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“Layoffs After Potluck”: 30 Of The Craziest Things That Happened At A Work Christmas Party
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! It’s also a time when office Christmas parties are happening left and right, and alcohol flows almost freely. And when booze-filled behavior takes over, you can expect an unhinged event to take place.
These responses to a recent Reddit post prove that. One user asked, “What's the craziest thing that has happened at your work Christmas party?” People shared personal accounts of their wildest work party experiences. Some are laughable, while others may induce feelings of second-hand shame.
Enjoy scrolling through these stories, and if you haven’t celebrated your company's Christmas party yet, do so responsibly. This thread should be your cautionary tale.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
We played Yankee Swap. Fairly early in the game, one of our older, obnoxious, and rude employees unwrapped a homemade painting and made a joke along the lines of "I didn't realize we were doing gag gifts. I'll definitely try and get someone to take this thing that was probably grabbed out of a dumpster." I could see our very young office intern — who also happened to be one of the kindest and sweetest humans I've ever met — go red in the face, and she was clearly trying hard to hold back tears. Of course, the rude employee was clueless. Needless to say, I stole that painting later in the game and hung it up in my cubicle with pride, where it remained for several years before I changed jobs.
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#2
I worked at a large Call Centre, so Christmas parties were based on a team by team basis, so circa 18 people.
This year, ours was held at a local pub /restaurant which specialised as a carvery (in the UK big slabs of beef, turkey or pork etc plus trimmings)
The food came out, and this one very drunk woman, was unimpressed at her 2 slices of beef.
She complained to the staff, but they reiterated, 2 slices of the chosen meat only.
She went back to her table, still grumbling and drank some more.
Eventually she snapped... She went to the counter, picked up the entire roast beef and ran off into the car park with the pub staff in pursuit, leaving the rest of us dumbstruck.
She seemed to be heading for her car, but a few yards outside of the pub, just before being caught by the following pub staff and our manager, the burning hot roast beef, made it's feeling known through her hands and to her brain.
Burned, and defeated, she dropped the beef and fell to the floor... Along with her meaty trophy.
She had burned her palms quite badly, so we had to call an ambulance to take her to hospital.
The night came to a sudden and flat end.
She was released from hospital, and on her return to work was given a final written warning, and asked to reimburse the pub for one, lost roast beef joint.
We had expected her to get sacked, but as was typical for this company, they waited another month and engineered her dismassal for something else.
The whole saga went down in company folklore as 'Beefgate'.
#3
One year I was asked if I'd be willing to dress up as Santa for our Holiday Party. I didn't think I was going to be very convincing but reluctantly agreed. Day of the party were were all hanging out in the warehouse eating cookies and drinking coffee and having breakfast and I told the few people I was sitting with that I had to go outside and make a call. I really went to go change into my Santa costume. I came back yelling Ho Ho Ho as loud as I could, put on my best jolly old man voice, drew names out of hat, handed out prizes, took pictures with staff, ate cookies, then said I had to go as my sleigh was double parked....
Came back in after changing and the amount of people that legitimately thought I missed Santa was very surprising. People I stood next to and took pictures with were telling me how I missed out. Like, grown a*s adults. I couldn't believe it. At first I thought people were just being nice or just joshing me, but throughout the day people kept asking who Santa was and telling me how bummed I must be for missing it. One of the girls finally put two and two together when she asked "weren't you there for breakfast?" and I said yeah I was sitting with so and so and she asked where I went and I said I went outside to take a call and didn't realize I was out there for so long and that by the time I came back in santa was gone and she just gave me suspicious eyes and I winked at her and left it at that.
S**t was crazy.
#4
In the first hour of the party, the CEO grabbed a microphone and lectured us all to not “get wasted and embarrass the company tonight”.
Four hours later, we watched him argue with his pregnant wife about which of them was going to drive since she was stone-cold sober and he was s**t-faced. He got pulled over not 50 feet out of the restaurant parking lot and we all watched him get arrested for DUI while still wearing his blinking Santa hat.
#5
My first job was at a shipyard; the Christmas parties were always beer-filled & raucous. During one party, two people who hated each other immensely got stinkin' drunk; one was 5', 160 lbs (call him Small Guy), the other was a 6', 300 lb weight lifter with a very nasty attitude (Big Guy).
Near the end of the Party, Small Guy decides to walk up behind Big Guy and p**s down his leg. Big Guy was totally oblivious to what was happening; and so the p**s was loosed upon him. Their two supervisors and I are having a conversation, which suddenly stops as both of them see what Small Guy is doing. We held our breath to see what Big Guy would do; he was so drunk as to be oblivious to what happened.
