At least my clients have the decency to close over Christmas so today and tomorrow I have the choice between time off (unpaid as I'm a contractor) or sitting in the office earning my daily rate while doing bugger all but avoiding the wife and kids.
Indeed, I've often thought the same. If I needed to know that a person has skateboarded off a bridge or something in order to motivate me to stump up a couple of quid for some worthy cause, I'd be a low quality human being.
If my sitting alone at a table prevents a group of 4 from being able to hold an inane conversation for the entire journey, I will consider myself a hero and expect the entire carriage to club together to buy me a medal.