Staff xmas drinks - is this a cf thing to do?

[Botox30k]

Light-hearted but... still irritated

Works Xmas do tonight. I'm the team line manager, but not paid massively more than the rest of them. I think - and they say - I'm a decent boss who protects them from pressure

Have bought thankyou Xmas gifts for all (15) , also thought I should offer to buy the first drink.

Most people standard large glass of wine etc, one cheeky git ( stood at bar and so placed his order direct, I was just stood with card) - a large glass of red with a double brandy chaser. His drink alone was £20

I'd never do that - diet coke thanks and I'd buy my own expensive drink later!!

Now that’s value creation 😂😂😂

(something that’s talked about a LOT in our business so any opportunity to stretch a budget is seem that way)

The thank you gifts were enough.

I'd have bought him the wine and ignore the chaser completely. There's always one.... just plain rude

How does op sounds tight when shes buying drinks for 15 people?

He's a CF I'd be making him pay for that multiple times until next Christmas Shit job needs doing Here's a job for you two drinks Awkward shift to fill two drinks first on rota etc

Agree. OP not only bought them presents but also a very generous round of drinks - how is that tight?

Unless work were paying for it, I wouldn't of offered to pay for anyone's drinks.

I sincerely hope you don’t manage other people.

I bet he's off sick more than everyone else, on spurious grounds too.

There's a cunt like this on every team. His round.

Yeah I’d have said to the bar staff, I’ll get the wine, not the chaser. Cheeky git - him not you!

I think he was very cheeky. A gift or a drink would be very generous. I wouldn’t expect my line manager to get anything. Next time I’d just do gift or a bottle of wine for table.
If it’s public sector it’s set pay grades. A line manager is only 1 grade above in our team and all salaries are on so everyone knows not on mega money. Line manager with a student loan could easily take home less than worker on grade below.

Op doesn’t though as they were clearly ok with the glass of wine people.

OP has nowhere said she assumed they all would have a soft drink, just didn't expect a grabby prick to order 3!
You sound confused.

Why didn't you just say something?
"Oi you cheeky money, only 1 drink, the red or the brandy"?

I just don't get why you didn't say something, why you're so passive?

I'd not be surprised if the man is unreasonable in other ways. Both at work and outside. The kind who take but seldom reciprocate.

Yup.

W Discoveed a long standing friend had been doing this for years.... We just thought she was being helpful....

No she'd been using our tips to pay for her meal😡

@Tillow4ever we had a great time, I didn't get home until 6am

Nice! That is a GREAT night out! I don't think I've ever had a night out where I haven't got home til then. Closest has been New Years Eve - my parents ran a pub and the closed strictly at 1am. All the staff would then clean the pub and the staff party would start afterwards - free food and drink for everyone as long as we wanted to stay. I think 5/5.30am was the latest it ever went on! But a bit different when you only have to stagger up the stairs at the end lol!

What is wrong with you? Why would you just come on to comment something so unnecessarily spiteful?

Op, it's done now but I think I would be very open about the cf taking the piss with his drinks with your team. In the interests of making sure no one else gets caught out by him of course...

Hope you had a good night regardless though.

@ lieselotte

At the time I didn't know for sure, 100%, that he's used the tips to pay for his meal and drinks but there was something about his body language and insistence to pay at the till rather than bringing the machine to the table that gave me a sinking feeling.
When we were in work again, another person brought it up and made sure I was aware that this was a possibility as this guy had form for it.
Also the team clubbed together to buy me a xmas present - I discovered they gave the money to him to buy it. I took it home and opened it and it was clearly a re-gift. I never told anyone in the team that he had taken their money and done this. 😳

The paragraph of the OP does suggest she assumed that people would order a soft drink (she has since said that was ‘light-hearted’), so the pp isn’t confused.

… the last paragraph of the OP.

Why did you buy him two drinks?

Just buy the wine, same as you did for the others and if he asks where his chaser is tell him you thought it was a joke. If he pushes it tell him you offered him A drink, not several drinks.

You offered one drink. He's not just cheeky but greedy and rude.

You shouldn’t have to buy anyone a drink because you earn slightly more than them the present was enough. In my place it would only be directors on 90k upwards who would do such a thing, unless was a very small team like 5 or less and still not expected. Just don’t do it next year !

For those questioning the prices, here's a pretty standard bar menu from a bar in Sheffield (not New York, not the Ritz).

You can see some glasses of wine are over ten pounds. The spirits don't have a price but I can't imagine them being less than £5 a measure. So £20 actually sounds a bit low to me.

www.browns-restaurants.co.uk/restaurants/yorkshireandthehumber/sheffield/drinks-menu#/