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Don’t Damage Your Career at the Company Holiday Party

Many of us have seen our friends, coworkers and even manager do really dumb things at the company holiday party.company holiday party

Here are list of my favorites:

  • Having a few too many drinks and sharing confidential information.
  • Wearing a dress that shows the people you work with more of your body than they should see.
  • Showing moves on the dance floor that you don’t have.
  • Hooking up with coworkers.

Your company holiday party is a company event, and anything you wear, do, or say is grounds for gossip the next day at work.

Don’t become the topic of conversation the day after your company holiday party.

A few rules to live by at your company holiday party:

  • If you wouldn’t want a picture of you wearing it hung up in a conference room, don’t wear it to the holiday party.
  • Don’t get drunk at a company event, ever. If you get ‘chatty’ after two drinks, then two is too many.
  • If you wouldn’t say something to someone at work, don’t say it at the holiday party.

The last rule: Help your friends and coworkers by stopping them from making career limited moves at company events. Rather than watching the train wreck go by as your friends say and do things they shouldn’t, gather your courage, and tell them it’s time to switch to club soda.

You may feel like you can’t give this type of feedback. It is hard to do, unless you’ve made an agreement before the party starts to do so. And even if you do make an agreement to tell people when they do something dumb, it’s still hard to do. But it will probably feel almost impossible if you haven’t set the expectation in advance.

So make a deal with your friends at work. If anyone says, does, or wears something really misguided to the holiday party, you will tell each other without negative recourse. And if all else fails, and you break every ‘rule’ listed here, just call out sick for two weeks after the company holiday party, because that won’t raise any red flags at all.

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About 

Shari Harley is the founder and President of Candid Culture, a Denver-based training firm that is bringing candor back to the workplace, making it easier to give feedback at work. Shari is the author of the business communication book How to Say Anything to Anyone: A Guide to Building Business Relationships that Really Work. She is a keynote speaker at conferences and does training throughout the U.S. Learn more about Shari Harley and Candid Culture’s training programs at www.candidculture.com.

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One Response to “Don’t Damage Your Career at the Company Holiday Party”

  1. So true, Shari. I’ll add a cardinal sin I heard about “from a friend.” Bringing not-your-wife as your date, forgetting some co-workers really had met your wife. The date was also a contractor for the company in question. Now that everyone knows about the relationship, the employee’s decisions are constantly in question and judged. “what’s really motivating this?”

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