
Office Parties Feel the Chill - jseliger
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/08/style/office-parties.html
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cluoma
Maybe it's just my inner-millenial but I really dislike office Christmas
parties. This year my company rented out a large theatre with a buffet of
goose and free beer/cocktails/wine all evening. It started at 6pm and most of
the attendees were gone by 10pm, and we are a young company with many in their
20s.

I feel like it was really a party for a few outgoing people and those in HR. A
Christmas bonus would have been a much nicer way to say 'thank you' for the
previous years work.

~~~
fredley
Absolutely this. At a place I worked previously, due to a tight budget,
instead of doing the sensible thing and not having a party (or letting teams
organise their own smaller bashes), the company cheaped out and rented a
basement somewhere into which we barely all fitted. It was cramped, noisy and
expensive. One employee got drunk and had a fist fight with the restaurant
management after knocking down the sliding wall between us and the next room
of 'revellers'. It was totally grim, but all in the name of being the kind of
company that has Christmas parties. I handed in my notice the next day iirc.

~~~
pc86
It seems odd that you would forget whether or not this event precipitated you
quitting a job.

~~~
sitkack
He was the one that knocked down the partition.

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gubby
This article seems to be sponsored by Escape the Room, whatever that is, with
its own ad-style paragraph.

"A less philanthropic but still debauchery-free experience can be had at
Escape the Room, an interactive game site where as many as 10 people are shut
in a room and have one hour to solve a puzzle..."

Could be an example of the pay-per-mention market (there was an article about
this last week on HN)

~~~
lancebeet
Escape rooms have become quite common and they're provided by many different
actors. Given how many there are on Manhattan alone it's difficult to pinpoint
exactly which one they mean. If this is advertisement, it's not money well
spent.

~~~
TeMPOraL
What is the business structure, though? Are all "escape rooms" independent
operations, or are they more of a franchise?

I was curious about the "Escape Room" phrase itself - it sounds like a brand,
but I did an USPTO search for a trademark, and surprisingly, there's like a
metric ton of ones matching ".* ESCAPE ROOM .*".

~~~
piva00
Completely independent rooms AFAIK. Have seen them in Brazil and here in
Sweden, it's just a type of game, not a franchise... Much like a "haunted
house" is a type of attraction and not a trademarked franchise-based business.

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dep_b
I think in general going out just isn't as much fun anymore as it used to be.
You're constantly monitored from all sides by people with mobile tracking
devices and any misstep will be broadcasted to billions through YouTube
because people think it's fun to show your drunk ass claiming you're the Queen
of England to everybody. Preferably with your name and LinkedIn profile in it.

Of course that scares the shit and fun out of people.

I don't think any records exist of my (innocent) missteps thank god, but I do
feel the pressure if I'm at an event like that since smartphones became more
common. I see people filming other people dancing while commenting negatively
about it. Really intimidating. Better make sure we don't stand out in the
crowd, unless you're the minority of people that really craves other people's
attention in any way.

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gadders
>>Executives surmised (perhaps wisely) the party’s meager attendance wasn’t
enough to justify the $300,000 price tag. So, two years ago, HBO offered its
employees an afternoon off with their co-workers to volunteer at a charity
instead.

That's some reward.

~~~
toomanybeersies
Deloitte (or at least part of Deloitte) have a charity day. I don't think it
replaces their Christmas party though.

Anyway, according to one of my colleagues who used to work there, everyone
really liked it, it was a way to get help out the community, with the added
bonus that you're still getting paid.

The cynic in me assumes that they just do it because it's bloody good PR.

~~~
gadders
Most Investment Banks give a couple of days a year, some give a day a quarter
(in the UK at least).

This is also unrelated to Xmas Parties though.

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ElCapitanMarkla
I feel like the odd one out in these comments... I like the christmas party,
but then again I love free beers :)

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bertil
I actually like Christmas party (it helps I was working for great companies
and with colleagues I actually like and I don’t go out as much as I’d like).

I didn’t stay very long this year because I had other things to do, but one
thing that surprised me was to hear one of my male colleague objectifying his
direct reports (female and married).

I have had until then the odd chance of only noticing offensive comments from
female colleagues (rarely and I’ll admit, not the most representative). After
the month we’ve had dropping our heroes, that felt… uniquely heedless? and
just plain wrong.

Anyway: this is an advertorial but it felt timely.

~~~
Sholmesy
Did you call him up on it? You don't have to be aggressive/self-righteous
about it to let someone know what they are saying is not ok.

~~~
jnbiche
He/she mentioned offensive behavior from both male and female colleagues. Why
not call out both?

~~~
Sholmesy
You're right I should have.

The reason I mentioned the Male one, was the recency in the story, and
probably a little bias on the topic.

My bad :(.

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sqldba
I guess after a year of slaving and treating coworkers like garbage they don’t
want to bond especially over non alcoholic drinks.

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d--b
This reminds me that 10 years ago, Marc Jacobs came to his $1m arabian-nights-
themed christmas party dressed up as a giant camel toe. Different times
indeed.

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magicalhippo
My company has 13 employees, and was just 8 for a long time. So they adopted
the policy of inviting partners/significant others as well.

It really changes the tone of the Christmas party, in a good way. And it's a
nice gesture for the partners/significant others, making it easier for them to
tolerate the occasional late nights.

A really great idea IMO, though it's probably hard to scale up.

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jraut
Office parties are a great form of getting to know each other for employees in
multi site companies. It is a way of keeping in touch.

Also, knowing the faces behind the names in Slack gives you some common
grounds for verbal communication.

For me office parties are almost an vital part of cooperation.

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simula67
We may need segregation based on gender at the work place

~~~
falcolas
Totally. Probably by race too, to avoid those potential uncomfortable
conversatioms and inadvertently racist remarks. Parties should be safe spaces.

/s

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downvote_me
Paywalled

~~~
bertil
It appears to be an advertorial, so you are not missing much.

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tptacek
Oh no.

