00

I like my colleagues but I like being at home more, and would rather spend my non-work time there rather than prolonging my working week.

Bubbagump1991 · 01/01/2019 23:01

No I agree. I spend more time with my colleagues in a day than my own family so wouldn’t want to socialise with them outside work.

Grace212 · 01/01/2019 23:04

typing on your phone OP?

I don't like staff parties either, prefer to keep work and social life separate.

ilovesooty · 01/01/2019 23:05

I enjoy socialising with my colleagues. They're my friends too.

MrsDannyRicc · 01/01/2019 23:06

I'm always friendly with colleagues, but only occasionally do I find a colleague that becomes a friend. But then I'm the kind of person that would rather have very few very good friends than lots of people that I call friends but are really not much more than acquaintances. I prefer meaningful one on one chats to the group dynamic - it doesn't suit me. I wish it did!

yikesanotherbooboo · 01/01/2019 23:06

I have to make myself go to these dos but I am always pleased that I have been. I really believe that it helps teamwork .

bookmum08 · 01/01/2019 23:07

I enjoyed things like when a group of us went bowling or to the cinema. I didn't enjoy going for meals out and drinks - simply because I find meals out and drinks totally boring. You don't have to go if you don't want to and you don't have to be 'friends' with people you work with. But sometimes working with someone is how you make friends. It's up to you. If you are happy with your non working life and have friends (or you are perfectly happy with no friends) then don't start the year going to something you are not going to enjoy useless it's compulsary (which this I assume isn't).

Original poster

whatisforteamum · 01/01/2019 23:07

Full stops appear on my tablet sorry.
Perhaps because we work in a relaxed and stressful situation we chat at length of all subjects and interests everyday.
The majority are half my age and stay drinking every night.They really are lovely people.
Perhaps I just want to see my dh and ds.I know.some love the idea of free food and booze.35 years of working and I only went to one works do I already know plenty about my colleagues children partners and hobbies .

OP posts:

Val87 · 01/01/2019 23:07

I agree.

Aridane · 01/01/2019 23:09

I sort of think that attendance of that type of staff do is sort of an (unwritten) obligation of your employment contract

chocomug · 01/01/2019 23:12

Well op,

Your message says it all. You say you don't like to eat out but then you say you don't see the point in socialising with colleagues.

So basically you don't like your work colleagues and didn't want to go out with them. That's fine.

No reason to come here looking to justify that. Everyone is different. But yout won't become friends with them until you start to socialise with them.

NotTheFordType · 01/01/2019 23:13

I used to enjoy a xmas meal IF it was our specific team. A couple of hours of free food, a few drinks and a bit of chat.

(That said, I was working for a company in 2007 and apparently the team manager decided we were having a Xmas meal but no fucker bothered telling me. She called me while I was having lunch and asked me where I was. I was like "....I'm having lunch in the canteen?" Bitch tried to make me leave my nice canteen meal and walk 10 mins to the pub to sit with her and other fuckers I couldn't stand. Erm no love.)

Parties for the whole office/company? Fuck no. I went to my last one in 2005. Some fucker burned a hole in the sleeve of my lovely jacket with their cigarette, then on my way out I got accidentally punched in the face trying to break up a fight between 2 members of my team.

Original poster

whatisforteamum · 01/01/2019 23:31

Glad to.see some others just want to get home.I just spent all of December. With them while DH had two weeks off mostly alone.Like I say I am much older than most too.

OP posts:

Pomegranatemolasses · 01/01/2019 23:35

I sort of think that attendance of that type of staff do is sort of an (unwritten) obligation of your employment contract shock

Totally agree with this.

TedAndLola · 01/01/2019 23:37

I feel sorry for anybody spending 55 hours a week with people whose company they don't enjoy. In that situation I would job hunt (and, in fact, did).

The... January Christmas party... is another matter. It's one day a year. But your problem goes way deeper than that.

PyongyangKipperbang · 01/01/2019 23:38

In my job now I am lucky enought to have made friends, proper friends. Not everyone but certainly my 2 immediate superiors and 2 of my team. I will be making Xmas Dinner for my bosses in a few weeks (due to the nature of our job, Xmas Day doesnt really happen).

But in previous jobs, I didnt have friends in work. I wouldnt have gone to a works do for a lottery win, so I get it!

SleepingStandingUp · 01/01/2019 23:39

Well if you don't want to go, don't go. It doesn't sound like a networking thing just a drinking thing. However I found work much nicer when I made friends with my colleagues and I like to spend time with my friends where we can relax and have fun, so I always enjoyed the Xmas do. And the age thing is meh. 35 years of working so mid 50's at most and they're mainly in their late 20's? Hardly a gap of eona

Flip

1 2 3 4