Dread the office holiday party? Here's how to cope | Redux

Dread the office holiday party? Here's how to cope

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Excerpt:

(MoneyWatch) For some buttoned-up offices, the holiday party is the only official social event of the year. Whether you're trying to use the evening as a networking opportunity or you simply hate awkward encounters, these gatherings can be stressful, particularly if they're a once-a-year occurrence. "To stave off that 'stage fright' (and avoid the foot-in-mouth syndrome that sometimes goes with cocktails and awkward social interactions), I recommend preparing some talking points," says Meryl Weinsaft Cooper, co-author of "Be Your Own Best Publicist: How To Use PR Techniques To Get Noticed, Hired and Rewarded at Work." Here are Weinsaft Cooper's top three tips: Talk about them. Most people love to talk about themselves. Throw the attention on your co-workers by asking about their holiday plans, recent travels, hobbies or families. "Check around to see what co-workers and bosses are posting online.

Keywords:

Weinsaft Cooper current events Meryl Weinsaft Cooper awkward social interactions notes Weinsaft Cooper official social event Wall Street Journal important sporting results personal elevator pitch awkward encounters awkward silence Best Publicist buttoned-up offices holiday party networking opportunity foot-in-mouth syndrome once-a-year occurrence PR Techniques bite-sized form open Twitter general grasp holiday plans conversation starters office soiree Wikimedia Commons succinct points recent travels treasure trove local news big moment news stories positive way Photo courtesy professional perspective fun things personal life amazing movie Green Lane interesting book co-workers people Talk Rewarded co-author embarrassment fright Hired cocktails Noticed Facebook

People:

Meryl Weinsaft Cooper

Overall Sentiment: 0.158991

Relevance: 0.927317

Sentiment	Quote
-0.0819102	"To stave off that 'stage fright' (and avoid the foot-in-mouth syndrome that sometimes goes with cocktails and awkward social interactions), I recommend preparing some talking points," says Meryl Weinsaft Cooper, ...
-0.0577734	"To stave off that 'stage fright' (and avoid the foot-in-mouth syndrome that sometimes goes with cocktails and awkward social interactions), I recommend preparing some talking points," says Meryl Weinsaft Cooper, co-author of "Be Your Own Best Publicist: How To Use PR Techniques To Get Noticed, Hired and Rewarded at Work."
0	"Check around to see what co-workers and bosses are posting online. For example, perhaps someone posted pictures on Facebook from their trip to Chile. You can use that as a jumping off point for conversation to ask about their experiences, what made them choose the destination," says Weinsaft Cooper.
0.153483	"It's truly a treasure trove of information in 140-character, bite-sized form. I recommend checking on trending topics, hashtags and other news stories that might be showing up on the site. From humor to current events, checking what people are talking about there can help give you a few conversation starters," says Weinsaft Cooper.
0.180348	"Start by taking stock of some fun things you did in your personal life this year: Did you take a class? Did you read an interesting book or see an amazing movie? You can also think about some milestones from a professional perspective. Was there a big moment in the context of your company that you can revisit in a positive way?" notes Weinsaft Cooper.
Sentiment Stats:	Number of Quotes: 5 Aggregate Sentiment: 0.1941474 Mean: 0.03882948 Standard Deviation: 0

Key:

• Aggregate Sentiment is meant to be an indicator of an individual's overall sentiment.
• The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
• The Standard Deviation, when there are enough quotes, will indicate an individual's consistency of sentiment (i.e. a Standard Deviation of 0 would mean they were very consistent in their sentiment and 1 would mean they were very inconsistent).

Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.

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URL Provided Title:

Dread the office holiday party? Here's how to cope

URL Provided Keywords:

• holiday
• levin-epstein
• networking
• party

Webpage Provided Desc:

Do you get tongue-tied at your company's annual holiday bash? These three tips can help

Source : http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsBusiness/~3/yF84tDxi5sc/

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Full Content: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsBusiness/~3/yF84tDxi5sc/

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