The Pot

If you’ve ever worked in a French company it is impossible not to have attended at least one Pot (pronounced “P-Oh”).

A pot is like an institution in France. There is almost NO major event that may happen in a company or in an employee’s life (private or professional) that would not call for the organization of a pot.

I guess you know what I’m getting at. A pot is a small improvised party that is organized to celebrate an important event.

The British have their “Leaving drinks” at the pub when an employee leaves the company but the French take it one step further.

In France, you organize a pot when you leave a company. When you retire. When you marry. When you have a baby. When you win a case or a deal. When the summer ends. When the year begins. When the new wine arrives (Beaujolais), when it’s Gallette des Rois time….

I am not kidding, over the past three years in this company I have attended at least one pot of a denomination mentioned above and several of the more common kind (leaving, retirement, etc).

Organizing your pot is something that is not to be taken lightly either. Being a foreigner I used to think that organizing an event of this kind wasn’t such a big deal. I mean, after all, it’s supposed to be an informal gathering, right?

How wrong was I.

I’ve come to understand that a pot can make or break a career. When a major event happens in the life (be it private or professional) of an employee it’s good form to throw a Pot. Basically, you invite your entire repertoire of contacts (and sometimes even the people that work at the desk next to them even if you don't know them that well just because it would look bad to just invite a few members of a tight knit department).

How often have I been asked my opinion regarding the invitees list for a Pot? I used to suggest only inviting the people that you actually worked with on a daily basis. I’ve learned my lesson since. Now I just say “invite them all, you’ll be sure of not forgetting anybody” which really means, you’ll be sure to not offend anybody when they find out they weren’t invited to your pot. People take pots soooooo seriously and can be genuinely offended when they catch wind of a pot they were not invited to. And by invited I mean receiving a black and white email from the inviter himself (or his assistant) … no “pass along the word” is tolerated in these cases. Either you’re RSVPed or you’re not.

As I said, most of these Pots have a theme. If an employee gets married he/she throws a Pot to “partager le bonheur” (share the happiness). If an employee recently had a baby he/she will throw a Pot (in some cases even if she’s not yet back from maternity leave!) to present the newborn to all the colleagues. If someone is leaving or even if they have quit and are going to work for the competition, they are still required to throw a Pot so that his/her colleagues can wish the person “good luck”. Come to think of it, the only two exceptions to the Pot rule are precisely the two events one would think would call for a celebration of this kind: a birthday or a promotion. For some reason, these two events are not celebrated among colleagues... but everything else goes.

Which brings me to the Gift issue. As soon as you receive that little email with the subject line “Invitation Pot” you’re sure to receive a second one a few minutes later with the subject line “Fwd: Invitation Pot – Enveloppe” sent by the person’s assistant or closest colleague. This second email confidentially (the inviter’s name has carefully been taken out of the recipients’ list) informs you that an “envelope” is at your disposition at X’s desk for you to be able to contribute to a leaving/wedding/baby/retirement gift. The envelope in question, is just that. A paper envelope to collect the “contribution” on which everyone writes their name as soon as they have contributed in order for the person to later be able to personally thank each and every one when the gift has been presented. (I've often wondered if the writing of the name on the envelope is not actually done in order to later be able to compare the list to that of the invitees and easily figure out who’s a cheap colleague).

Among the pots I’ve been invited to I’ve seen gifts for a Baby Shower Pot that included a Dior baby suit and Channel socks. Gifts for a Wedding Pot that included Lancel suitcases for the honeymoon. Leaving gifts included expensive cigar cases and iPods and video cameras… you get the idea… a Pot gift is no ordinary “remember us Pen”

But a pot also costs too! Inviting all these people means you have to bring enough Champagne for the traditional toast and of course, if you don’t want to look cheap (especially when you receive that Enveloppe Gift that you know is coming) you gotta provide for some kind of snacks. Some people simply buy chips and peanuts at the supermarket. Other bring catered food. Some even cook stuff to bring to the pot!

Sometimes a pot is organized to celebrate a collective event: the winning of a new client or deal, the New Year, the end of a particularly difficult season, etc. In this case a pot is organized by the chief of the department and there is no mention of an envelope. Instead, people bring food and drinks and it turns into a kind of indoors picnic. Again, this is no light affair. Usually the person organizing this sort of pot (or his assistant) sends out an excel spreadsheet to all the invitees with each of their names in a separate cell and columns with titles such as "entrée", "plat", "dessert", "fromage", "boissons" are to be filled in by each person... this way the organizer can know beforehand what everyone is bringing in order to avoid the overlapping of chips and sodas. These are my favorite kind of pots because a lot of people still bring home made dishes on these occasions and you get to taste some really great tartes and quiches and terrines and whatnot.

In my department there are roughly 300 employees. This means I get invited to a pot of some kind at least twice a month. I’m not complaining… I really like the idea of stopping what you’re doing for a good hour, going down to someone’s open space or meeting room where the Pot has been set up, enjoying a glass of chilling champagne while listening to the inevitable speech, laughing with colleagues you otherwise don’t get to see much, oohing and ahhing if and when the gift is presented and then going back to your desk to resume work a while later.

It’s a really refreshing way to strengthen co-workers relationships and by making it informal (regardless of everything I mention above a Pot is still considered an “informal gathering”) it gives everyone the sentiment of belonging to a big happy family.

Plus, it’s always fun when the pot is at the end of the day on a Friday… it’s a great way to kick off the week-end!

Fned.