5 ms·

Work "fun" events that happen outside of work hours are totally bogus.

• frombody 6y ago
  Only if the place you work is no fun.
  • groby_b 6y ago
    My workplace is plenty fun. But so is my private life. More importantly, people in my private life need my presence more than my company fun event needs it. Easy choice.
  • LeifCarrotson 6y ago
    I'd disagree with this, and I consider my work 'fun'. In the Before Time, we had monthly summer grill-outs with families and Thanksgiving turkey bowling and winter pizza luncheons and other events. We had only one event (a Christmas party) at the founders' house after hours. But none of that was mandatory, try as you might one or two people are going to have a conflict for the Christmas party every year because the holidays are busy and that's fine. But it's one thing to ask an employee to report after-hours for an emergency service call. It's another to demand they attend something (fun or not) that could have been during work hours but you scheduled it after hours.
  • abcdjdjd 6y ago
    You sound like a stereotypical character from the movie The Office that would probably also tell people "They have the case of the Mondays".
  • thorin 6y ago
    When I first got a job after Uni, I moved to London where I knew no-one. By accident I ended up living in a house share owned by the HR lady that hired me and one of my housemates was another new dev in my team. There was plenty of money around for socializing and events planned so in the week, I had a great time going to bars, restaurants and parties at my employers expensive. Everyone loved it although it would have been nice if there were more women! They even hired the Albert Hall for a party one year. At weekends, I generally wasn't available as I would drive away to see old friends and go kayaking/climbing etc in the countryside. The weekday activities suited me perfectly. Now if I joined a new company, I have family and young kids and plenty of friends that I want to spend time with. It's pretty unlikely whether I'd spend much time out of hours with the company as it would be far down my priorities and time would is limited. If I had nothing else on or it was something special, I might turn up.
• bluefirebrand 6y ago
  Yep. People don't put up enough resistance to our workplaces invading our personal lives.
  • dimitrios1 6y ago
    It's the exact opposite. They keep coming up because most of your coworkers want these events.
    • benjohnson 6y ago
      As a business owner - I can't ethically ask my employees to have "mandatory fun time" after work. But 80% of my employees keep asking for them!
      • pc86 6y ago
        Do you know why they keep asking if they're free to get together on their own?
        • bluefirebrand 6y ago
          Because they know their co-workers don't want to hang out with them outside of work so they want the company to force them to, maybe?
        • jdminhbg 6y ago
          * The business will pay * The business will take care of the organizing * Making it a "work event" gives them slack from family members who might otherwise balk at coworker happy hour
          • abcdjdjd 6y ago
            >* The business will pay While possible, I highly doubt getting an even paid for is stopping people from going to do things. If that was the case, restaurants would never be in business. >* The business will take care of the organizing Again, same thing. If this was an issue, then restaurants and parks would not exist, people can organize if they really want too. >* Making it a "work event" gives them slack from family members who might otherwise balk at coworker happy hour This is possibly the issue, but that sounds like a personal problem for them that they should speak to a therapist about. If they stay after work working longer hours or try to force events to avoid people at their home, then that is there concern and others shouldn't be punished for it. Not to make light of their situation. But people work long hours enough in this country, let people do what they want after work without forcing meetings after work. Which is EXACTLY what these things are, meetings. Anyone who says otherwise, try getting drunk at these meetings and saying whatever you want and see if you still have a job. If it wasn't a meeting, then none of that would matter.
• fuzzer37 6y ago
  If they're organized by the company, I totally agree. We have (had) a group who voluntarily organized and went out to a local bar after work on Fridays. Everyone was welcome, and no one felt pressured to go or not go.
  • el_dev_hell 6y ago
    <rant> You hit the nail on the head. After work drinks on Friday are enjoyable because they're informal and not (usually) arranged as a company initiative. It's a chance to let off the work related stress with a group of people in a similar situation while being on neutral territory. Don't want to come to Friday after work drinks? Sweet, have a good afternoon. I'll be smashing a pint with/without you. Friday Zoom drinks from 5-6PM can die. No, I don't want to sit in a quasi-optional meeting with 25 people arranged by HR/management. It's not comparable to shooting the shit with a selection of staff that have formed a connection organically. The best way to determine the success/failure of Friday drinks is the percentage of people still present at 6:05PM. It's at least 50% below the 5:55PM number. At a local bar/pub, it's pretty stable until 7-8 and you're usually an hour past talking pure "work" shit. </rant>
  • peruvian 6y ago
    Nothing beats ranting about the company or your boss with a few coworkers on a Friday evening.
    • noarchy 6y ago
      This is fine until the boss shows up. No on wants to tell the boss to get lost, even if the event isn't officially on work time.
      • collyw 6y ago
        Personally I love a bit of work drama like that, when someone blurts out something not realising the boss is there listening.
• collyw 6y ago
  Depends who you work with. Saying that when I consider co-workers my friends then such events don't feel like "work" events.