The supervisors talk quickly to each other, out of my earshot. Small Guy's supervisor rushes to Small Guy and ushers him out of the room at light-speed. Big Guy's supervisor quietly and surreptitiously spills a beer on the floor and places the bottle at Big Guy's feet. He tells Big Guy he must have spilled a beer on himself that was on a table near where he was standing, and told him to change his clothes (our lockers w/ coveralls were near-by) and he would mop up the mess. Big Guy thanks his supervisor, and goes to change without a question. No one but we three saw what happened, so damage was contained.
When I was leaving, both of the supervisors came over to me, and asked if I had seen what transpired. I told them I had. Both swore me to absolute secrecy, because Big Guy would twist off Small Guy's head, then come after the supervisors. I told them I didn't want him coming after me either - he was a nasty piece of work - so I told them no problem.
#6
Around 11-13 years ago a male colleague showed up to our fancy ball in a dress, long wig, full face of makeup. No one knew if he did drag previously or anything, it was completely out of the blue to us all. He downed many drinks, accused every one of being judgemental about his life choices, picked fights with individuals, and was then found almost passed out in a toilet stall where security was called. He ended up punching on with the security guard and more were called so he was removed from the event kicking and screaming, whipped the wig off his head and then kept whipping the second security guard with it.
It was a lot.
But on the Monday it was even weirder. He was called to the big bosses office and proceeded to say it wasn’t him, he never did drag, he wasn’t even at the party, he’d been at his wife’s work Christmas party on the other side of the city.
Wish I knew what happened but I left that job soon after.
#7
All in the same night, one of the guys broke up with one of the girls and she ran out crying, two of the married workers hooked up in the bathroom (they were not married to eachother), one of our guy's wives got extremely drunk and was flirting with EVERYBODY and I managed to win a tablet and $100 in amazon gift cards.
#8
I won $1000 in a charity 50/50 draw we did a few years back.
That covered my bar bill, and hotel costs (since the party was some distance from where I actually live). Plus prob paid off most of my Xmas shopping.
Huge win.
#9
OOOH, I have so many! (All different years, some different companies)
1. Urinal torn off the wall.
So many fights, but a few that stand out...
2. Drunk salesguy on the dancefloor runs his mouth about something. COO turns around and asks "I think you need to stop." Salesguy takes a swing at the 6'6" COO. He was not a salesguy the next day.
3. Sales manager followed one of the ladies in sales administration up to their hotel room. Tried to force his way into her room. Had to be pulled off by two other people. Also was not a sales manager the next day.
Back to non-fighting...
4. Guy barfed during the awards presentation. On stage. Not sure if he got to keep his award.
5. Tried to talk a drunk coworker out of telling the CEO his opinion about all the mistakes that he was making. I did not succeed. Had a fun all-department meeting about appropriate decorum at social events the following week.
Corporate America is wild. Remember everyone, Monday comes eventually and you have to see all those people again. Alcohol is your friend until it isn't.
Paul C. 1 week ago
Fight? More just one punch. I was in my mid 50's standing in a quiet corner talking to a good friends daughter (18 ish) who worked in our customer contact dept. Guy from another department came over, bit drunk, made a lewd remark about me being an old letch and proceeded to squeeze the young ladies bottom. I wasn't happy, she wasn't happy. I punched him and broke his nose. Never heard a word said about it. He also didn't make eye contact with me ever again.
#10
Our very drunk, very white CFO walked up to the only black man in the company, clapped him on the back and exclaimed "Billy! My n***a!".
#11
President of the company pulled a “don’t you know who I am?” When a girl rejected his advances asking to dance. She walked over to the head of HR (who was also at the party) and explained what happened. Head of HR said she was going to arrange a meeting Monday morning. President stepped outside and shot himself in his car.
#12
Guy who was normally really nice always turned into a mean drunk and had too many. Insulted one of the older sales reps to his face in front of his wife. We were a very button down group and this went over very badly.
Monday morning he's sitting in my office despite not reporting to me ashamed as hell and I'm giving him the Dutch uncle advice because his whole management chain is pissed at him.
Basically told him he was a mean little drunk and that I advised he give up drinking because I had never seen such a Jekyll and Hyde transformation. Told him he needed to go apologize to everyone and mean it and especially the rep.
He didn't get fired but it was a close thing.
#13
The assistant manager had a few and she did a strip tease to the Shrek soundtrack.
