Christmas party venue - inconsiderate choice.. AIBU not to go?

[gailsnails]

I work on a team about about 20 people, with with different tastes, diets, food restrictions, views on alcohol etc.
For our Christmas meal (my first in the company, as I'm quite new this year), the senior management simply told us when the meal will be held, rather than canvas our thoughts, put it to a vote (the fairest way to decide I would have thought?) or discuss with staff.
The picked a hugely pretentious, overpriced and very niche kind of cordon-bleu type of place. All fussy food and centered around pork products.
There are 3 people on the team who have declined to go as don't eat pork (2 Muslim and 1 Jewish) and little other viable options on the extremely limited menu. I declined simply because I only like plain, bland and "boring" food... like chicken and chips or something non-fancy/pretentious sounding.
£65 per head for the meal, seems ridiculous when you've not even had any say in where to go. What's wrong with just going for a pizza or KFC lol? Or a buffet type place that caters something for even the most awkward people?
Any one else have this situation at work nights out?
I just find it rude, and totally inconsiderate.

Are you expected to pay? Then I would be happier going to a chain pizza restaurant rather than £65 per head place.

If the company is paying then they can pick what they like but it's an odd choice when there are Jewish and Muslim employees.

KFC though 😂 At least Nando's is sit down

There seem to be a lot of wealthy mumsnetters on this thread.

I've always worked at companies where Xmas lunch was paid for. Since I work in central London, the bill is often more than £65 per head so it's not a case of being wealthy.

Our company used to contribute £25 per head, so we used to try get a meal for £25, but we would buy our own drinks.

Picking a place that excludes the non-Christian employees from Christmas do sounds like a short cut to a complaint to HR frankly.

I think £65 just for food is potentially a lot depending on where in the country and everyone's salaries. I'd object to KFC but somewhere with a decent menu so people can pick something that suits them isn't hard to sort

I’m still a bit scared from organising our Xmas party one year when I was a young keen graduate. It’s a thankless task abs hopefully not one I’ll have to do again. I made the mistake of doing a survey monkey about price. I had options from £10 up to see what people were willing to pay. Some miserly git sent me a load of abuse because I hadn’t had a £0-10 option.I suspect McDonald’s etc probably would be the only place we could have gone for that budget.
Obviously I ignored that helpful suggestion as I wasn’t going to make everyone else have a crap night.

Just don't go then. I don't eat pork because I don't like pigs. I'm a Christian meat eater but I don't like pork, but flipping love a fondue!

The first year in a new job I would go if I could possibly afford it. I remember when I started the job I'm in now and really sucked up the cost of the Christmas meal, as it was as much as I was spending on gifts in one of my DC. I definitely had nothing from DH that year for Christmas, but felt it important to "show my face".

By Christmas you'll have been in the job for ages, so I think you can get away with not attending the shitty Christmas party.

I’ve never been at a firm where staff pay for the Christmas party. What would be the point? Surely it’s supposed to be a treat for them.

@samG76

I’ve never been at a firm where staff pay for the Christmas party. What would be the point? Surely it’s supposed to be a treat for them.

By the same token I’ve never been to one that was paid for.

And I’ve been to a mixture of both!

@samG76

I’ve never been at a firm where staff pay for the Christmas party. What would be the point? Surely it’s supposed to be a treat for them.

As far as I’m aware, nowhere in the public sector pays for office Christmas parties. I work in the NHS - we pay for ourselves. DM works for the council - same. ILs are teachers/university lecturers - also have to pay for themselves. In case taxpayers object to funding us enjoying ourselves.

In some cases individual managers may put money behind the bar, but the actual employer never contributes, IME.

ah ok - so it's a public/private sector thing. But why have it at all if the employer doesn't pay? Presumably if the staff wanted to pay for a meal they could go out themselves with their families, and they'd likely get a better deal.

It's a completely thankless task organising a work Christmas meal.

• the person who has extremely strict requirements that you've carefully catered for, to the detriment of everyone else's preferences, always drops out at the last minute
• so do another dozen people
• half the people who actually turn up only do so to moan about how crap the venue is

Unhappy with the venue/menu? Easy solution - you organise it next time .

@samG76

ah ok - so it's a public/private sector thing. But why have it at all if the employer doesn't pay? Presumably if the staff wanted to pay for a meal they could go out themselves with their families, and they'd likely get a better deal.

To have a meal and a good time with your colleagues? To have fun? Often you'll get the afternoon off to attend in work time, but yeah they can't justify spending public money on partying, in my experience the meals are often on the cheap and cheerful side, and then those who want to usually stay on and have some more drinks etc. To have it arranged for an expensive place sucks, because you either pay loads for food you probably aren't arsed about or miss out.