What caught my eye this week.
A friend of mine was bemoaning how some of his staff were not enthusiastic about his upcoming office Christmas party.
Covid cancelled the previous two. My extrovert friend is beside himself to get back to the minefield of Secret Santa, the lottery of dinner seating, and drunken karaoke with two bemused blokes from the Reading office.
I suggested that if somebody didn’t want to join the party, he just gave them £100 in lieu to do whatever else they liked instead.
Which went down like the mini Bounties in a box of Celebrations.
Of course my friend protested that this was a bonding event. Which was what justified the £10,000 budget. An investment in team morale. A chance for colleagues who’d never met to get to know each other.
Indeed anyone who would actually take the £100 alternative would only be revealing themselves as being outside of the team.
The opposite of what he was trying to achieve!
Brent crude
Look, I see both sides. And I’ve been to some excellent office parties featuring genuine friends. Albeit usually as a contractor who rarely saw an 8.45am start with the gang – as opposed to being a wage slave forced to spend another six hours of my life with Gary from accounts, when all that keeps me sane is the 40-hour cap on Gary in a normal working week.
I don’t believe anyone should be put through the cruel and unusual punishment of an office party if that’s how they’ll find the forced festivities.
Besides, wouldn’t my suggested £100 Get Out Of Jail bonus equally inspire warm feelings from somebody dreading the alternative?
I believe so, but I didn’t win over my friend.
And so somewhere in London in the next two weeks you might run into yet another 50 incongruous diners in variously coloured paper hats talking about the prospects for an upcoming trade show – only to be interrupted by my friend standing up to deliver his surely-hilarious end of year awards.
He can’t say he wasn’t warned.
But what do you guys think? Am I being a Mr Scrooge? Or has the pandemic put the clad-iron case for certain office rituals to the sword forever? Share you worst – or who knows, maybe your best – Christmas party anecdotes in the comments below.
Enjoy the reading!
From Monevator
Emergency funds: how much to save, where to keep it, and when to use it – Monevator
Ten weeks on from the Mini Budget that (for a moment) broke Britain – Monevator
From the archive-ator: An investor among the anti-capitalists – Monevator
News
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FCA moves to create simplified financial advice regime – Investment Week
Half of mortgage borrowers have a fixed deal ending in the next two years – This Is Money
Next rescues fashion chain Joules saving 1,450 jobs – BBC
House prices set to fall 5% next year, says Zoopla – This Is Money
100 British firms sign up to four-day week with no loss of pay – Guardian
Oil prices are back below to pre-Ukraine invasion levels – Axios
The happiest places to live in Great Britain revealed – Which
Five million in the UK are on out-of-work benefits. Here’s the proof – Spectator
Products and services
First Direct has launched a new regular savings account paying 7% – First Direct
The best mortgage rates for home buyers and movers – Which
When are the best ways and last dates for sending Christmas parcels? – Guardian
Open a SIPP with Interactive Investor and pay no SIPP fee for six months. Terms apply – Interactive Investor
Venture capital trusts: overpriced or time to buy? [Search result] – FT
The American Express Small Shops scheme is back: how to earn £25 – Which
Homes for sale near Christmas markets, in pictures – Guardian
Comment and opinion
Does this count as market timing? – Oblivious Investor
A year of pain: investors struggle in a new era of higher rates [Search result] – FT
Getting wealthy versus staying wealthy – Morgan Housel
11 ways to give yourself a Christmas bonus in 2022 – Which
Everything in its right place – Fortunes & Frictions
Deep dive into why index funds are displacing active funds – Evidence-based Investor
How much growth can you expect? [US but relevant] – Of Dollars and Data
The thing that’s hard about markets – A Wealth of Common Sense
How to avoid arguing over money – Morningstar
Lies, damned lies, and performance benchmarks – Advisor Perspectives
Don’t panic! Europe is not facing immediate de-industrialization – Noahpinion
Crypt o’ crypto
Why they clapped for Sam Bankman-Fried – The Reformed Broker
BlockFi files for bankruptcy as FTX contagion spreads – CoinDesk
Bankman-Fried was always going to go big [and then go bust] or go bust – Elm Funds
Naughty corner: Active antics
The IPO outlook in one word [Search result] – FT
An interview with Lindsell Train founder Nick Train [Podcast] – AJ Bell
Who says you can’t time the market? – The Felder Report
An ARKK-typical problem – Klement on Investing
Why value investing can keep on performing – Franklin Templeton
Bollocks to Brexit mini-special
Brexit and the economy: the hit has been ‘substantially negative’ [Search result] – FT
Fingerprint and face checks at EU border to take Brits “up to four times longer” – Independent
Kindle book bargains
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou – £0.99 on Kindle
Surrounded by Bad Bosses and Lazy Employees by Thomas Erikson – £0.99 on Kindle
The Business Book by DK Publishing – £1.99 on Kindle
Quiet Leadership: Winning Hearts, Minds, and Matches by Carlo Ancelotti – £0.99 on Kindle
(Don’t have a Kindle? Buy one and join the cheap and tidy book club!)
