Virtual Christmas Party

[Purplepopcorn]

I know this may come across as petty and it's not something I would actually raise with my employer, but I'm just a bit disappointed and curious as to your views.

I am on maternity leave. Due to Covid, my employer is holding a virtual Xmas party online. I was asked by a friend/colleague if I was attending and I mentioned that I wasn't aware of it and hadn't received any invite. They told me that the invite was sent to my work email (which I don't have access to during mat leave) and said that they would chase the organiser for my invite. The organiser is my direct line manager who I worked very closely with before my leave.

It has been nearly 2 weeks and I still haven't received any invite. I'm not sure I will either. I think the issue I have is that a) I was overlooked by my own manager b) my manager would have known that I don't have access to work emails and c) my colleague had to flag it with the manager and despite that, I still haven't received an invite.

As mentioned, I know it sounds petty but just wondering if anybody else's reaction would be similar to mine. If I am invited last minute then I'm inclined just not to attend. I feel a bit invisible being on mat leave and it's not a good feeling to be forgotten about or just an afterthought!

Grateful for any views.

I should add that my manager can very quickly and easily get in touch with me and has my personal contact details. So the issue is not that they don't know how to get in touch.

Dear god - by whatever stroke of luck, you have been left out of an event that others will be desperately trying to wriggle out of - and you're complaining! Is your FOMO so strong that you really want to play Zoom karaoke and do another bloody quiz while clutching a glass of cheap prosecco that you had to buy yourself?
You've either been forgotten or somebody really loves you.

Haha katy1213 touche! But in truth, during the lockdowns and being on mat leave means that I'm not getting out much as you can probably tell! In this sort of isolation it would have been good to just have a couple of hours off in the evening and see everyone.

Clearly there are more important and serious issues going on in the world, but on my miniscule level, I just think that to be forgotten by your own manager is very poor and I was the only person who has been left out.

I got forgotten last year and I was at work back from maternity! Invites went out and I got missed off the list - I wouldn't mind but there were only seven of us!

I went on maternity leave in October last year, and they were just booking the work Xmas party then. I responded to the invite I got at work to say I wanted to come and to let me know when they'd arranged the date and venue, and tbh I was looking forward to a night of being a grown up instead of just being mum. I found out when the event was thanks to all the pictures that turned up on Facebook the day after. No one bothered to invite me. So that was nice. I get how you feel op, they should be including you. I think you could drop your manager a light message to say 'any chance you can send me the details, I seem to have been missed off the list' and see what happens.

Do they have a HR department? Generally it’s not up to the manager but the HR department to organise the comms.
You should be invited by someone. It’s not cool if you’re not.

Wow JanetPudding! Well I'm from a team of 4 so I shouldn't have been that hard to remember either lol!

Thank you katmarie, it's not a great feeling is it. I probably won't drop the manager a line. May be my ego talking but I feel that if they didn't remember me in the first place and they had already been reminded by a colleague then I don't want to come across as begging for an invite. It's just a lack of courtesy that will irritate me out of attending. I also worked very hard in the lead up to my leave and for me not to have even crossed their mind is slightly insulting.

Username7521 thanks. We do have an HR dept but we don't have official Xmas parties which HR get involved with. It is up to the individual clusters of teams to organise and this time around my manager happens to be the one who is organising the event for a cluster of about 4 teams, including my own.