Christmas Horror Stories

Since it's that time of year, I figured why not ask what is your worst Christmas work story that you can remember? It can be the gift you were given or not given by your employer, or perhaps the awful halfass party your employer attempted to throw, or perhaps you were laid off on Christmas Eve like one person I know.

Anyway, what's the worst your employer has done for you for Christmas?

Mine comes from another thread, but I'll repeat it just to get things started:


One year, we had a Christmas party and it consisted of a loaf of Wonder bread, some ham, lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese on a tray, a bag of Lays potato chips (mostly eaten by the time I got to them) and a horrible tasting fruit cake. No drinks provided (we were told to buy one out of the vending machine if we wanted one).

On top of that, it was served in the back of the building where the press used to be. It was drafty and freaking cold, about 45 degrees. I remember eating my sandwich and some broken/pathetic potato chips in my coat and literally shivering.

That was it. Ham sandwiches and potato chips. And very depressing.

 

Wow, not a single horror story from Christmas? I guess we all should be counting our blessings then!!!

 

Last place I worked at did nothing for us.

So we said 'fuck it' and did it up right: Smoked a "bacon bomb", made a bunch of sides and stuffed ourselves.

 

Yeah, we went three Christmas years with nothing --- 2008, 2009 and 2010.

But, the last three years we've actually had a party, really nice meal and everyone received a gift (mostly gift cards for $25). I will say that the horror stories have at least ended for now.

 

Last game of the NFL regular season for the Patriots in 1987 was at Miami. Back in that primitive day, Pats went to Dodgertown in Vero to practice for the week, which included Christmas. Team of course had a huge banquet for the team and their families Christmas Day. Two reporters there, me and Mark Blaudschun of the Globe, were covering the week due to our junior status. To show how sick coaches are, devout Christian Raymond Berry was startled when I wished him Merry Christmas, as he'd forgotten the holiday. Team did not invite us to their dinner. Mark and I had dinner at Vero Beach Holiday Inn. I swear we were the only diners under 75 years of age.

 

Wow, now that's a horror story!

 

Not a horror story, but funny in retrospect.

About 15 years ago, worked at a small, six-day AM in northern Michigan. Weekend edition came out on Saturday, so the owner threw Christmas parties on Saturday night and everyone could actually attend. Didn't fully appreciate it at the time, but I sure do now.

Anyway, my first year there, party was planned at a local bowling alley. Pizza would be brought in ... Saturday evening ... sounded good to me.

Little did I know our boss was an absolute teetotaler. He rented the bowling alley, bought us all a bunch of pizza ... and the taps were turned off, bar shut down. I'm sure the bowling alley loved that.

I blamed my lousy scores on the lack of beer consumption.

 

I didn't mean it to be a horror story, just a story, but if you had been in that dining room...

 

Well, in 1989, this other guy and I decided it was gonna be a light night, let's let everyone else go home way early. And maybe 10 minutes later, we learned Billy Martin had been killed. This was at a paper that cared about the Yankees, too, so we not only had to tear up our section but also do a Page 1 story and a couple graphics for the A section.

 

Two years ago, double shooting. Spent Christmas Eve in court for the arraignment (tell me I looked out of place with my happy Christmas sweater), then re-doing the front page to place the story. One victim died a couple days later.

 

Two from my former longtime employer:

First, from the early '90s. We'd always had excellent Christmas dinners -- turkey, stuffing, several types of pies and the like -- but one year, the newsroom office manager (the nicest thing she was ever called was a witch) decided she'd save money and order bologna-and-cheese sandwiches and other types of cold cuts for those who had to work the holiday. Lots of griping about that. The office manager was fired a few months later when a new editor took over, and the Christmas fiasco was cited as one of the reasons (now, of course, she'd probably get a bonus for saving money).

The second was from about a dozen years ago when I was on the news desk as one of the metro slots. We had a Christmas Eve homicide that occurred about a half-hour before our early holiday deadlines. The assistant city editor was a hard-charger type who wasn't into Christmas, and he ordered us to make the homicide the lead 1B story with a photo -- the right thing to do, but we wound up missing deadline by more than 30 minutes. When the bosses returned to the office a few days later, the ACE and his reporter were praised by their supervisor for their quick reactions and thoroughness. My supervisor reprimanded me for blowing deadline.

 

Working on Christmas for a few years. Also to do it once as a teenager when I worked at a movie theater.