Office Party Etiquette
Monday, November 30th, 2009
Office party season y’alls. Be it a big bram or a small but sophisticated gathering, how you act in a social office setting can tell your employer and your teammates a lot about your undercover personality(ies). Resist the urge to veer too far away from the person who you show up to work as everyday.
Ease off the liquor
“Two drinks is the…” maximum.
It is difficult for your subordinates to respect you after they’ve had to escort you out the office building to help you find your car, or for your superiors to seriously consider you for that promotion after they’ve seen your table top moves.
No chugging of drinks guys, it’s not a boys lime. Eat something solid, drink water and pace yourself. Ladies, if you know that you can’t handle the liquor, skip the rum punch, the Shandy and the black cake, and stick to ginger ale or sorrel on the rocks, in one of those fancy glasses, with an umbrella and a slice of lemon.
Dress appropriately
Ladies especially, it may be the festive season, there may be spiked punch, and people may be smiling and laughing more than usual but you are still in an office setting, and so office dress code rules still apply. Keep the goodies under wraps and go the sophisticated route clothing wise, but feel free to overdo it with the shoes, accessories and the hair if it fancies you.
- No excessively short dresses/ skirts
- No inappropriate slits and/ or holes
- Keep cleavage under control and
- Keep makeup tastefully done and naturally flawless to enable the look to last throughout the night.
There may be professional photographers in the mix. These office clicks can stay in the company’s files forever, and the company may use them at will. Bring your best self.
Don’t do double duty. Don’t wear your club clothing to an office party. It’s safer to wear your office grown ‘n sexy look to the club than it is for you to wear your club get up to your office party. Still, if this doesn’t work for you, walk with a change of clothing.
If unsure, go alone.
This may sound far fetched, but it happens. If you are single and aren’t dating anyone, resist the urge to bring along some random person as your ‘guest’.
Office parties are tricky enough when you know your colleagues. Unless you are VERY familiar with how this individual will act in a corporate environment, as awkward as you may feel doing so, go to your office shindig stag. Dress to the nines, show up and show out, and enjoy yourself. This is a chance for you to show your superiors that you aren’t only smart and possess a great work ethic, but you have a lighter side as well and know how to enjoy yourself like a grown up.
The last thing you want to do is have your work reputation jeopardized by a guest who sulked in the corner the entire night, or worse drank too much and literally let it all spill out on the dance floor, or better still, left with your boss. Things are going to get well sticky in the office tomorrow.
Seen any office party faux pas in your lifetime? Why not share them below so that we don’t make the same mistakes! 
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hmmm, well I’ve been to office parties where it’s ‘no guests allowed’. Whilst I thought it would have been aight, it turned out to be an excuse for some of the “higher ups” to fratenise with their subordinates in a ‘not professional manner’ without their significant others being around. Twas most uncomfortable.
Also been to those office parties where some of the ‘trainees’ thought they were at a club. Cleavage on display, upper thighs all over the place…not cool, not cool at all. And of course since there were pics, they gained quite a reputation because of one office party.
My motto: it’s better to be a lil conservative at these things and be thought of as slightly uptight, than to be considered a floozy ‘lush’ with no control.
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TESTIFY!
No matter how you look at it, it seems that waaaay too much can go wrong at ‘office parties’; the term itself seems like an oxymoron. I’d have to agree with you shells, from that standpoint it may indeed be wise to err on the conservative side for the few hours that it lasts, than to be labelled the office floozy for the rest of your ‘career’ there.
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