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The French: better at office parties

Getting Started

18/12/2006The French: better at office parties

Mr. FdC came home smelling like a brewery the other day, and it looks like today (or so I was casually informed this morning as he ran out the door) will bring more of the same.

No, I am not married to an alcoholic. Rather, it would appear that one important 'event' after another has been occurring at his office, necessitating an all-out shindig for each and every occasion.

Whether someone is coming or going, having a baby or retiring, celebrating 20 years with the company or 5, these office pots (pronounced 'poh') are regular happenings at most French companies.

Secretary doing a good job lately? Throw her a pot. Pourquoi pas? Boss bringing in cases of champagne for the World Cup? Now, that's not so odd, is it?

It's not that employees of American companies don't celebrate such things; it's just that planned events taking place 'on the clock' and on company premises are distinctly different from those once-a-year (off-site) evening Christmas parties, for example.

For one thing, I have yet to see a daytime American office party where alcohol is readily available (or available at all, for that matter) - which is not to say, of course, that it doesn't happen; I simply was never fortunate enough to work in an office where it did.

On the contrary, our office parties were always rather banal affairs, consisting of a few meat and cheese trays from the local grocery store, a baked good here and there, punch or soda, and people standing nervously around the walls making small talk – and decidedly not having a good time. (On a few occasions, in fact, I can recall counting down the minutes until I could escape back to my own desk so I could get back to work; now, what kind of party is that?!)|

The French companies I am familiar with, on the other hand, are a good bit different in this respect. Not only my husband's firm (a bunch of nuclear engineers), but my own (a pharmaceutical company, a huge media conglomerate, a language school and two grandes écoles) in Paris are – on a regular basis – the sites of 'lunchtime' bashes known for eating up entire afternoons.

In case all this would lead one to think that the French don't spend much time actually working (as Americans familiar with France's 35-hour workweek like to believe), the opposite is true – in fact, French employees (in the Fall and Winter, at any rate!) put in more hours each day than any American (short of hospital interns) I've known, often arriving home just in time for dinner at 8 or 9 p.m.

No, it's more that when the French relax they really know how to relax, and their office parties are no exception. Besides, after all the food, kirs, wine, or champagne, what kind of work would get done, anyway?

Although I was quick to embrace this custom once I started working in France, I can recall my initial shock when, upon meeting my husband at his office on rue Christophe Columb every afternoon, it seemed like he finished the workday with pastis-breath at least once a week.

His is a relatively large company, however, so some sort of 'pot-able' (no pun intended) occasion is likely to present itself fairly frequently. But a few weeks ago, not remembering any mention of an impending birth, retirement or what-have-you, I asked him what that day's pot had celebrated.

Silly me. Didn't I know the Beaujolais Nouveau had arrived?