I have recently joined consulting and am dissapointed to find my firms xmas bash does not invite partners/ wives/ husbands. Is this the norm? Also - where have summer balls etc gone? I thought this would be a good way of recognising the families input into supporting someone being away from home during the week?Which firms still do this? If any?

Ayy !! A good man is only as good as the woman behind him.As someone who got divorced this year, I would find the idea of work events involving a spouse to be quite uncomfortable.It’s a bit 1980’s though to assume that husbands and wives would enjoy this sort of thing. Most people I know would find a “works do” tedious beyond belief

I worked for PKF for many years and they had a Summer ball, including partners, right up to 2001. Post 9/11, about 15 people were made redundant and I guess they felt awkward about spending the money on keeping the event going.Either that or the equity Partners thought they'd see what effect saving the money would have on morale and decided they preferred the money in their own pockets.For what it's worth, I enjoyed it - meeting new people and free food & drink on the company.

Work parties? How dull. I’d rather spend time with people whom I’m not paid to be with. Don’t think I’d inflict some of the boring techies I work with on my wife.The Christmas parties at PwCC (before the IBM days) used to be good fun though, as there were always a couple of aging male Partners trying to cop off (with quite some success) with the cute young grads. It was always a giggle to watch the grads press the self destruct button on their career !

Surely people can spend an evening without their partners being in attendance? + partner functions really bug me. It makes those without one feel krap and those with one have to spend the evening making polite introductions and worrying about their partners - instead of enjoying the night and letting their hair down. Very old school to expect partners to be invited in my view.

These things are minefields.I always insist on a thorough 1-hour briefing with my partner beforehand, so that we know exactly how we'll handle probing questions and what can/cannot be said about different subject areas.

In the UK this is primarily a tax issue. If your company spends more than c£75 on you on purely social events then you are taxed on the 'benefit'. As most events like these cost at least this amount inviting partners or having more than 1 a year will incurr this.Also, most consulting firms have come to the conclusion that the majority of staff that generate the income (ie the salesmen and delivery consultants) gain little benefit, prefering to do smaller events around projects and clients. These therefore end up being a very expensive way of rewarding back-office and support staff.