Skip to main content

The Office Party

'tis the season.

Yes, you must watch what you wear. Yes, please make an appearance. Yes, walk in with your team if you can to show team spirit. Yes, please walk around the party and avoid just hiding in a corner with the people you know. You will certainly bring your business cards to hand out to the new business acquaintances you'll make and schedule time to meet them in the new year. This is a most wonderful networking opportunity. And yes, leave before it gets messy.

That said---

Yes, you will avoid being the talk of the party the day after. That means you'll save your signature dance moves for your friends and family party later that night or that weekend. Yes, you will demur dancing closely with folks at work. Yes, you'll avoid the holiday party hook-up---can we say "awkward" the day after? Yes, you will eat politely and avoid standing by the fruit/cheese/pigs in a blanket platter.

In other words, yes, they're all watching---your boss, boss's boss, colleagues and it does affect promotions, end of year reviews etc. It might seem funny at the time to lip sync and do the entire Lady Gaga song as if you're in the video, however, you'll find the rue of it coming up inopportunely over the year ahead frustrating. So make this a business meeting--'cause it is one.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Profitable Man

How do you define a successful life? I think, post-holidays, this idea of what this year should be comes to mind. What if it's in the quality of sleep each night, and the love you enjoy from those closest to you? What if any profit is really from having enough time, money, and other stuff to enjoy the love around you? Then, how do the actions you take this year, this month, this week align with that vision you have for yourself as a viable human being and then your career? Reminder: we spend the most time at work. How does work time move the dial forward for the total being of you. If it goes against, it detracts from what you want to be in the world. Is that a worthy sacrifice? Challenge. Write about it this year. Talk with trusted friends. If you need to adjust the work you do: mold the current work, find a new position within the current organization, or seek new frontiers, do it, for life is short and the years they roll along quickly. Happy New Year. Live and Work ...

I came home HAPPY tonight

Life will never be perfect. I left the office today with a pile of "to-do" on my desk that makes my head spin. And yet, I carved out time today to do the following: 1. have a powerful yet shortened work out this morning that cleared my head and got my blood pumping. When I hit the office this morning, I hit it hard and strong, muscling through an anxiety of mammoth proportion about how I was going to get ANYTHING on my plate done. 2. pause and do networking at an industry conference. That raised my sights, beyond my little desk and day to day concerns and showed me the bigger picture. Seeing folks at a career fair quickly snapped me back to reality: I'm lucky to have a job I love in the industry I am most fond of, and in the function I care deeply about, working with people on my team I love and with colleagues to serve whom I respect. Bollywog that it's overwhelming: I'll find healthy, collaborative ways to slog through this period. 3. I managed my netw...

It's been forever

And nothing significant has changed. Except, now I go back to Colgate to speak. And I'm terrified all over again, but now I'm swamped by this fear that I'm totally inadequate, balanced by my mother's encouragement to go with my head held high. She's written a book, and part of me feels drawn to call Jen and get it published. How come I never wrote my book? Maybe I can help her "finish" hers. But I'm talking about core values. And I'm thinking, but what kind of role model am I? OK, I've got thoughts about values and how to apply them, but I'm a coordinator...at 38 years old. Most of my classmates from Colgate are CEO's, WTF do I know about leadership? If they all got up in the middle of it, (if they showed up at all), and pointed at me and started laughing Carrie-style, I wouldn't blame them and I wouldn't telekinesis or Avada Kedavra because, they'd be right. I have nothing to offer but theory and speculation about ...