Environmental factors
A UK tree provides hundreds of pounds of benefits a year, report finds – Guardian
ESG investing after the war – Klement on Investing
Government to offer £1bn in grants to insulate middle-income homes – This Is Money
A new tax on UK renewable energy – DIY Investor
Penarth swimmers hail ‘excellent’ water rating – Guardian
Rare bird lost for 140 years rediscovered in Papua New Guinea – Business Insider
Off our beat
How monopoly enshittified Amazon – Pluralistic
New research shows flexible work boosts employment and slashes poverty rates – Prospect
Is AirBnB about to go after the longer-term rental market? – Dror Poleg
The myth of the 25-year old brain – Slate
Some unsolicited advice on unsolicited advice – Rob Henderson [h/t Abnormal Returns]
What do you want? – Humble Dollar
You left out the all CAPS part – Seth’s Blog
And finally…
“Reality is a fiction with an unlimited budget.”
– Hernan Diaz, Trust
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Argh, my worst nightmare, being forced to go to company parties. The past two years was such a relief, I didn’t have to make up excuses why I wasn’t going.
I would pay £100 to be excused.
Our Xmas ‘party’ required a financial contribution this year. Yep, a financial contribution. WTF? Business is making a decent margin. Many felt obliged, but many simply went with the ‘X’ option rather than the ‘Y’ one…
In my team of 18, 15 opted out. I stopped short of telling the top boss I was ‘laver les cheveux’ but the temptation was there. I think Xmas parties are antiquated relics. Many I spoke to would prefer a voucher of some denomination or even bit of recognition! Not a ‘pay to attend’ invoice.
In my experience, alcohol and staff parties tend to be a recipe for disaster and a breeding ground disciplinary action. There’s always someone stupid enough to cross the line and/or make someone else feel very uncomfortable.
Maybe I’m getting old. Maybe I’m getting cynical. Or maybe I’ve just lived long enough to go ‘nah’, not for me, got an appointment with a shower-head!
Of course, the party is for the boss himself.
My last one, before retiring, I was in a new team, and was surprised at the large amount of money we had to contribute to the joint team Christmas present for our manager. I was even more surprised to find out that those in the know knew to also buy him individual personal presents as well! Which he absolutely loved. I was so glad to retire from all that, he was not a nice man.
I wouldn’t be worrying about the Christmas party, I’d be worrying about what’s it’s like the other 229 working days of the year
A psychotic boss in an artificial fibre Christmas jumper with blinking Christmas lights on it …
is still a psychopath …
Thanks for the InvestEngine link have been thinking of having a look at the site. Opened an account. Hope you get something…. sooner or later.
Echo the previous comments. Perhaps those interested in Financial Independence are more likely to be wired this way? Slightly more introverted but free thinking and slightly antiestablishment?
Couple of reasons they don’t float my boat.
I find enforced fun of any kind extremely cringeworthy and uncomfortable. “Icebreakers” especially so.
Also with a young family I find it hard enough to find time to get out and catch up with people I actually like in a setting I can choose, so I’m really loathed to to waste quality time on effectively unpaid overtime.
My workplace asked us to stump up £40 (+drinks) for Xmas lunch. They pay me £24k. I decided I was sadly unavailable…
maybe it should be called an end of year party, it should always be optional so only those who want to be there actually go, and I would say that is the offer, take it or leave it – no cash alternatives otherwise that undermines it. it should be fully paid for by the company otherwise let people make their own arrangements if it’s not going to fund it. in addition the company should give everyone a gift voucher anyway – doesn’t have to be much, but everyone gets the same.
I have to say given some of the other comments, I can fully understand why some “parties” are loathsome!
