Office parties thrown by new employees

Hi all,

What are your collective experiences with this phenomenon? I've been told in no uncertain terms that I'm to throw an Einstand Feier, and although the idea is odd to me, I'd like to avoid burning bridges this soon in. Any tips? What gets served? I assume I'll be buying some beer, right? Fortunately, there's only 10 people in the firm, so it's not like I'll be breaking the bank.

Thanks!

Couple of bottles of cheap sekt, some OJ, nibbles, a cake, maybe some belegte semmels. nothing fancy.

You buy a crate of beer for your fellow workmates and toast your arrival, it's that simple.

A few bottles of soft drinks would also not go amiss.

oh good; it doesn't sound too rough. Another new employee (from London) suggested we combine our Feiern, but given what happened on the US version of the Office when Jim combined the birthdays, it might not be a prudent move.

Thanks for the info.

In Siemens, at least in our department, you don't have to pay for it all, everyone contributes to all such "events".

Have fun.

Easy way of breaking the ice really

in (munich) companys it's usually something like Butterbrezn and/or Weißwürste + beer/soda/coffee for a small brunch or something more fancy like cake and sekt/coffee.

it's also quite common to simply ask your colleagues what they prefer and how much

I'd ask about the alcohol policy in your company before buying any sekt/beer (some are very strict with it). In our office, new employees throw a party after the 6 months Probezeit. I did mine together with two other colleagues, we had some fingerfood, sekt and orange juice.

There's a few crates of Augustiner in the cellar, so I think it's allowed.

Why German custom??? I work at an international company, we got ppl from all over the place and they all seem to think its necessary to do that. Then another one once they passed probabtion time and sometimes just like that. I find that strange but wont complain, free booze is good, getting paid while drinking it even better

Thank god that is not realy a german custom. At least not in the area I live. I think it´s kind of rude to ask someone to do that. Your new coworkers should have enough sense to bring something to drink and nibble on yout first day. Thing´s like that give the rest of us germans a bad name.

I did this at the end of my first month at my new German company. Beers and pretzels on the back balcony of our brand new building. Big mistake.

The backchannel feedback afterward was "it wasn't formal enough ... and where does this 'rich American' get off proving he could throw a party for the whole company?" N.b. it cost EUR200 all in for c. 75 people FFS.

This was the emotional "all clear" I needed to not have any second thoughts at all as I proceeded to sack the aforementioned goldbrickers and whingers and replace them with people who appreciated what I was brought in to do.

This year, we're doing a two-day offsite in the wine country ... and, amazingly, none of my well-paid-for-performance employees are complaining

I was told about this custom too so I tried to think of what Germans liked to eat and then I brought in a big pile of raw hamburger meat. For some reason they thought I was weird, but it didn't stop them from gobbling it down.

I also got some of that cheap-ass Rotkapchen "sekt" and they all got buzzed on their lunch break.

I think steak tartar is a guilty pleasure over here ... mainly because people already put pork tartar on bread and eat it with pepper and onions. My american mother almost gagged when she was confronted with that as prepared by my wife back home ... she called it "pig sushi".

Enough sekt and one can eat styrofoam peanuts, FFS

I see I´m not on the vegetarian thread suddenly!

Back on topic, my company does not allow alcohol, so it has been known for us to meet up after work to celebrate the arrival of a new colleague - with ONE beer!! - It just doesn´t do to get rat-arsed on the first outing!!!

Never actually heard of this tradition... but my Probezeit ends on Friday (woohoo!) so maybe I will bake cupcakes again. Those went over well when I took them in for my birthday!

your colleagues will appreciate that!!