To ask if you'd be happy with this xmas do?Just want opinions.

[ThatBliddyWoman]

I am not the (supposed) typical MNer when it comes to socialisation. I love a party or 'do', I don't mind going out after dark, I don't see anything wrong with a good booze-up providing it isn't every night, I even answer my door (I am being lighthearted here just in case you were wondering)!

I am quite looking forward to my work Christmas event, which consists of a 'team day' (which I think consists of some learning and some 'team building' activities), starting at 12:30 in the Marriot. I don't know how long this goes on for, they haven't said.

The evening consists of us arriving (at a different venue) at 19:00, dinner, dancing, disco and then at 00:30 we leave.

This may sound all good and fun BUT;

We all WFH. We all live within the UK.

This will be the first time a lot of us have ever met (most of us, in fact as the team has expanded a lot this year so only a handful of us aren't new).

With the exception of a few of us, the majority of us live in a different country to the venue(s).

I would be looking at around a 4.5 hour drive, which I do not want to do on account of unpredictable weather both in the destination and where I live.

Work are paying for our train fare or petrol and hotel stay.

To get the train involves a 05:30 ish? Start maybe even earlier-the train is at around 07:00 in my nearest city. There are several changes.

This affects the evening before, for me as I will have to be in bed very early compared to normal.

It also means the majority of the next day is also taken up as a lot of it will be spent travelling back, packing/unpacking etc.

I am not even the one who is furthest away. One colleague's journey is 9 and a half hours!

Some are having to get flights.

I would be happy for work to send us all £20 and say 'let's meet up on Teams and have a few glasses of fizz together!

AIBU?

I am quite looking forward to it, in a way but I will arrive shattered and grumpy, It's guaranteed, and I doubt I'll be the only one!

"Consider yourself lucky that you work for a company that makes an effort and pays for a fabulous day out!"

Have you never been to one of these team-building things lol? They are not usually 'fabulous days out'. The party might be goo, but team-building is usually dire.

Weekends are precious. There is no way on earth I'd voluntarily give up a weekend to go on a work retreat. Fuck that.

My colleagues are perfectly nice people, but I have a life outside work, and my free time is limited enough as it is.

I think the fact that the company have organised and paid for it all so that nobody is out of pocket is amazing in this day and age.
If you think they'd go for it I'd ask for hotel night the night before too, but only for those that are genuinely travelling a long way otherwise they are likely to say no as accommodation for everyone the night before would cost a fortune and may mean the hotel / food / drinks are lower quality/ less of them .

Nah, it would be lovely but it's not worth it. I wouldn't mind a couple of hours drive once a year, but getting up that early knowing you'll be out late and having a full on day isn't worth it to me

I would hate the daytime part, but I'd probably make the effort to go, unless it was entirely optional. Work should pay for everyone to stay at the hotel. I've just realised the evening do is at a different venue - I wouldn't be happy with this - it should all be in the same hotel. Daytime compulsory if work thinks it is important, evening optional.

Yes, the idea of it makes me cringe tobe honest! And I work with mostly lovely people too! I don't like secret santa or 'guess who's at all!

it's not far apparently, 20 minute walk (no thanks in my high heels) or 5 mins in a taxi.

It's just one long day and a chance to get everyone together, I'd do it but not stay up late these days.

When I was younger I used to travel up meet the team in Edinburgh or Glasgow. Fly up from London on the red eye (so I'd been up at 3am) get there for 9am, do a full team building day, finish about 4pm, go for a swim in the pool, get ready for the evening, attend the dinner then be up until the small hours drinking whisky- I'd been up 24 hours before I went to bed. One time it was a two day thing. Went to bed at 4am then was up again and downstairs for a 9am start. Then that evening I met up with a friend and went out in Glasgow, got back to hers around midnight.

I wouldn't do that now in my late 40s but I could manage a long day/evening.

