[reply]HAHA!!! The Burj Al Arab can kiss my ass. I took two comrades there for dinner last year . . . . the bill . . . I crap you not . . . and, no, the food was not all that great . . . okay, are you ready . . . I’m not embellishing . . . $1,500.00!!! That’s for 3 people, not 100.
Yeah, but I’m guessing your firm picked up the tab?
[/reply]
Yes, but it wasn’t discussed or pre-authorized or anything.
I put it on my company card and I made everyone put on hand on the bill and the other over our hearts and take an oath . . . . “I do solemnly swear that we took out 12 associates from the prestigious firm of _____ to negotiate further contracts and expand opportunities.”
[reply]Rape.
No. “Rape” is when you pay $1500 for the meal and the table next to you has a child who cried and / or shouted the whole time.[/reply]
I wouldn’t have put up with that. Once I saw what we were in for, my pal and I decided we were going to get every bit of fun out of that meal, regardless, since it was too far in to abort mission. We hassled the waitress every chance we got, made bad jokes all night long, enjoyed our $30 mai tais and properly went down in flames.
It is also when you take your girlfriend’s/fiancé’s/wife’s parents out for an expensive dinner date and when the time comes to pay the bill they just stare at you or look the other way.
[:|]
If you take the family out for dinner, yeah, you pay.
If they invited you, they pay.
Granted many of us will make the gesture, offer to pick up the tab, split it, or at a minimum “cover the tip”, but whoever asked the others to come pays the tab.
And if you’re doing it to meet the parents and show them what a swell guy you are . . . . you’re also being graded on how well you do it all.