Oh boy, company holiday party approaching soon

Well folks, using my own self-imposed DADT rules, I normally try to stick to these to protect myself and family:

1. Don't involve anyone I already know
2 Don't involve any neighbors
3. Don't involve people from work

That has worked fairly well for me so far, but - at last year?s holiday party, my coworkers and boss declared they have never seen me drunk. I was drinking water when they thought I had been drinking alcohol, so I was pretty sober compared to them. Even so, they ended up pushing all kinds of drinks at me as I tried to slow them down, but alas I became quite buzzed anyhow. Somehow I ended up at a table with a bunch of pretty wives and girlfriends of people from work, none of whom I knew. While pretty much drunk, I violated my rules and showed a couple of them pictures of me fully dressed. That let into conversations which at this point I can't completely recall, but we talked a long while. When leaving, one of them came running outside and gave me a big hug. Then she told me whose wife she is. I thought to myself OMG she will tell hubby and everyone will know, but I never heard a peep as of yet.

So now we have this year?s party approaching. I am a little worried for us to get back together again. I hope she can keep a lid on it. I do remember her telling me some things I probably should not know about her as well, so maybe she is cool regarding confidentiality. I sure hope so. Some of the postings here regarding what happened at work are very scary to me. In particular, the story where someone had to leave the hotel room because of a fire alarm and everyone from work saw him dressed outside. That is really scary to me what happened to him. I felt very badly about that posting. Anyhow, wish me luck. Note to self: Add new rule to my list ? don?t get drunk at company parties. Seems obvious now. Sigh.

Worried,

Sandi

Sandi,
I completely agree with your rule(s).
I hate going to company parties plus I dont trust anywone I work with to keep quiet on things.

Heidi

Sandi, Definitely lay low on the alcohol this year. Nothing has been said that you know of so you may be fine. I also do not think I would talk too much about this side of you. Good luck, and let us know how you do.

Seems like a lot to do about nothing...

If you have not received any blowback in the past year from her husband, what's the worry?

You might try bringing a flask with some iced tea and pouring yourself a "drink" from there. People will think you're drinking and, hopefully, leave you alone. 20,000 b-girls can't be wrong!

Sounds like all is well, beware the booze this time round, in any case have fun and enjoy yourself.

I probably don't have anything to worry about like you said. It's just that I have one coworker who would love to have something to hold over my head. I threw him under the bus some years ago, because I would not lie to cover for a big mistake he made. He never let go of it, and it dissolved what I thought was a friendship. I am never going to lie to cover for someone at work. It would be bad if he got wind of it. I doubt anyone else would care.

I kind of like the comment about using tea. I will drink tea and just act drunk I guess. Ha ha.

Sandi

"Loose lips sink slips!"

U know what the 3 main forms of communication were in the 1940's?:doh:

Telephone, telegraph, and tellawoman!:battingeyelashes:

You might want to stay away from the alchohol this year. I used to drink ginger ale or cranberry juice when I wanted to look like I was drinking but wanted to keep my wits.

Other "faux" drinks you could use are:

Tonic with lime (people assume there's gin in there)
Cranberry Juice with club soda (add vodka and it's called a Nantucket)

I agree that if you haven't heard anything in the past year, your fears are groundless......in this case.

However; I believe in being prepared. You might want to ponder, only slightly, your plan "B" in case that certain someone at work does find out. I had similar thoughts and decided that if push came to shove I'd "OWN IT" and let the chips fall where they may. Scary talk but that was my decision. Only you can make yours.

Good Luck at the party and please let us know how it turns out.

I never drink at work functions, too easy to loose your job.

Too many people think there are no consequences to events at company parties. Like Jamie, I stay away from alcohol at company functions.

What kind of professional organization encourages employees to get drunk, even at parties? And why would you allow yourself to be inebriated to the point of revealing such a personal fact about yourself to a group of people you never saw before?

If you’re serious about keeping your dressing to yourself, tell folks nothing, stay on the right side of sobriety regardless of pressure and don’t show any more pics to strangers or quasi-strangers.

