My husband’s company had their holiday party last night.  It was after work, at a martini bar, and no spouses (or guests) were invited.  The Human Resource side of me thought that was a recipe for disaster, but the Human side of me was a little bummed out.  I always love having a good excuse to get dressed up and go out for martinis, and I would have enjoyed meeting some more of his coworkers.  Seeing my significant other through the eyes of people who interact with him in a work capacity can be both entertaining and heartwarming.  And having the real face to go with the story about the 200 pound tattooed lady who saved the day when she cornered the coyote in the lobby would be priceless.

So I did what any rational person would do, and went to the blogosphere to find others to commiserate with.  It’s the one place where no matter how bad you think you have it, you can easily find 10,000 people who have it worse.

What I found is that a lot of people have their tinsel in a tangle over the office holiday party scene.

Outside of the standard rules for office party etiquette, Google produced close to 4 million recent posts related to office holiday parties (note:  I didn’t read them all) with employee complaints ranging from not liking the people they work with, wishing they could just have the money instead, and being offended by any of a million different things that already happened at this year’s party.  It makes me wonder:  Are these the same people who, as kids, were the first to find out there was no such thing as Santa and proceed to spoil it for the rest of us?

Has it really come to this?
Dram shop laws, sexual harassment cases, and cultural sensitivity efforts have left us about as upbeat for the holidays as the winner of the macramé toilet tissue cover at last year’s white elephant gift exchange.

In the Wall Street Journal On-Line, Wendy Bounds asks “Should We Abolish the Office Holiday Party?”  Some of the responses she gets might remind you why you would choose to party solo. 

Charles McConnell says Goodbye to the Old-Fashioned Holiday Office Party concluding “the old-fashioned holiday party is too risky to undertake.”

If you aren’t convinced yet, check out MSNBC contributor Eve Tahmincioglu’s post
“Holiday parties hold peril for unwary workers.”  The office worker behavior she mentions makes me nostalgic for my freshman year fraternity-sorority exchanges. 

The optimist in me refuses to believe that the opinions in these articles are representative of the whole.  Please tell me:  is this just  example of extreme journalists building a negative spin for a story?  Or have office parties really become such a minefield of potential missteps that I should make sure to have my attorney present at the next one I attend?

If you decide to go to your office party
Check out Slacker Manager’s Office Holiday Survival Tips– particularly item #3. 

If you decide not to go to your office party
Make sure you send your regrets.  This Holiday Party excuse generator will come up with the appropriate excuse for your circumstances, and will even write the note for you!

Whatever you decide, be safe and be happy.  And I look forward to your stories.

Cheers!