It was with no small degree of relief that I realised I'll be out of the country on business on the date of this year's work Xmas night out.

Am I alone in feeling, at best, a total sense of ennui with this "tradition"?

Here in Switzerland there's generally less of the mass drinking and ****ging the secretary in the cloakroom etc but still, as I work a 30 minute train ride from where I live it will doubtless be a meal in some relatively remote restaurant with some jaunty hot drink outside part.

Last year, inexplicably, we went on a walk in the pitch ******' black holding these big wax candles that then proceeded to drip all over my decent shoes before the meal

There's just always something else I'd rather be doing of a winter night then spending it with the people I already work with for 40+ hours a week.