It’s inevitable around the holidays: your anticipation when opening a beautifully wrapped gift from a friend or loved one turns into bafflement in a matter of seconds. Instead of appearing ungrateful, you smile and graciously thank the gift-giver while your mind is quickly churning out ways to keep that item from ever reaching some box in the back of your attic. [More]
etiquette
We Are Immensely Relieved That Many Subway Riders Will Offer A Pregnant Woman A Seat
By 5.1.15
In a world of man-spreading, pole-hogging, door-holding and other public transit nuisances, one might expect that there are times when a pregnant woman can’t get a seat amidst a sea of suddenly oblivious passengers. This might have even happened to you. So it’s with a sigh of relief that we learn today that there are still a lot of good hearts out there ready to rise to the occasion. [More]
McDonald’s Employee Resource Site Gives Helpful Holiday Tips On Tipping Your Pool Cleaner
By 12.6.13
One might think there’s a line everyone crosses, whether it be a large corporation like say, McDonald’s, or an individual person, where you just know you’re doing it wrong. But Mickey D’s still doesn’t seem to get it, as it’s reportedly issued a helpful guide for the holidays on how its employees — many of which barely subsist on minimum wage — should be tipping their own employees, like the pool cleaner and the au pair. [More]
That Whole Eating With A Knife And Fork Thing? You’re Doing It Wrong
By 6.28.13
There it is, the object of your affection — a nice big juicy steak, ready for your wholehearted consumption and gustatory devotion. So you pick you your fork in your left hand, the knife in the right, cut a nice piece of it… and then you probably switch your fork to your right hand. Take a deep breath: That’s wrong. [More]
Does Every Business Transaction Need To Include A Handshake?
By 10.2.12
Dan isn’t a germaphobe exactly, but… well, maybe he kind of is. Airports are places where germs from all over the world get to meet and infect people in new and exciting ways. At the Enterprise car rental counter, the agent behind the desk would shake hands with every person in line, and this made him uncomfortable. He avoided the handshake, but wondered what other people would do. [More]
5 Mortal Sins Of Email Use
By 3.14.12
Email is magical for its amazing ability to get people to despise you through its misuse. It’s rare that those who are offended by inappropriate emails call the abuser out on their foibles, so offenders often continue unchecked. But this has to stop. People need to slap some virtual hands to correct bad behavior. [More]
Avoid Being Rude While Dining Internationally With These Food Etiquette Tips
By 3.1.12
Your mother taught you well when it comes to table manners, but did she tell you to never to fork food into your mouth in Thailand? Probably not, which is why you should pay attention to a few handy etiquette tips if you’ll be dining out internationally. No one wants to (intentionally) be a rude American, right? [More]
PETA Sends Case Of Soy Milk To PR CEO Who Threatened To Fire Next Person Who Doesn't Replace The Milk
By 10.3.11
Today PETA sent a case of soy milk to Beckerman Public Relations CEO Keith Zakheim, who last week generated buzz for sending around an email that threatened to fire the next person in the office who finishes the milk in the staff refrigerator without replacing it. I don’t care what kind of milk people choose to drink, but tweaking aggro CEOs is funny. [More]
PR Firm CEO Threatens To Fire Next Person Who Doesn't Replace The Milk
By 9.30.11
In a company email that reads like a rejected new column for the Onion, the CEO of a PR company threatened this week to fire the next person who neglects to replace the empty milk carton in the refrigerator. [More]
How To Politely Ride An Elevator
By 5.25.11
Does someone in your building or office consistently fail to follow proper elevator procedures? Do they not make the effort to hold the door even after they see you coming and make eye contact? Do they stink up the Zen space of the elevator with their cellphone chatter? [More]
The Best Flowchart For Proper Office Coffee-Maker Etiquette
By 5.13.11
Does someone in your office not know proper coffee-maker etiquette? This flowchart will guide them through the decision-making process they should go through upon encountering a coffee pot. Installing several of these in high-visibility areas should help reduce the number of times you walk into the break room only to encounter a stinking hunk of boiling black sludge. My favorite part is where it says “Do you drink coffee? -> No -> Walk away -> But I want to turn it off!” and it just keeps looping back to walk away… We mocked Comcast when we posted their internal policy regarding making coffee, but maybe they were actually pretty forward-thinking. [More]
How To Not Offend Your Unemployed Pals
By 5.1.11
When you lose your job, you don’t want to be coddled by friends and family, and can be more sensitive to subtle, unintended condescension. It’s easy for others to inadvertently say the wrong thing, so a primer is in order to set some rules for social etiquette in place. [More]
Would You Berate Someone For Eating On Public Transit?
By 3.18.11
Public transit smooshes together people from all walks of life. In this video, a person from the “don’t eat on the subway” class of society comes into contact with the “I’m hungry and I’m going to eat my noodles” class of society. The woman from the first group keeps asking the woman from the second group to stop eating, at one point saying that “animals eat on the subway like that,” and the woman from the second group and her friend take offense. Then the train lurches and punches start flying. The noodles appear to stay intact, thank heavens. [More]
Is It Impolite To Return Or Exchange Gifts?
By 12.28.10
Returning gifts can be a tricky and sensitive proposition, especially if the gift is from a loved one who really thought they had found just the right thing for you. So to help you navigate this minefield, we turned to etiquette expert Anna Post of the Emily Post Institute for advice. [More]
What Not To Say To A Sketchy Door-To-Door Salesman
By 12.17.10
Terry has a story that illustrates why it’s not a good idea to have a too-trusting person — say, your mom or your kids — answer your door. If the answerer has the tendency to offer up unsolicited information about when you’ll be away, he could give an unsavory caller an indication of when to rob you. [More]
Deciding Whether To Open Your Wallet Or Slam The Door When A Stranger Calls
By 11.7.10
When a stranger knocks on your door, it’s almost always someone asking for something rather than someone willing to give you something. So it’s understandable to have a closed-door policy unless you see through the peephole that it’s Ed McMahon. And even if it is Ed McMahon, he’s most likely a zombie rather than a Publishers Clearing House representative because he died last year. [More]
How Not To Be Annoying And Incompetent At E-mail
By 10.2.10
Just because you’ve fired off dozens of emails every day for more than a decade, it doesn’t mean you’ve been doing it right. You may reinforcing bad habits with each misfired message, unaware that you’re rankling friends, business contacts and customer service reps. [More]
Theater Chain Fights Back Against Texting During Movies
By 9.21.10
I don’t go to the movies much these days because I’m in NYC, and I don’t want bedbugs crawling all over me like that scene in Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake. But if I did go to the movies, I wouldn’t, because the last several times I went there was always some fool texting within my line of sight. Now a theater chain based in Arizona is launching a nationwide campaign to try to get through to these self-involved types that texting in a darkened theater is wrong. [More]
