Does this belong here? I don’t know. If this post can or should go somewhere else, let me know.
Anyway. I HATE attending work events that are outside normal office hours. Whether they’re after 5 on a weekday or during the weekend I try to avoid them at all costs. I’m already here 5 days/40 damn hours a week, isn’t that enough? I want to be at home with my husband, decompressing, whatever after I’ve worked all day/all week. I’m an introvert that has to talk to people and listen to them complain all day. I’m TIRED by the end of the week and my time is extremely precious to me. And absolutely critical for recharging.
Well in April there is a festival in the town our office is in. It’s going to be crowded. It’s going to be noisy. Not to mention I can’t stand street festivals. To “have” to attend one for the sake of advertising for our company, sit behind a booth, play “spin the wheel” with people so they can win baseball caps with our company name, and hand out flyers and hotdogs to try to get new business and sales (I won’t get any of the commissions from sales btw, because I’m not in sales. I’m just a service rep.) that is absolutely not how I want to spend my Saturday. Even if it’s only once and a blue moon. That’s 8+ hours of my, otherwise, free-time I will never get back. You can do a lot in 8 hours. So I decided I’m keeping it.
So I told everyone it’s my husband and mine’s 5 year anniversary and we already have a cabin booked, that we’ve had booked, for sometime now. The part about it being 5 years is true. The part about being out of town is not true.
But, when my colleagues are fighting traffic, crowds, and passing out flyers to strangers I’ll either be at home relaxing with my guy or, weather permitting, having peaceful lunch with him on a ridge overlook at our favorite state park a couple hours away. Followed by some hiking. I will not be at a crowded noisy festival trying to get people to notice us, and play games, to make more money I won’t even benefit from.