i haven’t done a lot of big corporate events. Sometimes you just know that you are going through a lot. and might not be the best idea to mix it alcohol with people from work.
but xmas party is the important one and you better show yourself up.
i arrived one hour late. went for a wine. first bump was into HR.
‘How are you?’, she asked me? ‘are you liking it?, how’s different from a Xmas party in Europe?’
‘well, xmas for me is winter and cold, not sunny and having a venue by the beach. haha. and parties are by night, no in day time’, I said.
‘Oh, you know, sexual harassment is a thing here. That’s why we prefer to avoid the night’, she answered back.
i laughed so much. The idea that the company can’t do night parties because of this, made me think what’s going on with people here.
i need another wine, i thought.
i crossed the new guy i recruited to my team. he told me “I stalked you in instagram. And turns out we have one common person: this one”.
He showed me his phone.
“before the interview i asked him for some tips about you, but somehow he had no clue’ – ‘we just match in hinge in Paris but never met’, he told him.
i don’t do dating apps, you know that.
i felt the universe was exploding.
so I dated 2 months out of 4 years in Paris having Hinge. now I am in Melbourne in the xmas party with my past chasing me.
“i know your type now, haha’, he said.
Fuck, i thought.
Dying of embarrassment after being slut shamed by my 23 years old online business manager, i left the conversation and bumped into more Gen Z entitled vibes.
a random girl asked me ‘are you dating R.?’ and i answered ‘sorry, i don’t even know your name, have we ever met?’.
‘oh sorry, I am bla bla bla’. well honey, your life has to be bad when you ask strangers for their dating life. ‘a pleasure to meet you’, i answered back. but get a life was my state of mind.
leaving toilet i saw G. in a very intense conversation talking about interracial couples with Y.
she was wondering how it would be if she marries the asian guy she is in a relationship with.
‘Any white girl dating an asian guy can only be because they want their money’, Y. from Malaysia said.
That’s straightforward, I thought. he just called her gold digger slut.
We moved to another place and I saw J. He was talking with another guy i never met. even before exchanging names he asked me “which song would you walk down the aisle to in your wedding day”.
They are obsessed, i thought.
it started to be dark. day drinking was over and HR fears were about to be right.
a tall guy from another division came to see me. ‘you should go home, I don’t trust myself’, he said.
‘that’s sad’, I answered back. not because I was interested on him. just because I shouldn’t finish my night because I guy doesn’t know how to keep it inside his pants.
but i left. because if there is something i learnt is this wild corporate time is that people here don’t have a life.
so you better make sure you don’t get in the middle of their stuff and you become the subject of their social life.