Saturday, December 18, 2010

Happy holidays!

I know I'm a little late, what with Hanukkah having come and gone quite a while ago, but I was getting acclimated at my new job. So happy holidays to everyone celebrating, and retroactively to those who have already celebrated. And in the spirit of the holidays, let's talk office parties.

The holiday parties have a few commonly known obstacles:

1. People forget how to dress appropriately

  • This is still a work engagement. You may not have to wear dress clothes, but don't wear something you wouldn't want you boss or coworkers to see you in

2. Alcohol

  • Even the appearance of hitting the bottle hard can have significant ramifications on your career, so even if you can handle 10 shots of tequila without impact, keep it to a glass of wine and take your binge drinking elsewhere
  • Getting drunk has obvious issues

3. Eating etiquette

  • For most situations it's not a big deal if you don't know which is the salad fork and which is the dinner fork, but talking with food in your mouth, being a jerk to the server, spitting food into people's faces- you shouldn't do it ever, but definitely not when your boss is around

4. Inappropriate topics of conversation

  • This is extremely situation specific, but understand the company culture enough to know what you can talk about, and when you should keep the information for your close friends or your diary.

Good luck and have a good time!