My firm changed their approach during Covid and offered a voucher instead of a contribution to the Xmas do. As a management team, we have organised parties for two years and attendance has still been reasonable enough to make a good night of it. I think there is a genuine mix of views on Xmas parties and the voucher gives the flexibility to choose. Your advice was sound!
I wonder how many of your friend’s staff will “unexpectedly” get Covid or the flu the day before? – cos that’s what I would do if I had an enforced party. Followed rapidly by intense job search to work somewhere else. What a nightmare!
“So sorry, I already have plans.” [“sorry” = platitude. “plans” = not to attend.] – frugal introvert
In my younger days, the anticipation (which was mild at best) was much better than reality. Now, I can’t see the point at all. A quiet chat with 3-4 of my favourite colleagues over some good food is the most I’d be interested in.
I well remember one Xmas party many moons ago …. Two of my colleagues had a little too much to drink and ceased to become colleagues but ‘clients’ the following morning when they found themselves in the cells….
I FIREd in 2021 (well, in my late 50s – retired really) so these lately tedious work Christmas parties are thankfully a thing of the past for me. Back in the day I had employers who paid for us to have a Christmas meal at a hotel and a stay overnight with partners included. One company, a small software startup I worked at in 1990 organised our Xmas do with a meal and overnight stay at a 5 star hotel at Broadway in the Cotswolds – the sort of place where your Vauxhall Astra was very swiftly valet parked out of sight for you! We found ourselves snowed in at the hotel the next day with road travel not advised, so the company put us up there for another night at their expense. Those were the days! I’m not sure the VCs were too happy about all this extravagance…the company was eventually folded and sold for the tech with some of us redundant, not helped by some bad market timing with the core product release.
Worked the bar in the local RAF association for a few years, and in the lead up to Christmas there was always a small buffet on the go. Just help yourself, when it’s gone it’s gone. The legion in my parent’s town, and my grandparent’s social club did the same.
So in 2019 on our work party about four hours into the post lunch pub crawl we ended up at the town’s legion. About 30 of us playing killer pool. With a table full of buffet food alongside. Totally normal to me, buffet in a social club at Christmas. So I started helping myself. Quite a lot (it was 4 hours since our lunch!). Encouraged others to join in as well. Had a few ugly looks from the locals but just thought they hated 30 pissed up council workers disturbing their evening.
Yeah. We’d gate crashed a wake and I was working my way through their food!
Got back to work after new year and our head of service pulled me aside and asked me to explain the rumour about me stealing food from a dead man
Hah, I must be in the minority here – love a works Christmas do (free drink and food, taxi fares claimed as expenses, what’s not to like?) and over the years, have only missed a few due to illness or travelling.
Although as I’ve gotten older (and I’m one of the oldest in the office), there will come a time when I’ll feel that I can’t be bothered with it all.
Two parties were cancelled due to Covid, so we had a late Xmas/Summer party this year. It felt like the best party ever, perhaps because it was my first big social event in 2.5 years and I hadn’t seen some colleagues (who I like) in so long but I also got to meet many new colleagues who had started during the pandemic but who aren’t in the office the same days I am so I never see them.
I can see why some people don’t like them, e.g. if they don’t like any of the people they work with.
My best ever office Christmas Party was just before the Great Financial Crisis. The whole London Office of the Investment Bank was invited. The theme was James Bond’s Casino Royale and you had to turn up wearing a dinner jacket (ladies were asked to wear appropriate evening attire). There were fabulous dishes, unforgettable chocolate deserts, and plenty of booze (beer, wine, champagne, single malts, cocktails, etc). The live band was amazing and there was a dance floor. There was a large casino and we were given free chips to bet. I remember particularly enjoying the dodgem cars. Around 1am, there were trapeze artists on the stage and then pole dancers. I can’t recall what time the party finished. Must have been just before dawn. After that party, we never had any other office Christmas party quite at the same standard. It definitely marked the end of an era.
Something to be said for face-to-face social bonding. I’ve attended and organized (company paid) days out with my team doing some some activity together then having a good meal and some drinks, very casual, no coercion. Christmas parties are the absolute worst version of it, with everyone forced to perform cringy western cultural rituals together.
Hopefully remote work puts the final nail in the coffin of this 20th century relic. And that’s without getting into charging employees for the experience.. good grief.
Organised ‘party nights’ would be in my Room 101. Will be lunch then the pub for us this year, happy paying for it to get the half day, and on the train as soon as the chat gets boring.
