It's works Christmas party season. Have you got any interesting stories from your works dos?
We don't really have an official Christmas works do so we miss out on the fallout of such events!
Yank here. My (vet tech) wife's boss throws a big party every year, with catered food, games, and prizes. We left one year with nearly $1k in gift certificates.
Several years back, pre-covid is all I can remember for sure, we were all a few drinks in and playing games.
One woman sitting at my table had a few more drinks than the rest.
The game was, you're passed a 'gift' wrapped several times. You take off as much as you can during your turn, hoping to get the final layer off on your turn.
But this drunk lady just heard "When you are passed the present, take off a layer."
Yup. She stood up and started stripping off her clothes. We stopped her before it got bad.
Oh damn! Did she remember what happened? What was it like the next time you saw her?
That game is called "pass the parcel" by the way!
We stopped her before anything was taken off. If I remember right she skipped the next party and has since retired. No idea if she'd gone to the party two years after as I did not.
Interesting? Kinda depends on your interests.
I'm from the US, so if that negates the story, no worries. Also, it involves sex to a degree, ao be aware.
I used to be a nurse's assistant. I worked mainly home health. The agency I worked for right before I had to stop working was privately owned, not part of a chain or linked to a facility. Which meant that some things were looser than others.
So, Christmas rolls around, and me being one of a very small number of guys employed at all, and being the only one with a beard and glasses, I was asked to play Santa. A red suit, some beard chalk, and I was off and running.
Me and my supervisor went around to patients' homes, brought them gifts, and generally had fun with the patients and their family. My supervisor called it "ho-ing around". Turns out, I really enjoy playing Santa, which is a tangent, but it was just amazing how much laughter and smiles putting on a cheap costume and laughing silly can bring. The patients, their families, even getting Christmas wishes from kids, it was so wonderful. One of my best memories from the job.
It went well, and the owner asked me if I would do it for the office party. I was riding high on Christmas spirit and agreed wholeheartedly.
The first part of the evening was super fun. All the employees could bring their kids and have a Santa session. The younger kids were just as ebullient and happy as you could hope for, and the older kids played along with it. One of them hopped on my knee and whispered in my ear that she knew I wasn't the real santa, but that's okay because he's busy, and I was doing a nice job. Most of the adults had to get a picture on Santa's knee too, which brought out the usual hilarity.
Once the evening hit full night, it was an adults only office party. Not a big booze fest or anything, but there was wine and snacks. Some of the office staff that enjoyed the wine more than others wanted santa pictures again, which came with some rather ribald jokes whispered into my ear. One of the ladies wanted a pic with her bent over my knees, with my arm up like I was spanking her, while she held a big piece of plastic coal. Which then got repeated by several others as a good idea.
The night winds down, with a couple of people being driven home by co-workers since they had a tad too much wine to drive themselves.
That left me to change out of costume, and I went into the "teaching" room that's set up with a decent approximation of how a patient's room might be set up, so that new hires could demonstrate competency, and for continuing education. I'm undressing, and there's a knock on the door. I say I'll just be a minute, and my boss, the owner asks if she can come in. I say I'm dressing, she asks if she can come in anyway.
I said yes. What followed is a little too NSFW to go into detail in a community like this, even though it happened at work (kinda). Suffice it to say that we changed the sheets on the bed when we were done, and cleaned up thoroughly so the room would be okay to use for the next inservice.
After that, it turned into a little fling between us. Nothing serious, but it was very nice while it lasted, and it ended just as friendly and happy as one could ever hope
Now, I know that's not exactly something that would be acceptable in the workplace in general, but I don't regret it, and my boss never applied any coercion at all, in any way. She was, and is, a very good person, and I still count her as a friend.
So, no major fallout. Nothing went wrong, and if anyone ever found out about it, they didn't say anything. Worst thing that came of the party itself was one of the staff throwing up in my supervisor's car.
Newly engaged mid level male employee was making out passionately with the female office assistant half his age. Both extremely drunk but that's no excuse to be such a pathetic cliche.
Thankfully someone senior ensured the man made it home safely and the office assistant sobered a little and continued on with us as if nothing stupid had occurred.
Sadly I left the company shortly after so didn't get to see the awkwardness and any fallout that followed.
So many from way back when. During my first job, we were banned from most places in the town due to our behaviour the previous year. Almost always ended up in a food fight.
Few years later I was I can only describe as assaulted by two very attractive but very drunk colleagues. They were pretty anxious the next day that there’d be repercussions…
Vaguely remember one year out with colleagues and boss, and we persuaded him to see how far his money would go. He got the max he could out of an atm and we started laying it end to end across the road through traffic.
Those are the first three that spring to mind. Thanks for the hazy memories.
My boss gave me a hand job under the table in a pub at my first ever works Christmas party. Don't know if that counts as interesting but it captured my attention at the time.