Workplace Romance and Alcohol Abuse Top List of Holiday Party Indiscretions

Survey reveals top five office party regrets--WorldWIT provides expert tips for recovering from holiday party imprudence.

BOULDER, CO (PRWEB) November 21, 2006 -- WorldWIT™ (www.worldwit.org), the world's largest online community for professional women spanning 25 countries, asked its nearly 50,000 members, "What are your top holiday office party regrets?" The leading five holiday indiscretions listed by respondents are drinking too much, forgetting a colleague's name, brown nosing with upper management, becoming romantically involved with a colleague, and getting caught gossiping. In addition, 60 % of those surveyed changed their opinion of a co-worker after witnessing such a blunder.

Seventy five percent of those surveyed regret consuming three or more alcoholic beverages, and 6% actually admit to becoming ill or vomiting as a result. WorldWIT's comprehensive survey also concludes that nearly half say they regret forgetting a colleague's name. One out of five women surveyed became romantically involved with a colleague while at an office party. In fact, 33% of those respondents admit to a brief affair following the office party fling, 27% pretended it never happened and 13% say their still involved with the colleague today as a result of the impromptu romantic interlude.

One respondent said, "One year, I ended up going home with a co-worker after we both drank too much. We had previously flirted a little, but this ended up to be the excuse we needed to get together. We had great fun, never regretted it, and stayed involved for over a decade!" On the other hand, another said, "Sober, my colleague told me how much he loved his wife. Drunk, he told me how much he loved ME."

In response to the survey results, WorldWIT CEO and workplace expert Liz Ryan offers sobering advice for managing holiday workplace indiscretions.

1) The first, and hardest, part of bouncing back from a workplace misstep is to apologize to the affected parties. That might be the boss you insulted, the workmate you flirted with, or the hapless guest whose coat you spilled your drink on (or worse). Contact this person and say, "I want to apologize deeply for the incident the other night at the Holiday Party [or wherever. I feel very badly about what happened." That's all. You don't need to gush or try to make amends, unless you damaged or destroyed personal property. "Tincture of time" will be the best remedy for your misstep - that and following Step Number Two.

2) Step Number Two is to religiously WATCH your step for the next long while, and depending on the heinousness of your crime, that while could range from two weeks to six months or more. If you got drunk and kissed your boss, it could be longer. Be cool, do your work, and be overly respectful and careful until you're back in good standing.

3) The third to-do is to keep yourself out of situations that might make a relapse likely. If you have to avoid workplace social events for awhile, do it. If people are going to start in again on "Remember when Charlie fell down on the dance floor at the Christmas party?" then it might be better if you're not there.

4) Also, if your boss saw or likely heard about your gaffe, talk privately with him or her about it. If you really goofed up in public, you brought disfavor on your whole department and to some degree, made your boss look bad. On top of that, you made it harder for him or her to champion you to higher-ups who are aware of the bad thing that took place. So apologize to your boss as well, letting him or her know what you're going to do by way of damage control, and reassure him or her that you are a professional who takes responsibility for your mistakes.

5) Lastly, don't dwell on the incident. Life goes on. You don't have to keep apologizing to everyone you see or re-enacting the situation for the amusement of your colleagues. It's over, and tomorrow is a new day.

From a 20-year career as a Fortune 500 executive to co-founder of a venture-backed software startup to founder and CEO of the global professional woman's network WorldWIT, Liz has collected several volumes worth of experiences, wisdom, and razor-sharp observations that have enlightened and entertained audiences of CEOs, CIOs, HR leaders and women in business throughout the U.S.

For more information on this survey please contact Kristi Hughes at 215-816-2954 or via email.

About WorldWIT
Founded in Chicago in 1999, WorldWIT (www.worldwit.org) is the world's largest online networking organization for professional women in business, formed for women to share advice and ideas with other women eager to "connect." It reaches 40,000 women globally via moderated, local email discussion groups like ChicWIT (Chicago), HoustonWIT and BritWIT (Great Britain), and through local events and activities in 25 countries and 80 cities around the world. WorldWIT is also the proud winner of the 2004 Stevie™ Award for Best Woman's Business Association.

The membership is free and is comprised of women who range from corporate CEOs, government officials, legal professionals, marketing and media experts to home-based consultants and entrepreneurs. Its founder, Liz Ryan, was the first female vice president at U.S. Robotics, and is a popular columnist, speaker and "at work issues" expert. She has been featured by such media as TIME, Fortune, The New York Times, CNN, CNBC and CN8. Liz is also a regular contributor to Business Week Online and the on-air workplace expert for Denver's NBC affiliate, 9 News. WorldWIT is headquartered in Boulder, CO with a satellite office in Philadelphia, PA.

Call For Speakers: WorldWIT's fourth annual women's leadeship conference, Camp WorldWIT 2007: Gaining Altitude, takes place May 3-6, 2007 at the charming Stanley Hotel in the Rocky Mountains near Denver, Colorado. Camp WorldWIT 2007 will bring you 7500 feet closer to success. For the latest updates, visit www.worldwit.org/camp.

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