Hmm, I agree we’re probably a self-selected audience around here, but the votes seem to be pretty much one-sided! (@Weenie et al honorably noted and excepted 🙂 )
Enjoying the anecdotes, particularly the wake. If it’s any comfort, how do we know it’s not what they would have wanted? (The priest at my dad’s funeral made a somewhat hilarious gaff with one of the readings (my fault, I wrote it and it was a bit of tongue-twister) and me and my siblings were giggling in the front knowing my dad would have loved it 🙂 )
@Tom-Baker Dr Who — I’m 99% sure I remember reading about that event in a newspaper at the time! Or possibly in the aftermath when it was used as a symbol of excess? Were you at a huge IB?
Or perhaps some kind of event planner was doing lots of them that year and reusing all the props for a few weeks of high-end Christmas parties I suppose.
@TI, I suspect the latter… as I was at Accenture pre-GFC and we also had the Casino Royale Christmas do at Tower 42 around that time…
I used to enjoy Christmas parties, but a lot changed after the GFC, when office politics got worse (which performance evaluation to an inch of your life exacerbated). If you are lucky enough to work with a good bunch of people its fine, but one or two bad eggs can spoil it all for everyone. Add in having to pay for the experience, definitely not!
Introvert homebody here. I’ll fake it at the party, but would rather have the money and be at home.
I have to admit that our Christmas parties aren’t too bad, though they’re actually lunches at very nice restaurants that give a discount for large parties.
What I (we) all hate are the Teambuilding exercises that some bosses love. Of course, we all realise that they’re doing this to get Brownie points from ‘their’ bosses. They must cost an arm and a leg and I’ve yet to attend one that had any worthwhile results.
Was not really up for it but I’ve decided I will go, just out of decency. So we have this company online chat where organiser asks: let me know what dates suit you. My response: can do any day except 19th. Organises the party on the 19th
Enjoy man. My heart was not up for it from the start so thank you for this favour.
Mmm… the best, the company paid for the meal, drinks and the hotel room, we just had to turn up and enjoy. They even booked it for a Friday night so we did not have to get to work for 9am the next day…. As a surprise gift they also sent everyone a xmas hamper of goodies (wine/chocs/etc) best times there as a good team ethic.
The worst…. A hotel in the middle of nowhere, all the bosses had their hotel rooms paid for by the company, plus free drinks all night. The workers had to pay for their own rooms (@£130 a night) plus their own drinks and were expected to be at work the next day for 9am or else under threat of sack…. Meanwhile the bosses rocked in after midday with hangovers. Needless to say I did not go … and started my search for a new job.
@TI (#21) – I was not at that huge Investment bank you read about in the papers. Mr_jetlag is right, it’s the latter!
@Steve21020 – I always thought the team building stuff was so the company could legitimately claim it was training function to HMRC? Or am I being naive / shafted?
Working in the public sector (NHS) I’ve never had the pleasure of my employer paying for an office Christmas party. We used to sometimes go out for a team meal before Christmas if we could be bothered….pre-Covid and rail strikes. This year we’re just not bothering.
I enjoy socialising, and I like to get to know colleges out of a work setting, but cant help feel that the template for a christmas party could change. For the £200 a head we could have gone for a team meal at a nice resturant, and given the option to meet at a pub after, with a the remaining cash put behind the bar.
— @Steve21020 – I always thought the team building stuff was so the company could legitimately claim it was training function to HMRC? Or am I being naive / shafted?–
Probably. I was never involved with the financial side so don’t have a clue. Parts of it were fun, but due to the high staff turnover, it was a bit of a joke. Any friends we made would be gone within a year.
@Thomas
— ‘I enjoy socialising, and I like to get to know colleges out of a work setting, but cant help feel that the template for a christmas party could change. For the £200 a head we could have gone for a team meal at a nice resturant, and given the option to meet at a pub after, with a the remaining cash put behind the bar.’ —
Bloody Nora, how can you possibly spend £200 a head?
Okay, I admit I work in Italy, but if we are asked to pay more than 40-50 euros for the restaurant, then almost nobody would come. That’s for an extremely high-class restaurant that has given a big discount for 20+ guests. Including antipasti, primo, secondo, dessert, wine and coffee.
‘Bollocks to Brexit’ :))
Couldn’t have put it better myself..!