Why I Don’t Attend Office Parties

As you face up to the inevitable office party this year, think about the following:

Does this image look familiar?

A company that will spend fifty pounds a head to take you to a tax deductible party but wouldn’t give you fifty pounds a year as a pay rise isn’t really interested in you. Right ? You will get to “enjoy” the company of people that you already spent most of your life around. Most of the people that you work with are not people that you really like. Lets face it, you didn’t fucking choose them, life chose them for you. You get to talk about work. (There’s a great idea.) You have to be careful what you say. Office Politics and all that.

Look, before you call me a grinch, I like working and love my job. Networking is an amazing career choice, full of options, interesting work and good people. Some of them I would even class as friends. But I’m not convinced that going to a party is a good life choice.

Remember

You need to look after your own career, and your own life. While you clutch that glass of chateauneuf du crap, and stare across the discarded catering food that you didn’t really like, and gape at the group of people that you see at least five days a week, think about what you are doing and ask why ? Why am I here ? Remember who you are going to wake up with in the morning. That’s right. Yourself first. That’s why I don’t go to the Fucking Office Christmas Parties, or leaving parties, or team parties. I’m at home, doing something that I want to do. Go out and get on with your life. Work shouldn’t consume your life, it’s just part of it.

Most importantly, remember: The company that you work for doesn’t love you as much as you should love yourself.