Office Holiday Stuff
Dec. 5th, 2006 10:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisI just got word that my division's holiday party is set for next Monday, 1-5 PM. I have no excuse not to attend: it's during business hours in the conference rooms in my own data center. I'm sure management will be taking notes who attends.
It's not that it'll be a horrible event but I'm not fond of office socials, especially mandatory socials. My professional relationships are not the same as my family relationships or friendships: I prefer to keep them separate. Events designed to manipulate one into another feel unnecessary invasive into my otherwise normally ordered world. Still, when the time comes, I'll grin & be appropriately cheery, partake in the food & beverages and schmooze as needed. Once I'm sure all the appropriate levels of management have noted my attendance, I can slip away quietly.
In other news, my employer is doing a toy collection for local charities. This year, a large tree is in the lobby of our building, decorated with tags; each tag is from a child in a shelter or who uses a food bank who describes what they'd like for a holiday present. Employees are invited to take a tag from the tree, obtain the gift, attach the tag to it, and place the wrapped gift under the tree by next Wednesday for delivery to the child. We've always done a gift drive, but I think this is the most elegant, best organized and labor-free mechanism used thus far. It certainly beats having volunteers trapping people in their cubes asking for cash donations.
It's not that it'll be a horrible event but I'm not fond of office socials, especially mandatory socials. My professional relationships are not the same as my family relationships or friendships: I prefer to keep them separate. Events designed to manipulate one into another feel unnecessary invasive into my otherwise normally ordered world. Still, when the time comes, I'll grin & be appropriately cheery, partake in the food & beverages and schmooze as needed. Once I'm sure all the appropriate levels of management have noted my attendance, I can slip away quietly.
In other news, my employer is doing a toy collection for local charities. This year, a large tree is in the lobby of our building, decorated with tags; each tag is from a child in a shelter or who uses a food bank who describes what they'd like for a holiday present. Employees are invited to take a tag from the tree, obtain the gift, attach the tag to it, and place the wrapped gift under the tree by next Wednesday for delivery to the child. We've always done a gift drive, but I think this is the most elegant, best organized and labor-free mechanism used thus far. It certainly beats having volunteers trapping people in their cubes asking for cash donations.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
A suggested way to avoid party conversation
Date: 2006-12-05 06:09 pm (UTC)Have a sticky "hello my name is..." nametag, either as "Rudolph" (with red nose) or "Olive"[*] (no red nose), and a second one that says "sorry, reindeer can't speak". Then go through the rest of the party as mute as Harpo Marx (pointing to your mute label when appropriate). Smile beatifically, nurse a drink, get yourself seen by Those Who Will Be Taking Attendance (and with the antlers, they'll notice you), and disappear after half an hour.
[*] the other reindeer, who used to laugh and call Rudolph names
(the userpic is me at easter -- I can't readily find a more seasonally appropriate photo of moi and antlers)