Went to an after work work dinner during the week, the visiting management were all at one end ordering extra beers, making lots of noise, and eating lots of food … down at my end the people who have been here a while, and have to be up early the next morning and do actual work, picked at a bit of the food and then waited patiently while chatting a bit.

I was exhausted when I arrived, and just felt awkward. Plus one of the managers kept staring at me, which helped no end :-/

Wouldn’t you know after months of no field work, I had field work the day of our summer party. I’d have to drive past home to get back to the party. I did the math and, with gas prices how they are, it was cheaper for me to drive home and drink the beer I already paid for that it would have been to drive to the party for free beer. So I went home.

I feel you. I had that 2 weeks ago. Corporate mandated picnic that was 5 hours of seminars that could have been a 5 minute newsletter followed by an hour of corporate landed “fun.” Plus I had to work after, so my day was 13 hours while everyone else got to go home with a full day’s pay.

Today it’s a “mandatory” 9am staff meeting with the director and another 13 hour day.

Mine is in a couple of weeks. At least it’s open bar. And I don’t have to drive there. And I took the next day off. But honestly I’d rather they just took all that money of the cost of the event and split it across the company as a bonus… You know, because everyone has been working super hard. And shit is expensive. Or just give people more time off.