Do you have a work holiday party?

[Jalapeñomel]

If so, do you pay for it?

[notoriousmeg]

We do have one, and we do not pay for it. Food and open bar.

[rosiebear]

We have a potluck at the office. There is an unofficial one a coworker hosts (state government). The holiday party and holiday bonus threads always make me want to cry.

[Jalapeñomel]

My new school is having a party at a local bar. It costs $60 a person. 🤨

[pierogigirl]

I am a teacher so we pay for all parties. Our holiday party is usually some time between mid-January and early February. I skip it whenever possible.

[ECB]

We have a party. The CIO pays for the lasagna for everyone but then they ask people to contribute sides, desserts, drinks (non alcoholic), etc.

So we don’t have to pay but many contribute. It’s kind of sucky all around, TBH.

[beerlover]

Nope, I've always worked in schools and we've paid for our own parties outside of school, if we had them.

[waverly]

We used to but I think we nixed it last year. We never had to pay but they were super cheap parties that kept getting cheaper and cheaper. Like no alcohol, just apps and onsite at work.

[RoxMonster]

We typically did and it was a potluck-style thing at a local American Legion (I work at a school). There was a cash bar in the venue. This year, I haven't heard anything about a holiday party.

DH's work has one and the food is free (sit down dinner).

[isabel]

Yes, my company has a party. My company is pretty stingy about some things, but the holiday party is actually pretty nice. We technically do drink tickets, but you pretty much can drink as much as you want. They also pay for parking and/Lyft. Employees don’t pay for anything.

[daisy0721]

If we have a party we have it in January. If we don’t we will meet up at a bar. We have to pay, school counselor

[killercupcake]

My current and former schools both have parties. It’s free for us, but extra to bring a partner. Last school was $10, this one is $5. Drinks are on us because they can’t pay for alcohol.

[isabel]

Dec 4, 2019 20:02:36 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

My new school is having a party at a local bar. It costs $60 a person. 🤨

Yeah, I would not attend this. DH only comes to mine if his mom will watch the kids because I refuse to pay for a sitter to go have dinner with my coworkers. $60 a person is kind of crazy. That’s a reasonably nice dinner out for me and DH!

[joenali]

Yes. Usually we have to put in $20 or so and then buy our own drinks. It’s nothing fancy. Sometimes it’s at someone’s house. Other times we reserve a spot at a restaurant. Apparently we aren’t having one this year.

[dancingirl21]

I don’t work but my DH’s company goes all out. They rent either a restaurant space or event space and drinks/dinner is provided for the employee and a guest. They usually also have a band or some type of entertainment. Last year it was the Chicago children’s choir (which was adorable) and then a fun band afterward.

[shortstax]

It’s at our CEO’s country club, open bar. They give everyone a credit for a local hotel room, so a ton of us head to a nearby bar afterwards for a boozy night.

[SusanBAnthony]

Me: potluck at lunch. Some groups do a nice lunch out in December or January in addition.

H: his old group did dinner at a fancy restaurant. The food was always good and there was unlimited wine, bit it was always an hour from our house and the office, so all told we'd spend 60$+ on a babysitter. Not worth it especially since his boss was awful and his co-workers were wierd.

I don't think his current group does anything.

[VillainV]

Yes, we pay for it. It’s optional and outside of work hours, spouses invited (no kids). $35/person. Will probably include food and 1-2 drink tickets, with cash bar after. We do fundraising throughout the year to subsidize the cost.

[farmvillelover]

The head partner foots the bill for everyone’s entire weekend Friday through Sunday. Group dinner on Saturday at a fancy steakhouse he pays for, and he picks up the charges for the hotel rooms and anything charged to the room. Everyone also gets an envelope with more than enough cash to cover Uber’s, tips and meals outside of the hotel, and sitters for those that have kids. He’s overly generous.

[circa1978]

We have three! And no, we don't pay for it. One of them we do bring a dish to share though. The other two are at restaurants and expensed!

[mcmel]

Yes and yes. $10 to have lunch catered at my school.

[Deleted]

Our official office party is paid for by my department. Buffet meal and open bar. It is employees only and during the day. We get to go home afterwards.

We also have an office potluck that is obviously at our cost.

[mokes]

Yes, location varies each year. Usually out somewhere but not over the top. We don’t have to pay.

ETA: we have a good number of remote people who all travel in to attend, so I imagine it’s actually fairly expensive for the company despite not being over the top. (We do combine with a larger company meeting to make the travel more worthwhile.)

[brooklyn]

That’s crazy. I’ve never had to pay for a holiday party.

Our school hosts a holiday party with food and alcohol donated from local bar/restaurant owners with kids at the school and supplemented by pta/foundation funds. Teachers go free. We also host other mixers throughout the year that teachers attend for free. But, private school.

[shamrockshake]

There’s only two of us in my office, so our “party” is we going out to (a nice) lunch with 2 other semi locals who work from home and one former employee, the company pays

[rubytue]

Government, so potluck during lunch. Use to be lots of fun, but morale is so bad people are just phoning it in on the food.

H’s company started having one two years ago. We’ve been out of town for it every year. The boss give H a gift card instead. And this year we got invited to the big developer party at the local casino. It’s apparently open bar and $50 in casino chip. Not sure about the food, we’ve never been before. But the owner is super rich. And it’s payback, bc H’s boss kisses his ass for years! And H, too. Like he had to drive to his house in northern Baltimore during a blizzard to get the generators working for the tennis court bubble. Bc dude wanted to play tennis in a blizzard. Or maybe it was a hurricane.

[sarahsays]

I'm in academia.

We have two - a college level party our dean and associate dean pay for and a university wide that the President's office pays for.

[ribollita]

We have multiple, from a team lunch to various levels of parties with guests across levels of the organization. We don’t pay for any of it.

[sapphireblue]

I work at a nonprofit.

We have one and we do not pay.

No spouses/partners invited, just staff, and we close early and go to lunch. All drinks and food paid for.

We don't get bonuses or anything like that, but the party is nice.

The best part is we just get to go home after the lunch so we are usually done by 3 pm.

[Susie]

Law firm. Yes we have one, no we don't ask employees to pay for anything. Employees + spouses, cocktails and heavy apps.