The Ghost of Christmas Parties Past
Today is our “unofficial” company Christmas lunch. It’s "unofficial" because the company no longer has official Christmas parties. Around here, the “holiday” spirit has been replaced with the “cost cutting measure” spirit.
It wasn’t always that way. My employer used to be known far and wide for their elaborate holiday parties. People would plan for weeks on attending, and they’d spend big bucks dressing up for a wild night on the town. (You could see every fashion design you could imagine, from tuxedos to Fredericks of Hollywood, and everything in between.) There always was tons of food, decent bands, and a good time all around. They’d rent out the local convention center, and upwards of 15,000 employees & guests would show up for a night of partying.
But that was back in the “good old days”, when there were 9,000 people working here in our location (and a total of 38,000 worldwide). Nowadays most of the party attendees have been pink-slipped and moved on with their lives, while the rest of us? Well, Christmas Past is just a memory.
Here’s how the timeframe went:
In 1998, my first year here, the special musical guest for the Christmas party was “War”. There were also two comedians, a country band, a dance band (“The Gloryholes”, if you can imagine such a name), and a karaoke room. The buffet took up probably close to 40 tables. There were drinks-a-plenty, and the nearby hotels offered special rates for those too wasted to make it home safely (which seemed to be about half the attendees, if I remember right). It was a helluva party, and one you wouldn’t forget for a long time.
In 1999, the musical guest was “Big Head Todd and the Monsters”.
In 2000, the headlining band was “REO Speedwagon”. Three days before the party the company announced lower than expected Q4 earnings, and said that they’d lay off 12% of their staff, in a move they called “right-sizing”. But the party was booked and paid for, so even though it wasn’t as jolly as years before, it still went on. Still, REO rocked that night, and everyone tried (for one night, at least) to put behind them the awful things that were about to happen.
2001? Our staff of 38,000 was now down to about 20,000. They had right-sized, and then some. We had a company wide potluck. No band. Just a boombox playing stale Christmas music, while we were invited to eat all the food we brought ourselves.
In 2002, for Christmas we all got a week of unpaid leave. They practically shut the entire company down for 6 days, which we had to take without pay as a “cost savings measure”. The remaining 20,000 was now about 12,000. No potluck.
We got the same thing in 2003 – a week of unpaid leave. Oh, and I should also mention that 7,500 of my co-workers also got canned on December 3rd of that year, including 5 of the 9 remaining writers in my team. Yeah, Merry Christmas indeed.
In 2004 they didn’t even mention Christmas, other than sponsoring the Salvation Army Angel Tree donations in the front lobby. Our writing team, now down to 3 of us (thanks to yet another round of job cuts in Sept 04), went “dutch” to a local BBQ place for a Christmas lunch. We also had our week off at Christmas again, only this time they let us use vacation time if we had some saved.
So now here we are at Christmas 2005. Skippy Whitebread wants us to all go out for pizza today, which I’m sure means the all-you-can-eat buffet at the nearby Godfather’s. It’s not gourmet, but maybe there will be an REO CD in the jukebox for old times sake.
But despite the way the years have gone up and down, I’ll try to enjoy the time with my small-but-tight crew. We’ve certainly seen the highs and lows that this place has to offer, but we’ll try to loosen up for the afternoon, and say a little prayer for a brighter tomorrow.
And just to be safe, I’d add an extra little prayer that the pizza doesn’t give Skippy gas. Nobody wants that for Christmas.
It wasn’t always that way. My employer used to be known far and wide for their elaborate holiday parties. People would plan for weeks on attending, and they’d spend big bucks dressing up for a wild night on the town. (You could see every fashion design you could imagine, from tuxedos to Fredericks of Hollywood, and everything in between.) There always was tons of food, decent bands, and a good time all around. They’d rent out the local convention center, and upwards of 15,000 employees & guests would show up for a night of partying.
But that was back in the “good old days”, when there were 9,000 people working here in our location (and a total of 38,000 worldwide). Nowadays most of the party attendees have been pink-slipped and moved on with their lives, while the rest of us? Well, Christmas Past is just a memory.
Here’s how the timeframe went:
In 1998, my first year here, the special musical guest for the Christmas party was “War”. There were also two comedians, a country band, a dance band (“The Gloryholes”, if you can imagine such a name), and a karaoke room. The buffet took up probably close to 40 tables. There were drinks-a-plenty, and the nearby hotels offered special rates for those too wasted to make it home safely (which seemed to be about half the attendees, if I remember right). It was a helluva party, and one you wouldn’t forget for a long time.
In 1999, the musical guest was “Big Head Todd and the Monsters”.
In 2000, the headlining band was “REO Speedwagon”. Three days before the party the company announced lower than expected Q4 earnings, and said that they’d lay off 12% of their staff, in a move they called “right-sizing”. But the party was booked and paid for, so even though it wasn’t as jolly as years before, it still went on. Still, REO rocked that night, and everyone tried (for one night, at least) to put behind them the awful things that were about to happen.
2001? Our staff of 38,000 was now down to about 20,000. They had right-sized, and then some. We had a company wide potluck. No band. Just a boombox playing stale Christmas music, while we were invited to eat all the food we brought ourselves.
In 2002, for Christmas we all got a week of unpaid leave. They practically shut the entire company down for 6 days, which we had to take without pay as a “cost savings measure”. The remaining 20,000 was now about 12,000. No potluck.
We got the same thing in 2003 – a week of unpaid leave. Oh, and I should also mention that 7,500 of my co-workers also got canned on December 3rd of that year, including 5 of the 9 remaining writers in my team. Yeah, Merry Christmas indeed.
In 2004 they didn’t even mention Christmas, other than sponsoring the Salvation Army Angel Tree donations in the front lobby. Our writing team, now down to 3 of us (thanks to yet another round of job cuts in Sept 04), went “dutch” to a local BBQ place for a Christmas lunch. We also had our week off at Christmas again, only this time they let us use vacation time if we had some saved.
So now here we are at Christmas 2005. Skippy Whitebread wants us to all go out for pizza today, which I’m sure means the all-you-can-eat buffet at the nearby Godfather’s. It’s not gourmet, but maybe there will be an REO CD in the jukebox for old times sake.
But despite the way the years have gone up and down, I’ll try to enjoy the time with my small-but-tight crew. We’ve certainly seen the highs and lows that this place has to offer, but we’ll try to loosen up for the afternoon, and say a little prayer for a brighter tomorrow.
And just to be safe, I’d add an extra little prayer that the pizza doesn’t give Skippy gas. Nobody wants that for Christmas.
posted by Tommy G at
9:47 AM
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