The holiday season means it's time to take part in that time-honored tradition of getting a little bit tipsy while your employer foots the bill. Of course, it's important to do everything in your power to make sure you're not the employee everyone is gossiping about at their cubicles the next day.
Luckily, we've provided a handy refresher on what not to do at your office holiday party. What follows are a few stories of horrible, out of control holiday office parties, put into categories to help you avoid key office festivity faux pas.
Drinking contests:
"Well, once my boss challenged me to a shot contest at the start of the night. I blacked out shortly thereafter, but when I came in to work the next day, I had received the new nickname of 'Steak Pants'. I never asked what I did to get this nickname, and I really don't want to know," said reddit user bookey23.
"When I worked in marketing at a senior living organization, one of the kitchen staff brought her own bottle of booze, drank most of it, then got into a fight with her co-worker and threatened to hit her with said bottle," said one source on PayScale.
Aggression:
"Two years ago, I was working at a downtown Brooklyn law office. They held their annual holiday party at a bar in Park Slope. The firm's senior partner got filthy drunk and proceeded to berate his wife and two young children, with staff, other lawyers the firm did business with, and a few important clients present. That was bad, but the senior associate, who had been there longer than I had, told me the partner got drunk at the office holiday party EVERY YEAR, and that no one was surprised by his behavior ... least of all his wife and kids, who left without him," said Yahoo Shine commenter Cara.
"My coworkers were competing on the dance floor to see who could do the best moves. It turned into a fight and they both were let go for inappropriate behavior," said one source at Creative Group.
"Two VPs got drunk at a public event sponsored by our company (we were a big sponsor) and got into a fist fight. They both were rolling around the floor of the event (one guy bit the other guy on the shoulder during the incident) and eventually took it outside to fight it out more. They both left with bloody faces. The CFO was there, he saw everything. They both report to him (one directly I believe), but neither was fired ... they just moved one guy's office," said reddit user nikpappagiorgio.
Public urination:
"A member of upper management had far too much to drink at our Christmas party at the local country club. After dancing with anyone who would dance with him, he wandered onto the snow-covered golf course and urinated on the 10th tee -- in front of the security personnel who had noticed him and ran out to see what was going on. He was escorted off the premises (they had someone drive him home) and our company was banned from ever holding another party there," said one commenter on Yahoo Shine.
"A coworker of mine brought her own bottle of rum and her own huge cup and drank it all night. I believe she peed on herself because she had a huge wet stain on her bum and crotch area. I was the only person there who lived in her direction, and she refused to stay the night, so I ended up following her home; she was wasted," said another commenter.
We Have No Words For This One:
"I have a friend who works for a bank. For some reason their holiday party was being paid for by a law firm. During this party, which had a karaoke machine present, my friend got rip-roaring drunk on shots and booze he normally wouldn't drink but did because someone else was footing the bill. Being fully fueled with liquid courage, my friend grabbed the mic and proceeded to try and start a chant to the effect of '(Name of law firm) SUCKS!' After chanting that a few times, he sang an AC/DC song and left.
If that wasn't good enough, he proceeded to walk to a strip club with some of his co-workers, where he would eventually get a stripper's phone number. On the way he stopped, climbed up the side of the Harvard Club, stood on the windowsill and peed on the window ... in front of co-workers he has never really hung out with outside of work.
At some point in the night I also think he went back to his office and took a guy's tie and ran it through the shredder.
All in all it was a pretty good party," said reddit user folejacks.
Have a good holiday season, and don't do anything stupid... at least not publicly.