Last night was Joe’s company party. Yes, that would be my former employer as well. In fact, I recognized and spoke to more people there than he did. Unfortunately, I kept running into people I didn’t want to talk to as well, including my former boss. The first time I saw her, I just turned and walked the other way. But the second time was when we were waiting for the elevator and she was getting off. She said hi to me and I just made a face and avoided eye contact. Those of you who have been reading my site for a long time know about some of the shit she put me through and I really hate her for the way she treated me. Nothing will ever change that. I’m not going to go out of my way to be mean to her, but I am certainly not going to be friendly either.
Anyway … I must say for the amount of money that was spent on this event ($400,000 from what I was told), I wasn’t impressed. But that’s probably just because these types of events aren’t my cup of tea anyway. The main reason for going was because I thought it would be cool that it was in the museum. I was looking forward to checking out the exhibits but many were closed off. Plus it was so loud and crowded you had to shout to be heard and people were bumping into each other a lot. It was nuts. The food wasn’t that impressive either. Ugh. I’d rather the company give everyone a bonus instead of hosting such an extravagant party. I think the most fun for me was dressing up because as my friend mentioned, I looked good, and thinner than when we last saw each other about a month and a half ago. That was nice to hear.
so are there any pictures of you all dressed up??
I can’t BELIEVE they spent that kind of money on a party!! It would have been much better to give it out as bonuses, if they were going to spend it anyway.
My wife’s former company used to throw ridiculously lavish holiday parties every year. One year, either 1999 or 2000, I think, they rented out the entire Ocean Journey aquarium. The next year, it was the Denver Museum of Art. It was fantastic, with a great live band, great food, lots of dressed up beautiful people, and all the exhibits.
Given this expensive habit and the fact that this was a tech company pre-bubble-burst, that was the last big holiday party. The holiday functions in the next few years were just little departmental get-togethers during work hours. After the Museum party, there came over a year of layoffs and finally a painful acquisition by a larger company.
My company gives us quarterly bonuses plus they do a nice (but not extravagant) holiday party. We’re pretty happy with this setup and the company is still doing well.