They did dress-up christmas affairs the first year, maybe 2, I was here. Then they axed it (this was a departmental thing). My 9th anniversary date with the university (hence the division) as full-time will be January 3rd.

The problem with this environment is most of the developers didn't appreciate such an event and I suspect only now do we have a critical mass of people who are married or involved and thus might appreciate such a thing.

Instead of morale-builders I just get more and more bitter with each passing year about everything other than the actual work, and so everyone thinks I'm just the miserable person. Well, true, but if I tell people what the problem is, and nothing happens, that's pretty much it, the stress has to go somewhere.

Also axed: spousal tuition benefit (the semester after I got married). And other things going back to when I was a student. I should probably be thinking of leaving instead of languishing here forever.