Company hosts 'mandatory' party on New Year's Eve, expects employees to drop everything: 'A company party on New Year’s Eve isn’t generous it’s intrusive'

Would you go to a company party on New Year's Eve?

New Year's Eve, at least in my worldview, is a very important holiday. It's a time to reflect on the year gone by, think about all you accomplished, all you learned, the music you listened to, the films you watched, and the friends you made. It's also a time for friends. After a slew of family holidays, New Year's Eve is for friends. It's for the people who carried you through the year. It's for wearing a sparkly dress and letting loose. Whether you stay in or go out, New Year's Eve is for you to do exactly what you want to do. It's not a time for obligations. Maybe you have to work, or you have to take care of someone, but it's not a time for quasi-mandatory company outings. Certainly not. It's hard to get anyone to those events during non-holidays, but what about on a holiday itself?

Company parties occupy a weird space between mandatory and non-mandatory. Nothing can be truly mandatory because you're not on the clock. But these things have a way of meaning something to the people who throw them. They might be silently tracking your attendance and using it as information regarding potential raises or promotions. You never know. So most employees do their best to be there, even if they don't necessarily want to. But there are certain boundaries that we can place around these types of events, and attending one on a holiday might be one.