Dinner At Eight

Last Thursday night the company I work for had the "corporate dinner." (An annual thing, I'm guessing?)

Word on the street (or actually, in the hallway) that I heard first was "dinner at corporate."

At least, that's what I thought they said; maybe I switched it around in my head. The company has a corporate building (offices, and, I'm guessing, meeting rooms, maybe, and maybe even a cocktail party / dining space, I'm not sure.)

It is a dynamite building. Sort of -- different levels. There are stairs, carpet, really high ceiling in some parts, tall walls. Very expansive, and attractive. And beautiful paintings on the walls, perfectly placed, and spaced.

I'm not an expert on architecture or design, but (as the proverbial tourist from the Midwest said when he visited the Louvre in Paris) -- "I know what I like!"

....So I started imagining and picturing this "dinner at corporate": in my head, people were dressed up, gowns to the floor, some subtle music being played in the background. Social hour; Sit-down dinner... and I didn't really picture what kind of tables, or arrangement. (I was still on the clothes.)

The Evening Of, I found out from someone who was invited, that the dinner-for-corporate folks was at a local restaurant.

I was surprised, (and felt a little less bereft about not being one of the People Invited).

If I were putting it together, it would have been a catered dinner, literally at corporate.
It's a prettier space, by far, than any room that restaurant has to offer, at least the last time I checked.

I asked about the evening and the program.
The Pres./CEO stood up at intervals, during dinner, and told jokes.

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At first I thought, "Huh?" trying to picture that.
But then I thought, No, that's good -- instead of making people sit through a "program" of speeches or even jokes, and then sitting down to eat, the light entertainment was blended in.

Seems right.

And I thought -- How DO you entertain people that work at your company? What is a routine that makes it a nice evening for everyone? I recalled two others -- one where I was there, and one I heard about.

1. The one where I was there was an annual "Christmas party" for a smaller company. All the people who worked there were together in one room at a local restaurant -- and the owner of the business came in from another town. We played pre-arranged games. (Mental eye-roll.) But it's one way of doing it -- keeps everyone engaged, and you don't have to deal with hitches in the conversation, or anything inappropriate.

When I arrived that night, I aimed for a chair, then had second thoughts and was going to select a different place to sit because the chair I had touched was right across the table from the owner (owner and manager were at a "head" table). I was going to move BACK. (I am one of those people who will sit at the back, at church, too. Not at rock concerts, though.)

However, the owner said, "No, don't run away -- sit there." So I did. He talked to me through most of the dinner, before the games started, mostly about technical things that I didn't understand. Did my best.

The next day at work, the visiting engineer, who had been at the party, said to me that the owner should have got up and "worked the room" -- it was his opportunity to speak with each and every employee -- there weren't that many; he could have shaken hands with everybody and said Thank You, and expressed an interest. I hadn't thought of it before, but -- the engineer was right.

I said, "Yeah, geez, I didn't mean to monopolize him"; the engineer said, "he was doing all the talking, it's his own fault." He added, "He just doesn't think that way."

He (the owner) has owned businesses for decades; probably not going to learn now. Tin ear.

2. The "Annual Meeting" where I wasn't there but I heard about was a mid-sized, family-owned company -- bigger than the company in Item 1, but smaller than the company where I work now. A member of the family described the day's activities to me; later I heard from an office employee that the central part of the event was a process where employees in one department of the company were praised and honored, and some trophies were given out.

After a Paul-Harvey pause, the person said, "There wasn't anything for the people who work in the office."

Now, unless I'm missing something, that's two tin ears - !

The family member had described to me the speeches, and each different part of the program.
...(Ergh!!)
In my opinion, pageantry is OK if you're in a Roman Catholic church. Or in England.
But I don't know if you need it at an annual meeting.

(People who own their own business can get carried away, and lose perspective. Essentially, in some cases, they have a little kingdom, and they're king. It can be good, or not so. You can become like a rock star -- not enough people telling you "No.")

About the time she described the emotional moment when everyone (even, I'm assuming, the Office employees who -- from what I heard -- were probably not in the mood, by that time!) stood in a circle and joined hands -- and something about singing, or praying, or reciting a phrase...

I don't know -- I was nodding and smiling and saying, "Oh, mm hmmh!" on the outside, and on the inside was thinking -- sounds like it was edging toward a Don't-Drink-The-Kool-Aid sort of situation...

Jokes -- at intervals -- during dinner: That is The Ticket, I think.

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