Friday, September 07, 2007

100 (Just Add Tequila)

After a hard week at work of putting up with annoyingly loud colleagues, inane email requests, self tanning from the fluorescent lighting and using wanky corporate terminology – there is nothing more I want to do on a Friday afternoon than go home, get my groove on and go out with my friends. And there is nothing less I want to do than go for Friday night drinks with work colleagues.

The concept of after-work drinks is something that slaved city workers dreamt up to find an escape from the grind of the working week. Is spending an additional few hours in your work gear, boozing it up with your colleagues and getting absolutely trashed the best way to spend a Friday afternoon? I’d say no.

Maybe I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m not that much of a corporate social butterfly. But I am baffled as to why anyone would want to spend any more time with people that they have spent the majority of the week with? The weekend is the time for seeing friends you haven’t seen or spoken to and enjoying your own time. Isn’t it? And for me, the weekend starts the moment I walk out the door on a Friday afternoon if not sooner.

Don’t get me wrong, on occasion I have partaken in Friday afternoon drinks. At my last job, we’d finish early, one of us would go buy a top notch bottle of red, crank up the chilled Latin beats and relax for a little while just talking utter rubbish. Other times, we’d knock back a few reds in a nearby cocktail lounge while sampling some quality French cheeses and antipasti. Of course, this all sounds very decadent, but then again, there were only three of us and the boss was loaded.

But even so, we kept it to an occasional event and even then, we didn’t stay around for too long allowing us to carry on with our planned Friday nights out. Now in my current role, I have been asked every week to go for drinks, and every week I have turned them down. I know I can’t go on avoiding it, but in all honesty – I have seen you people for the past five days!

Maybe I’m being too harsh and maybe I’m being an outright stick in the mud. But I know that I would rather see my friends and catch up with them instead of being stuck in my work gear, pretending to be someone I’m not with people I prefer to see only at work. Wouldn’t you?

3 comments:

Miss Zoe said...

Oh I feel your pain. I cant think of anything worse than socialising with people I work with- because I WORK with them. They are not my friends. I like them, and we have a good time, but I have nothing in common with them other than the job! Drinks are for friends, jobs are for workmates. And mainly at the end of the workday all I want to do is get AWAY from these people!!

Evol Kween said...

I hear you dude. I think it also depends on how much you have in common with your workmates. I've had jobs where the idea of a knock-off drink was actually appealing. But at my last job, well, I didn't want to talk to those tossers during the day let alone over a drink after work. (Is that bitchy?)

Anonymous said...

Happy 100 Post, Anthony!

Let's go out for a drink to celebrate ;)