WOW talk about putting yourself out there. Stick to water this year Sandi. :hugs:
Angie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Patience

What kind of professional organization encourages employees to get drunk, even at parties? And why would you allow yourself to be inebriated to the point of revealing such a personal fact about yourself to a group of people you never saw before?

If you’re serious about keeping your dressing to yourself, tell folks nothing, stay on the right side of sobriety regardless of pressure and don’t show any more pics to strangers or quasi-strangers.

---

Seriously? I have worked for a few different companies over the years. Then add in the companies my wife has worked. Booze has flowed freely at all of the company parties without exception. It didn't matter if it were a professional, medical type company, a "trades" blue collar type service company.

But to get inebriated to the point of confessing all, bad stuff. Good way to "out" yourself. I can not help but to think that even though nobody has said anything, it has been the subject of many discussions. Fortunately the employer is able to split up job performance with personal lifestyle.

Of course I was asking seriously. Also rhetorically.

Pumped, if you're honest, you'll admit that none of the companies you worked for actually encouraged you or your spouse to become inebriated, and even if they did whenever you happened to work there, do you think they'd do so nowadays, with liability laws, etc?

In any case, we seem to be in agreement that spilling our purses in front of co-workers is not a good idea. Drunk or not.

Patience, how about an open, drink all you want bar? Company pays for it all. And this wasn't twenty years ago, just last year, about this time. Both companies my wife and I are employed have parties with open bar. As for encouraging it, It was never forced, but it was certainly available and I have never seen any employee cut off. Many times owners are the ones that are bombed, never to the point they they are falling over, but severely slurred speech and a little stagger when they walk. At the parties the owners will pay for cab fare to get your sorry butt home. A couple years ago one employee was so wasted he couldn't function and longer. Someone called a cab, and 3-4 of us loaded him up and a couple guys went in the cab home with him to make sure he got home alright, then the cab ran them back to continue to party.

Where I work, late Friday afternoon the company opens up the beer fridge with company supplied beer, and if you are not a beer drinker, there is company supplied booze along with a few employee supplied bottles of the hard stuff in various desk drawers that the owners are aware of. Many times the owners are the ones doing barhop duty. They do limit it on Fridays, to 2-3 drinks. This all happens with customers coming in and out. It is well known, I do outside sales and customers comment often about us getting "beer thirty" Fridays. We also get lunch provided 1 or 2 days a week for the whole company. It might be pizza or burgers and once in a while we have had fillet mignon with baked potatoes, veggies and salad. Also I work for a company of roughly forty employees, so we are not some huge corporation, but not some mom and pop either.

Drinking at a company party is always the employee's responsibility as is drinking anytime. All the companies I have worked for always had alcohol at company parties however a few years my current company stopped it after a high level executive ended up with a DUI afterward.

Sandi, I hope the coast is clear this time and nobody says anything. :)

Hey all, I agree 100% with the comments regarding the fact that drinking responsibly is up to the individual, not the company. Even so as Pumped commented, the opportunity is there as the alcohol is very available at many a party I have attended. In this case the company was aware of the potential liability, and we had an Uber code for free transportation to and from the event from our hotel. I am certainly not flaw free, but I will not be making the same mistake again. I probably did not elaborate despite my typical verbose posts. We had a company dinner with free flowing alcohol. I did not see anyone drunk at the actual party. It was the trip to the bar afterwards where most everyone was plastered including my boss and his boss - much more so than I. Unfortunately while sitting with a bunch of wives, I was thinking that I really did not want to be there. I wanted to be dressed as a woman at another bar in the same city. That is when I got sloppy and pulled out my phone pictures. They were very nice about it, but it won't happen this year for sure. If someone brings it up this year. I won't deny it but will blow it off as something I did a few times for kicks, and maybe it will just get dropped.

If something freaky happens, I will come back and post it.

Cheers,
Sandi

Sandi, You got it figured out so just enjoy yourself! Good luck and let us know either way.