Party Party

The Christmas office party season is now in full swing around the world. Speaking a few days back with a former work mate in New Zealand, they are off to a horse racing meet for the evening. I remember those, they were great fun. It was also a clever fund raising idea by the harness racing community, which struggles a bit for funding. We got a private table for the evening, got to name a race (which usually resulted in some kind of cryptic slur against the boss), and some lucky sod got to ride in the mobile starting gate truck. A good night had by all.

Swedes also love office parties. I suppose we must have 4 official parties a year. The format is generally the same every time: dinner, music, and some kind of game or group activity. Dinner is fine, the music I can live with, but must we have stupid bloody party games every frickin time ? Have they never heard of the time honoured tradition of just falling down drunk ? Last week's party involved 10 pin bowling. For about 100 people. Heaps of fun. If you like bowling, that is. Otherwise it's as boring as shit. I admit, I'm not a bowler, and have no intentions of ever being one. Despite it being almost a national sport in Sweden. So it wasn't the high point of my evening. Especially when it spanned around 3 hours. The next night was another party, and another stupid game. Guess the song from a one half second burst of music. Turns out it was real simple if you're 18 and hang around the danceclubs every weekend. But, for the life of me, I didn't hear one single song from Wham or the Village People. So I was stuffed.

Swedes are permanently stressed that everyone should have a good time at social events. Excellent sentiments, can't fault them for that. But there is such a thing as trying too hard. What might be fun for one person might be a complete waste of time for someone else. Some times it's best just to let people do what feels right for themselves on the night.

It's interesting to compare the companies that my wife and I work for. Both are large international companies of similar size and stature. Both are also foreign owned and operate within the same industries. Yet, when it comes to social functions, my wife's company extends an invitation to the parters of employees while my company does not. Why that is, I don't know. But I do have an opinion about the decisions. I'm all in favour of partners being included. I think it's a small price to pay quite frankly. I believe it's both right and appropriate to acknowledge the contribution that our partners make to our working lives. If I didn't take care of her horse occasionally, my wife wouldn't be able to go away and generate massive profits for her company. If she didn't feed me, I'd be dead and earning no money for my company. It's a package deal and I firmly believe that it should be recognised as such. It's a big deal for me. I think it sets the tone for a company and what type of employer they are. A big black mark for my employer over that decision.