“Days of going to the pub are coming to an end”
Give over, mate.
The sheer volume of nonsense that gets pushed in the name of “corporate events” is utterly astounding. Clownish ideas cooked up by some no-mark spreadsheet monkey sitting on a beanbag in an industrial conversion in Shoreditch – manufactured, forced fun.
“Paint and sip nights.”
There’s one of these beside my dentist on Bishopsgate. Hand on heart, I’d rather get a tooth pulled than sit there pretending to enjoy myself with a paintbrush, Sue in accounts, and a warm glass of Pinot.
Organised fun is generally terrible.
I think back to my school days. The best games of football weren’t when a teacher told you what to do. They were when you chucked a couple of jumpers down and just played. The exact same applies here.
And if your company starts peddling escape rooms or pottery making as socials… start dusting off that CV.
We’ve all seen disasters on staff nights out. A CFO making racist remarks. A new hire oversharing her sexual exploits. Yes, if your firm’s senior partners have a habit of getting ‘hands-on’ after a few drinks, maybe that ball pit is safer… errrrrr.
Alcohol will always expose the idiots, that’s nothing new. But don’t ruin it for everyone else because a few people can’t handle a couple of shandies.
The best nights? They start in the pub. Always have. Good company, pints, no social coordinator.
Pubs have hosted everything. Weddings, funerals, deals, fallouts, friendships that last a lifetime. And now some clean-cut, Huel-drinking, spreadsheet merchant wants to tell you they’re finished?
Let’s be honest though. The real conversations, the real trust, the real relationships… they’re built in the boozer.
Always have been. Always will be.
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