10 Office Party No-Nos

Remember that scene in the great old Eddie Murphy movie, Trading Places – hey, remember funny Eddie Murphy movies? – where a filthy, booze-swilling Dan Aykroyd is at the lavish company Christmas party, stuffing a whole salmon from the buffet into his Santa Claus suit? Yeah, well, you don’t want to be that guy. See also Office Life Before Political Correctness Holiday get-togethers can be a nice way to mark the season and to share a little warmth and appreciation with co-workers, but they can also be danger zones, social minefields into which you step at your own peril, dark and confusing places where your inappropriate behavior could have unintended consequences. Everyone wants to have a little fun, but nobody wants to end up in the HR director’s office, cringing at camera-phone footage of their drunken misdeeds that somebody has posted on YouTube. So do try to behave yourself at the company outing, and spare yourself and your colleagues any unnecessary drama, litigation, and/or awkward moments. That’s what family gatherings are for, right?