#14
I met my future boss while photocopying my a*s. Said boss later made out with intern. Someone else broke the photocopier while copying own a*s and was badly cut.
#15
Small office Christmas party at the owner's house. Party was going normally, everybody was drinking and having a good time. At some point some of the office girls start dancing and the owner, just some middle aged schlub, gets a boner watching the festivities. His wife notices and loses it and sends everyone home. 10/10 would party again.
#16
Small company, one of the sales knobs got really s**t faced and starting hitting on the CFO's wife. Plot twist all three went back to their hotel room together. The rumors about that were still swirling around when I let 2 years later.
#17
Wall Street in the early 2000s. A banker bit another banker’s ear off over a love triangle with a coworker.
#18
Company used to rent a hotel ballroom for big christmas party for all 400 employees that cared to attend (and even subsidized hotel rooms in case of drinking). HR Director got shitfaced drunk, took off her panties and started twerking/humping random male employees on the dance floor (in front of their partners). Two HR people came out and tried to get her under control, but were also shitfaced. All three ended up literally rolling around on the floor laughing and fighting anyone who tried to get them up and to a room to calm down. Then the vomiting started.
We haven't had a christmas party since.
#19
Fist fight over someone winning a 32" flat screen tv. This was back in like 2006 or 2007. Our company never held a Christmas party again after that.
#20
Posted this about a month ago when this was last asked…
There was a guy who was known for being “handsy” at the Christmas party, and the mental thing was he’d been doing it for so long it was just kind of accepted and expected by most of the women in the company that they would get felt up on the dance floor by him. Any woman who did object to it would almost get shouted down by others, and if anyone tried to say “hey, this is all a bit weird” they be told it was all fine.
One year the party was in a place with other companies and he was doing his normal stuff and he full-on groped a woman from another company mistaking her for someone else. The whole place went mental.
There were women from my company properly screaming at the woman who was groped for having the audacity to be a bit upset that this random guy had grabbed her tits. Then some guys were getting involved and defending him too because some guys from the other company were willing to kick the s**t out of him. It was like a lot of people collectively lost their f*****g minds.
The outcome was handsy-guy got arrested, charged and ended up in court and fined. He probably ended up on the sex offenders register too but I can’t remember if that was the case. He resigned too presumably before he was sacked.
The cherry on the cake of this being absolutely mental was I heard people saying how much they missed him at the next years party!
#21
Used to work in IT for a mid sized UK law firm - company went all out and hired a fancy hotel for our Xmas do. Pre-dinner drinks are happening and some of the trainees had decided pre-pre-dinner drinks were a good idea. That idea proved to be a bad choice when a trainee threw up in the lap of the MANAGING PARTNERS WIFE before we'd even been shown into the dinning room.
#22
It was an 'alcohol free' party at work in the morning. A co-worker brought in a bunch of pies, all home-made and heavily laced with rum. By noon, everyone was schnockered and calling taxi cabs.
#23
Had a big party in a posh hotel but it then came out that work had a 250 cleanup bill because someone took a s**t in the foyer. There were a few rumors as to who was the suspected culprit but no proof until one day a video appeared of the cctv footage of a colleague stumbling out of the party room, stopping, unzipping and just letting loose infront of horrified staff to shocked to stop him in time.
It was also exactly who everyone expected it to be as well.
#24
Owner jumped on the bar of our brewery and took her top off, dancing to ICP. Later banged two guys in the back office while her husband played Jenga and nursed his vape.
#25
Office party with open bar, a seriously bad idea. A senior engineer who worked for me got totally blitzed and groped the (female) CFO. Then he stumbled to the bathroom and passed out in his own vomit. Coworker was unable to awaken him and called 911.
Ambulance shows up to take him to the ER while I follow behind in my car. Halfway to the hospital the ambulance suddenly pulls over and sits there while I (in the trailing car) wonder WTF is going on.
Three minutes later a cop car shows up and the cops enter the ambulance. One emerges a minute or two later and the ambulance continues on its way, now followed by both me and the remaining cop in our respective cars. We get to the hospital and my engineer, now awake, incoherent, and handcuffed to the gurney, is taken to an examination room.
The cop explains that the guy woke up during the ambulance ride and attacked the crew. I spent 10 minutes talking him out of arresting and charging the guy.
Hospital checked him in and I stayed up all night in the waiting room so they could release him to my custody and I could take him back to the hotel. His BAC had clocked in at 0.4.
Amazingly he was not fired (he was a *really* good engineer) but was required to attend counseling.
