Are spouses invited to your office Christmas party?

[Jennasis]

DH works for the executive office and HR department of a very large lending insitution. It's a great company, and they are HUGE on family and community involvement for their employees. So I was very surprised that they do not invite spouses to their big office Christmas party. It IS a Christmas party and not a "holiday" party, because it's been labeled as such in all inter-office memos. I'm not mad that none of us spouses were invited, just surprised. In fact the party is today...from about 11-3. I thought maybe because it was during business hours might have something to do with it, but it's being held out of the office at a HUGE expensive country club they rented out for the occassion (I know because DH was the organizer for the event). The company also doesn't invite employees families to the company picnic either The weird thing? The company picnic this year was held...at the NC ZOO!! No kids invited, no spouses invited. They rented out the whole zoo for a bunch of crusty old bankers??

Just weird.

 

[CathrynRose]

DH works for the executive office and HR department of a very large lending insitution. It's a great company, and they are HUGE on family and community involvement for their employees. So I was very surprised that they do not invite spouses to their big office Christmas party. It IS a Christmas party and not a "holiday" party, because it's been labeled as such in all inter-office memos. I'm not mad that none of us spouses were invited, just surprised. In fact the party is today...from about 11-3. I thought maybe because it was during business hours might have something to do with it, but it's being held out of the office at a HUGE expensive country club they rented out for the occassion (I know because DH was the organizer for the event). The company also doesn't invite employees families to the company picnic either The weird thing? The company picnic this year was held...at the NC ZOO!! No kids invited, no spouses invited. They rented out the whole zoo for a bunch of crusty old bankers??

Just weird.

The zoo thing is totally weird. I dont even think I'd go.

Now last years party, spouses were invited - spouse/friend/whoever - you and a guest.

This year, they were not. But it was an expensive event fior a small company so I can understand why.

I dont think it's very cool, though, IMO.

 

[Bob Slydell]

DW's party is always on a Sat. night (it's tomorrow, in fact) and it's always been spouses included.

 

[ChillyWilleys]

At mine, We're free, spouses are invited but have to pay.

 

[ead79]

Spouses for the most part aren't invited to ours since it's during the middle of a work day. It was really nice this year--they rented out a room at a local country club and provided us with a lovely lunch.

 

[supercarrie]

Spouses/partners are invited to my office Christmas party, but my fiance's company (a large investment bank) holds 2 Christmas parties a year (one for all of the IT department and one for his team of about 15) and spouses aren't invited to either. Both are after work, running until 3am or so, and are huge, drunken affairs. It actually kind of irks me that we aren't included - because we aren't included with any event, including regular drinks (which are drunken blowouts, not just a drunk at the pub after work). The company really doesn't foster a family-friendly atmosphere, and instead seems to put a lot of pressure on their workers to remain single - I guess so they can work the long hours that are demanded of them!

 

[Jennasis]

I should also mention that the party this afternoon is also the retirement party for the company's CEO. A two-for-one I suppose. His wife, I'm sure, will be there. No spouses at last year's shindig either.

 

[Magickndm]

Unfortunately, yes, spouses are invited to my husband's Christmas office party. I really do not like going. I see most of these people once a year, the conversation is awkward. They always do a theme, this year it was Casino Night. Luckily, for me, they do serve booze.

 

[Todd&Copper]

Mine is during the workday (12 noon until ???) and spouses are not invited. We are having lunch at a restaurant in DC and then having a gift exchange and desserts at the office.
DH used to wokr for a company that had quarterly parties and spouses were not invited. They were also luncheons that took place during work hours and were usually offsite [they had a huge crab feat in Annapolis once and I was so jealous].
My old (crummy) company used to have holiday parties on a Saturday night around mid-December and for a couple of years spouses were not invited. Spouses can now come, but you have to RSVP over 2 weeks in advance of the Xmas party and make sure your names are on the list. I never had the desire to go for a number of reasons, the main once being (1) they held a "[Company Name] Idol" contest and everyone who couldn't sing a note if their lives depended on it entered; (2) I only had 1 or 2 good friends in that office; and (3) the hassle of coming into DC from Annapolis on a Saturday night for pigs in a blanket and Bud light just wasn't worth it.

 

[TxDsnyGrl74]

What Christmas Party? We are spread out all over the country and can't have a Christmas Party, so they usually give us $50-75 Target Gift Cards.

 

[mom2rb]

DH's last job was at a big bank. Spouses were not invited to the Christmas party. The funny part was that for the weeks before the party they would have signs all over the office telling them to bring their dancing shoes. Who were they supposed to dance with? He never went to the parties. I have to drag him to most parties, there was no way he would go without me.

 

[Darcy03231]

Spouses are invited to both mine and DH's every year. We have a small office (7 employees) and DH's is about 60 employees.

 

[alldiz]

No spouses.....

I work in a small office.....8 employees.....

If we pushed for it.....boss would probably OK it...BUT....
We don't want em there
Kerri

 

[ducklite]

We have a very small office, only eight of us these days. We don't have a Christmas party, we all go out for lunch one day in the week or two before Christmas, and spouses aren't invited.

 

[jen0610]

Where I work, yes you and a guest are invited to the Christmas party. So, at noon tomorrow we will be at The Outback. Each couple gets to pick an appetizer, any entree, soft drink/coffee/tea and you can either have cheesecake or white/choc cake for dessert and the company foots the bill. This is the 2nd year they are going this route. We had a blast last year. We have the entire restraunt to ourselves. From noon until 4 when they open for regular business hours.

And this is not for a small office either. We have almost 100 drivers, 16 in this office, 10 in the other office as well as 30-40 mechanics who work in the fuel stations and repair shops. So with the number of people we have, we have to split the party into 2 different dates.

 

[SC Minnie]

When we had a Christmas party spouses were invited. We no longer have them. At Dh's old company some years the whole family was invited and other years not.

 

[LindaM]

Yes, we have our Christmas party at night and spouses are invited. We also have two Christmas lunches, that spouses are not invited, 1 lunch is for each manager to take out their employees, and another lunch is for the whole office at a hotel from 11:30 - 2:00. We also have a annual kids Christmas party, which is for all employees with kids under the age of 13, each child receives a gift, has lunch and pictures with Santa, also we pay a local girl guide group to come in and do crafts.

 

[powellrj]

back when we use to have a Christmas party, when it was held during office hours, spouse weren't invited, but when it was held after office hours, spouses were included. Now we just don't have one.

DHs party was last weekend and spouses were included. It was a nice meal with an open bar and they cleaned out the warehouse to give out door prizes. Many of the prizes were really really good ones like video ipods and digital cameras. We got a pretty good one, it was a small fridge!

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

DH's company does not invite spouses. There are maybe 16 people who go out to dinner, and some of them are from the NY and California offices, so it would be too difficult to invite spouses. Fine with me! The rather amusing thing this year is that it's the same night as the Christmas party at my mom's Assisted Living home, so he'll be out at a fancy restaurant while I'll be dining and singing Christmas carols with the old folks. Well, at least I get to wear my Mickey Mouse Christmas sweater. Yes, I own one, but I only wear it with the old folks...I SWEAR!

 

[NMAmy]

We have a potluck lunch party during office hours in the office. Spouses are welcome but rarely come. We do have a lot of people bring their kids which I love.

I've only worked at one place where the company regularly had parties after hours for employees and spouses. It was actually a lot of fun.