Socialising at work

[jgw1]

I have been told that many people had social gatherings at work, with cake, singing happy birthday and perhaps booze during the lockdown in May and June 2020.

AIBU to think that this is nonsense?

There were loads of people flouting the rules, there was loads of arguments on here about people annoyed with neighbours holding parties etc, there was news of illegal raves etc and I am sure that lots of people who had to be in work probably did have the odd social moment at the end of the day etc

Yes, we had maximum numbers in the staffroom, dining room etc.

Yeah we did and one of my colleagues brought along this impressively charming man with beautiful golden hair. His name was Michael and he rebuffed all of our advances as we tried to cheer ourselves up from covid misery. What a gent.

We were working, so had cake/biccies and non alcoholic drinks at work. We also sat socially distanced and had our lunch/celebrated birthdays.

My neighbour is a personal trainer and had people training in her back garden throughout.

Whoever told you this OP is probably either a liar or has been reading fiction.

Yes gatherings in houses, and many people were fined for this quite rightly, but not in workplaces.

Had a surprise birthday gathering arranged for me at the end of a volunteering shift - about two days before the end of lockdown at the begining of June 2020.
No alcohol, but we did have cake and vegan suasages - not exactly a party, but definitely a gathering - we had all been in fairly close contact on a physical task throughout the day, so if we were going to catch anything, likely to have been in the day rather than sitting socially distanced.

Same birthday - socially distanced takeaway for three in a friends' garden. A policeman was present (in the house, not socially distancing in the garden).

Of course it happened. Previous posters have mentioned their local council getting in trouble due to workplace socialising.

There is absolutely no way that every single workplace out there complied with the law.

I used to work in a very small shop where social distancing amongst staff was impossible - I am under no doubt that my old colleagues "socialised" before and after work - they worked together in a confined space all day, so what difference would an extra half hour before or after work make?

I do recall at least one 'work related' lunch and wine in the garden with colleagues. It was probably technically against the rules but when you have been working in the same room all day the rules against gathering for a working lunch outside seemed a bit nonsensical.

My old firm did. No alcohol but we did have birthday cake. No candles though.

As someone who made a living planning and executing covid safe events during the pandemic I can assure you we really did follow every letter to the law.

I even had a folding 2m stick to remind people how far apart they needed to be

Not where I work either.

People were scared. Vaccines didn't exist.

It makes you wonder why government staff weren't also scared. Perhaps they didn't ever believe in covid.

It is beyond ridiculous if you spend ALL day with other people to refuse to share a slice of cake with them.

@Swayingpalmtrees

When questioned, in Parliament, our esteemed Prime Minister did not say 'we were under a lot of pressure, we were working closely together, maybe there were also some extended decompression sessions which went on a bit and we're more relaxed', apologise and move on , did he?

He said the "guidance and the rules were followed at all times"

If we cannot rely on politicians to speak the truth, it's all up for our democracy. I don't mean putting a good spin on events is wrong. I mean that if we accept people saying one thing and meaning another, where does it end ? What happens to trust?

I have to admit I'm a bit confused by the focus on the birthday cake because I wouldn't consider having a cake during a normal working day to be a breach of the rules as they were then. Maybe Carrie shouldn't have been there, but the rest of them were, I should have thought, OK

I'm sure there were breaches, the leaving do for example, or cheese and wine in the garden, but I'm not sure cake during the day was one of them

No, our office was open during the lockdown periods as some of our staff were keyworkers and couldn't wfh, but we had strict covid measures in place and the usual birthday cakes etc were explicitly prohibited. Staff weren't even allowed to make teas and coffees for their colleagues, let alone socialise.

It's shocking how some people are now trying to rewrite the history of that period now in order to defend the PM's law breaking. The vast majority of people followed the rules, and it is totally wrong to now pretend otherwise.

For the record, our media/tech corporate complied with all the rules but then it was pretty easy for us.

Turned out of a campus of over 10k people, we only needed really a handful of people onsite plus a few cleaners and janitors to keep the loos working. Maintaining loos became one of the key functions, without functioning loos you really can't have people in a building for any length of time. Things which had 'always' been considered onsite only turned out with a bit of ingenuity and will to work perfectly well remotely.

We had been sent to WFH about a week before the full UK lockdown because the organisation could see what was coming and took action in Jan/Feb 2020 to prepare the networks to provide the capacity for everyone to WFH.

We did do some socialising via Microsoft Teams, which was more successful than you might imagine. M&S voucher for buy your own booze and nibbles.

I didn't break any rules socially because I felt that since work was clear about following the rules, I had not excuse for breaking them with friends and family. No one in my circle was up for breaking any rules, anyway.

We did some odd things, especially in the early days before the rules were clarified. My usual walking partner and I each went for a walk separately and called each other, wearing Bluetooth headsets so we could talk and listen to each other as usual.

Unless you have a list of those who attended Boris' birthday party and know whether they normally work together, then I am not sure it even fits with what you say or the kind of gatherings that some posters have reported took place on this thread.

Thank you all for your contributions. I think it is quite clear my informant who said that many people at been having gatherings at work throughout lockdown was mistaken.

At that time there were never more than 2 people in the office (only in when we had to be) we worked in different rooms.

We might have chatted occasionally, but for very short periods at long distances. Nothing even remotely resembling a party.

Most of our key work was arranging the burials of people who had died.

Yes - we had an explicit bring your own biscuits rule! We weren't allowed to share food at all and ate separately.

My team at work did. We were out of lockdown, but under the rule of 6 for socialising. A few were having drinks after work, but on work premises (allowed btw), but one by one as other team finished work they went and joined them until there was about 16 in the end. I was furious when I found out, I was able to check the cctv and check who was there. They all got a bollocking and a formal letter on their HR file.

As well as breaking the rules, the thing I was most cross about was that if 1 person went on to test positive they all would have to self-isolate and I'd have had to close my business.

We put in place so many measures at work to keep everyone safe and then they just went and had a party. I don't think I've ever been so cross at work.

We didn't follow the rules in my workplace. We worked throughout and we were working together for over 12 hours a day, I spent more time with them than my family. Throw in the customers before social restrictions came into force and sitting separate from each other seemed pointless, interestingly hardly anyone went down with Covid in my workplace of over 200 people.

Maybe not where you work but in my trust we had/still have very strict social distancing! No more than 4 people in the staff room. No fuddles. No seating in the canteen. A one way system put in place in our radiology department as well as in A&E. At one point we were in PPE of mask, gloves, visor & aprons for the whole shift. It's not silly at all.

The point is the government said it wasn't allowed and people in government did it anyway.
The point is they were on TV every day doing those briefings.
From my own personal point of view, I was kept from my parent while they were dying and only allowed in at the very end. We were not allowed a proper funeral.
So, to use your expression, how were we supposed to decompress?

He should resign!

It wasn't allowed, most people didn't, some did. Same as any other rules, drink driving, drugs, using the phone while driving etc. Lots of these are illegal yet people still do them.

We worked in the office all the way through lockdown and we had cakes, sandwiches etc at work. No booze though.