#26
When most people had left the party, the Executive Director of a non-profit used the conference room big screen to look up staff member profiles on a court case website. This was done in front of everyone that was still there, and he thought it was just a funny joke. I heard about it after I had left. He was was later fired for a litany of other improprieties.
#27
One of the company executives ending up kissing a member of his sales team. While he was kissing her, another woman who was also in his team, grabbed the girl off of him (because she clearly liked him even though she had a boyfriend) and they had a fight in the middle of the dance floor. The next day none of them were in the office. The girl who started the fight was told she either had to resign or be fired. She opted to resign out of embarrassment.
Pandemonium 1 week ago
Comparatively, I live a very quiet life, surrounded by colleagues who have a decent level of self control
#28
The owner discovered that the VP had been giving the operations department a hard time, so he came up with a clever way to address it. For the company Christmas party, the owner ordered an open bar, knowing the VP would likely overindulge. By the end of the night, the owner started playfully roasting the VP in front of everyone. While it was lighthearted enough to pass as friendly banter, the underlying message wasn’t lost on the operations team, who were blushing and laughing the entire time. Meanwhile, the VP, visibly intoxicated, had no idea how poorly he was coming across. It was a masterclass in subtle yet effective leadership.
Captain Grump 1 week ago
Passive aggressively mocking someone who's too drunk to know it's happening doesn't strike me as particularly effective leadership.
#29
Sales guy brought a girl he met on tinder. First date, never met her before. Tue party was at a pretty nice venue. She got absolutely wasted, threw up all over the bathroom, and had to be carried out of the venue.
#30
Old job about 15 years ago someone took a s**t in the bosses office in the garbage can.
What do you think ?
Skogsrået 1 week ago
Never get drunk at the office party, doh! Been to many office parties, always had a good time and never got drunk. 🥂
deletemyaccount 1 week ago
Nothing crazy ever happened at any of my Christmas parties. However after the party people usually head over the bar. I've heard rumors but I never went to the after party.
Damned_Cat 1 week ago
I used to work with pretty high-level government folks including elected officials. One year, I was at a private holiday party with a small stage for karaoke. Three drunken officials got up on stage to do a funny song they made up and then mooned the whole crowd. But they didn't just flash their butts. They pulled their pants all the way down, so their swaying junk was on full display. In the time that followed, they always thought I was smiling when I saw them because I liked them. I did, but the reality was I couldn't keep from laughing whenever I looked at them.
howdylee 1 week ago
My office party always does a Dirty Santa (can steal opened gifts) gift exchange, $25 max for the gift. It's usually bottles of liquor. Coworker opens a bottle of whiskey, not one everyone's heard of, sits back down, no one steals it so he gets to keep it. Turns out it's a rare $300+ whiskey. The owner had brought it in, he had casually grabbed something from his home bar to bring in, not knowing how expensive it was!
BookFanatic 1 week ago
I was a 21-year old female receptionist in a company with thirty mostly-single men in their 30s-40s. Only been working there a couple of months when the boozy holiday party rolled around. I’d never seen so much alcohol. I had one drink, chatted with the guys I knew best, thanked the owner, and left when the drinking games started.
ConstantlyJon 1 week ago
See, I just don't ever drink and then I never have to worry about this sort of s**t.
Gavin Johnson 1 week ago
Seen plenty of car crash works parties. Never been in trouble myself, I stuck to the pint then a soft drink no spirits method. Slows your drinking down and ensures you have a job on Monday. Serious / silly drinking is to be done with friends not colleagues. Now I’m my own boss and the boss is an idiot, I’ll never go on a work do with him 😂
Mason Kronol 1 week ago
My ex boss had a little too much to drink and hit on me in front of my then boyfriend now husband. I had quit but my husband was still a manager there in a different department. Talk about awkward. Luckily my husband is a very secure man and laughed it off. I was not so happy about the girl hitting on my husband 3 years later…
Damned_Cat 1 week ago
Probably boring story with no alcohol or sex, just...sadness. One year a former boss decided to hire a caterer for a daytime holiday party. The caterer was an older woman whose food was straight out of 1962. Things like small sandwiches with watercress and pink horseradish cream cheese, pimento loaf and Jello salads. While she was setting up, we all saw this big mound of what appeared to be guacamole, and we were all ready to dig into that. Everybody grabbed a big spoonful of the dip and started eating, only to find that it was some sort of pureed broccoli and artichoke abomination. One lady actually had to run to the restroom because she thought it was going to come back up on her. We thanked our boss for her kindness, but we never let her plan a party again.