I’m at the stage of my life where getting up at 5.30 and travelling 4 hours is not compatible with enjoying the party and drinks later in the evening and definitely not with staying up until midnight. However I suppose wfh gives a lot of benefits every day so if I were you I would suck this arrangement up this one time.
I would end up sleeping somewhere in the corner by 9pm of course but what could you do 🤷‍♀️

What is it with these work dos? No-one seems to really enjoy them. They are stilted and artificial. They cost companies a fortune. They involve a lot of travel, thus buggering up the planet. What the hell is the point?

I suspect you might have to fall sick on the day - I would.

I feel tired just reading that! And I am early forties and have been known to party into the early hours even now, alcohol or no alcohol-just not after being up at 05:00!😂

I suspect I will end up doing just that because having looked at the itinerary, there's no down time in the afternoon at all. Goes striaght from 'work' to 'fun' to dinner etc.

I've done these mad Christmas missives previously... 10 hr round trip aa was 'expected'... One was great fun, the other not so...

I just bit the bullet as the employers had been pretty good overall!

A friend of mine worked for a company that did something similar a couple of years ago. Staff across the word, few of them had met much or at all, they picked a country everyone had to travel internationally for.

It was a location that was relevant to specific work that some (most?) of the team members were doing so they got to kill two birds with one stone - I think a few of them flew out early in the week and did a week's work on location before the "social" meet-up stuff was organised for the weekend.

They all got plenty of free/personal downtime at the weekend as well as the team dinners and drinks in the evening. Hotels and flights paid for.

I think a couple of team members took annual leave after that and holidayed in/around the area, and just booked return flights a week later.

It was also in a quiet time of year (not Xmas!), which meant fewer people were juggling commitments and everything was easier and cheaper to book.

Apparently it all went as smoothly as it could but it was still so much of a logistical headache that no one had any interest in doing it again. Also the company went bust a year later so there's that too.

So I have small children and I like train journeys... I'd bite their hand off 😆 ...and probably go to bed at 9pm...

Yes, that sounds well-thought out but just too much to ask of people really! And obviously cost too much!

Agree with everyone else. They should have either just had the party in the evening (or at the very most done 'team building' from about 3-5pm, then a 2hr break to get ready), or put anyone who has to travel more than 3 hours/100 miles up in a hotel the night before as well.

Although I've just reread your OP and it seems like it's a Friday night so you have to use the Saturday to travel home... Yeah I'd be less keen on that!

Yes, It's Friday starting at lunchtime so I'll have to get on the train around 07:00, and then It's all day/night Fri, coming back on the Sat (which is a longer train journey, somehow!) and I am not even one of the ones who lives the furthest away.

Is the venue in the same city as head office? When you say most people are in a different country to the venue, is this because, eg, you’re in England and the venue is in Cardiff or is it a UK company and they randomly decided to meet in Paris?
It sounds great as far as I am concerned!

Yep I've done this too. Up at 3am to catch a flight from London City to Edinburgh then back on the evening flight. It was just the company culture- they'd pay for you to stay over if you wanted but I didn't want to be away from home.

Your first example is more accurate!
The do is within the UK but different country.
No, not the same city as head office. Same city the manager lives in, obviously 😂

I am petrified of flying so would have got away with not doing that for this instance, if it required a flight on account of MH issues 😂

Although I did consider a (short) flight for this one off if it would've been a lot easier. Unfortunately, no flights from my closest city so I'd have still have had to get to the same city the train goes from, setting off at the exact same time so not a good option.

So they'd pay for an overnight. Here, OP isn't being given the option of staying the night before so has to get the train at 5am. And it's not for a business meeting, but a team-building they've arbitrarily decided to have in a city that's far away for most people.

It's not mandatory but we are expected to go and be excited about it.

I think if given the option rather than just 'we've booked a room for you all!' I'd be torn between wanting to get straight back home, or wanting to make the most of it after travelling such a long time.