BBQ etiquette

[moolh2000]

Hi...may sound silly but here goes....

Im organising a small BBQ get together for my office colleagues; around 10 ppl. Venue is my place; food etc provided by me. Most of my colleagues are locals. Am I expected to invite their families/spouses/kids etc? What is the practice among locals in SG?

Appreciate any feedback you guys might have!

[JR8]

Do as you would do in your home country, nothing more or less is expected of you.

[JustMyself]

You can try to state clearly that it is a co-workers only event, but I think it depends on the ages of your co-workers. If they are mostly unmarried 20-somethings or married but with no children you should be fine. If they are mostly married/family people you will probably ruffle feathers.

The few co-worker BBQs that I've been a part of or heard about here have been family affairs. One I attended was fully catered by the host. Another was more casual where everyone was asked to bring a side-dish. All asked that we tell how many guests would be in each party so they could be sure there was enough food. Frankly, from listening to my co-workers and PR friends talk the later type of BBQ seems the most common, but I hang out with a family oriented crowd. Since that was how I did BBQs back in California I expected BBQs to be that way.

Again, it comes down to your target audience. Hopefully you know your co-workers well enough to figure out the best approach.

[nutnut]

To avoid getting kids running around until midnight at my BBQs, I tend to say something along the lines of

"My kids will be in bed by 8pm and then there will be a lot of smoking drinking and swearing, if you wish to subject your kids to that then feel free!" Partners are fine, at the end of the day, you want to spend most of your time outside of your work with your partner anyway right? so invite them IMO.

Likewise, just invite who you want and if they don't like it then you'll never find out unless you understand what they are saying about you in Hokkien by the water cooler the next day!

[carteki]

If your wife and kids are coming doesn't it make sense to invite the co-workers wives and kids too? Not saying they should bring their maids though!

[x9200]

If just colleagues with no further social interactions - invite only them; if you know most of them also socially (so outside the work place or more close interactions in the office) or want to organize a family day - invite the whole families or the spouses too. At least this is what I do and also see some local guys doing it this way.

[BigSis]

I'd probably say to them that it's for adults only or something if you don't want kids there, but like Carteki says, if you've got kids who are going, then may as well invite theirs too.

I've got kids but I don't feel offended if someone has an event and doesn't want kids there. I'd rather they did say though just to avoid confusion.

But if your child will be going to bed early, it'd probably be best to not invite their children too - many kids around here (both expat and local) don't go to bed until late when there's something like a BBQ going on (mine never did, they'd often be up until 11 when it finished ..........that's when our condo kick you out of the BBQ pit ).

[moolh2000]

thks for all your great feedback, everyone!

[hohoho80]

It'll be a good way for your wife and kids to meet more people and avoid the general banter to revolve around work.