Keller @ Large: Be Careful At The Company Holiday Party

BOSTON (CBS) - This is it, the night of the WBZ and CBS Boston holiday party, and the height of office party season. And if you're lucky enough to work alongside people you really like, as I do, it's a welcome opportunity to get away from the office and share a pleasant holiday toast with them.

But the company party can be treacherous terrain if you don't know what you're doing.

Reviewing the online literature on this, it comes as no surprise that the most common party pitfall is excess drinking. Most party hosts these days try to curb that sort of thing, but unless the party is held on the International Space Station, there's no way to keep people intent on getting drunk from doing so.

This never ended well back in the day, and there were a lot fewer ways to offend someone back then. My tip on this one is to ring in the season with a traditional Biblical drink – water, maybe parted with a lemon wedge.

Another major party problem – excess eating.

Nothing says "fire me" like spraying the boss with half-digested frank-in-a-blanket during conversation.

Here's a couple I hadn't thought about – excess talking, and appearing anti-social by avoiding mingling.

The website about.com recommends limiting conversations to five minutes and avoiding office talk. If that leaves "how about those Sox" as your conversation starter, you may limit it to two minutes.

And of course, the worst blunder you can make at a holiday party – falling in… love there.

If you really think a spark has ignited, by all means, stoke the fire another day, when there's no co-worker audience and you are perhaps not quite as jolly.

Maybe get together again and see where you are before you drink a lot of water.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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