Mad McQueen 1 week ago
Worked at a scrap yard and one of our clients had a yearly party. Coworker drove me there. So I went in to say hello but was steered to the side and didn't get to thank them for having me. Then coworker said he had to go an needed to take me back to my car. I had barely eaten my meal an hadn't talked to the owner even as he was very busy. Then next thing I know I'm back at my car an I'm driving home. My boss started to blow up my phone. I had no idea what was happening. I told him how co worker was pushing me around and keeping me basically off to the side sorta like his date an then told me he went to the party boss an said thank you and I wanted to leave. I told him I was driven back to my car an just got off the highway to call him back an was almost home. Coworker lied an also said I had begged him to take me to a hotel. I sent a photo showing I was home a video called to confirm it. Coworker was then found out to be dating the bookkeeper an I did get to apologize and thank the clo
Skogsrået 1 week ago
Never get drunk at the office party, doh! Been to many office parties, always had a good time and never got drunk. 🥂
deletemyaccount 1 week ago
Nothing crazy ever happened at any of my Christmas parties. However after the party people usually head over the bar. I've heard rumors but I never went to the after party.
Damned_Cat 1 week ago
I used to work with pretty high-level government folks including elected officials. One year, I was at a private holiday party with a small stage for karaoke. Three drunken officials got up on stage to do a funny song they made up and then mooned the whole crowd. But they didn't just flash their butts. They pulled their pants all the way down, so their swaying junk was on full display. In the time that followed, they always thought I was smiling when I saw them because I liked them. I did, but the reality was I couldn't keep from laughing whenever I looked at them.
howdylee 1 week ago
My office party always does a Dirty Santa (can steal opened gifts) gift exchange, $25 max for the gift. It's usually bottles of liquor. Coworker opens a bottle of whiskey, not one everyone's heard of, sits back down, no one steals it so he gets to keep it. Turns out it's a rare $300+ whiskey. The owner had brought it in, he had casually grabbed something from his home bar to bring in, not knowing how expensive it was!
BookFanatic 1 week ago
I was a 21-year old female receptionist in a company with thirty mostly-single men in their 30s-40s. Only been working there a couple of months when the boozy holiday party rolled around. I’d never seen so much alcohol. I had one drink, chatted with the guys I knew best, thanked the owner, and left when the drinking games started.
ConstantlyJon 1 week ago
See, I just don't ever drink and then I never have to worry about this sort of s**t.
Gavin Johnson 1 week ago
Seen plenty of car crash works parties. Never been in trouble myself, I stuck to the pint then a soft drink no spirits method. Slows your drinking down and ensures you have a job on Monday. Serious / silly drinking is to be done with friends not colleagues. Now I’m my own boss and the boss is an idiot, I’ll never go on a work do with him 😂
Mason Kronol 1 week ago
My ex boss had a little too much to drink and hit on me in front of my then boyfriend now husband. I had quit but my husband was still a manager there in a different department. Talk about awkward. Luckily my husband is a very secure man and laughed it off. I was not so happy about the girl hitting on my husband 3 years later…
Damned_Cat 1 week ago
Probably boring story with no alcohol or sex, just...sadness. One year a former boss decided to hire a caterer for a daytime holiday party. The caterer was an older woman whose food was straight out of 1962. Things like small sandwiches with watercress and pink horseradish cream cheese, pimento loaf and Jello salads. While she was setting up, we all saw this big mound of what appeared to be guacamole, and we were all ready to dig into that. Everybody grabbed a big spoonful of the dip and started eating, only to find that it was some sort of pureed broccoli and artichoke abomination. One lady actually had to run to the restroom because she thought it was going to come back up on her. We thanked our boss for her kindness, but we never let her plan a party again.
Mad McQueen 1 week ago
Worked at a scrap yard and one of our clients had a yearly party. Coworker drove me there. So I went in to say hello but was steered to the side and didn't get to thank them for having me. Then coworker said he had to go an needed to take me back to my car. I had barely eaten my meal an hadn't talked to the owner even as he was very busy. Then next thing I know I'm back at my car an I'm driving home. My boss started to blow up my phone. I had no idea what was happening. I told him how co worker was pushing me around and keeping me basically off to the side sorta like his date an then told me he went to the party boss an said thank you and I wanted to leave. I told him I was driven back to my car an just got off the highway to call him back an was almost home. Coworker lied an also said I had begged him to take me to a hotel. I sent a photo showing I was home a video called to confirm it. Coworker was then found out to be dating the bookkeeper an I did get to apologize and thank the clo
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