Men Personal Grooming 36-47

Men Leaving the Bathroom

Before leaving the bathroom, cup any lit candle with the back of your hand and blow it out. Take a paper towel and wipe the mirror dry. You can wipe the rest down with 91% alcohol.  It will clean counters and make fixtures shine.  Take more; dry the floor. Put the used paper towel in the trashcan. Leave the bathroom ready to receive the next person, or for the next time.

 Place your personal items on a tray, bucket, or container. Take it out of the bathroom, or place it in a drawer.

 You can store your items in a drawer in your room, or in your gym bag. You may use a bathroom nightstand.

 Take your towel with you. Leave the door open. You can fold your towel in half, place it over a hanger, and take it to the designated place where it is to dry. Avoid placing wet anything in with your dirty laundry.

 Once dry you may place it in a hamper, or hang it on a rack in your room, or behind the closet door, to use for one more day.

Male Bathroom “WC” Conduct

 The trip can begin with the statement, “I’ll be right back, or with the question, “Where can I wash my hands?” This phrase only works in the USA. Outside of its where is the “WC.” wash closet: a room containing a toilet and often a wash bowl. Always sit down when using the toilet in a private home. Upon entering the bathroom, lock the door. Turn on the light. You can turn on the water if you are well bred or just shy.

 Remember the sign, "Gentleman, consider yourself at home now, and please, sit down. If you must stand, prove you are neat - straddle the bowl, in your bare feet. Be at ease. Sit down."  Scoot forward. Point yourself to the side toilet wall. (It is the silent way to go.)

 When you elect to stand, place tissue between the seat and the rim and lift up the seat. Flush as you go, or (again,) point the head of the hose to the side toilet wall. Do this out of courtesy; no one wants to hear you piss. When you are done, get new tissue or a pad, blot yourself. Blotting residue is easier than wearing and smelling like it, I assure you. Remember to flush, and to put the seat down from the top, when you are finished.  If you dirty the seat or the floor (and you will), search for paper toweling or tissue, and the Windex or Lysol spray hidden behind the toilet and clean it. Next time remember the sign.

When you are seated longer, remember the rules for a dry wipe: get paper, use only two to three sheets, then legs apart, bend forward as far as you can, and then hold and feel where you think you want to wipe. Clean back to the front, then front to back, with one finger, fold and repeat until there is no track. Then the way to check is to scrape side to side until you are dry.  

You can wet wipe: get the tip of folded paper wet with water from the sink; or flush and dip the tip into clean flowing water, and wipe yourself. Some find that there is no such thing as a dry wipe. You would not do it to a baby.  You might then elect to get a dry paper and blot yourself, until you are clean, and scrape until you are dry. Anything you leave you will get to wear.

 Repeat the blotting process until you are clean like there was going to be an inspection. You are done, when you are clean, then you can scrape until you are dry. This never was about just wiping. Better to find out now than later. This can be done with 1 paper towel.

After difficult times, get new paper and sanitize the seat with the and 91% alcohol from the bottle you keep behind the toilet or in a drawer. Wipe under the toilet seat, and in the toilet wipe away any residue. Flush or trash this paper. Thank you.

Strive to eliminate any odor not considered desirable in a bathroom environment. You can hold a blown out sulfur match until the smoke dissipates, and then flush it. Only first, you have to find out who still makes a sulfur match. You may search for and use Lysol® air freshener. Spray under the seat. Spray the water in short bursts. Then flush. Step back and wait thirty seconds (It works.) As a last resort, you could spray cologne.

Wash your hands. Turn on the faucet at least once while in the bathroom. Wet the soap, if only to make someone believe that before leaving the bathroom you really did use it. It may be easier to wash your hands really. Use cold water and soap. Wet your hands. Wash each by agitating one against the other. Rinse them. You may wash your hands with hydrogen peroxide alone or with a hand sanitizer, anytime you wish. Clean under each fingernail from the tip to each under the skin. Use a fingernail, on one hand, to clean behind the fingernails on the other hand. At home, this action may be done using a fingernail brush. This could be done with a toothpick, or with tweezers. Inspect your nails and repeat the process or relax and enjoy them.

Hands are to be washed each time after you finish in the bathroom. This action will help someone decide if you are to help with the dishes or to eat off paper plates. You can use a tissue or a paper towel to turn off the water. You may use the same paper to open the bathroom door.

Leave the bathroom ready to receive the next person. Before leaving the bathroom, you could take another tissue and wipe the mirror, sink and the faucet. You might use tissues and 91% alcohol to do this. Both can leave each item shining. Wipe the floor as required. Get new paper and wipe the top of the toilet seat, and the space just behind it, and place any trash in a receptacle.  Bless you.  The statement to use for someone who is making the trip may be, “Let me see (if so & so is in,) Then say, “So and so is not available just now,” or that, “He or she) has just stepped out.”

Note: The guide is a breach of etiquette:  The rule: “What is done behind the door of a bathroom is private.”  And, yes it is true, until another person is listening, enters the room, or smells you.

Not an expert in this, just providing some stuff, you can engine search, and do if you wish.

Male Changes and Check-Ups

 Make changes to your physical appearance, when any abnormality or disfiguring flaw makes you miserable, or make it your trademark and do nothing about it. Report all herbs, medicines, and supplements you are taking to your pharmacist.  Have them logged into a computer. Update this list. With each new prescription ask, “Can I take grapefruit juice with this?”

Get an itch on your body, rub a cut tomato on it, and let it sit. Yeah, it works, no...Shhh…. Olive oil and salt can do the same thing. Get an itch in your groin area (a sign that you are maybe a jock), get a medicine. Get an itch in your feet (a sign you are an athlete,) get a medicine. Both jock itch and Athlete's feet are treatable and are something you can talk about freely with friends, family, your doctor, and pharmacist. Other subjects you may discuss can concern flatulence, tail itch, hemorrhoids, and testicular lumps. (You are not alone.)

If it drips, trickles, burns, sprouts, or smells, if emissions are anything but white or clear, get to a health care center, or to your doctor; get each item checked.  Know this; there is a cure for that.  “And there is a reason not to go barefoot in a barnyard.” If it sniffles, I put Vicks vapor rub on it: in my nose and on my chest as my mother did, as she said, “You are going to school tomorrow.” Father said, “Eat some; it will not kill you.” And I did until I read the directions.

Come here. Your skin is an organ. Once a year, have it professionally checked. Learn how to check for testicular cancer and breast cancer; men are dying but to know. You can ask for and maintain a copy of each of your dental and medical records. 

Once a year get a complete medical checkup. You can get some medical tests: never fear, it is a A1C (Glycohemoglobin) test, BMP (Basic Metabolic panel), CBC: (Complete Blood Count), CMP: Comprehensive metabolic panel), A fasting blood lipids test: (Lipids Blood Test), GRE:  (Gluten resistenceRE), (Gluten Sensitivity Intolerance Test), IGF1: (Insulin-like Growth Factor – 1 Test ), Phthalates test, TSH: (thyroid-stimulating hormone, Vitamin D, Omega Index 3 and a Urine test, that will help you tell how well your body uses what you provide as fuel (with the things missing and added no real thanks to you). If you are vegan or vegetarian, check to see your levels of B12. Food is fuel; see how it is helping to run your body. If you are a carnivore, check for fiber and  A, C, E, D, and K; folate, calcium, and manganese, also do this if your diet is mainly (Fast food, Pizza, or Ramen).  Eggs can make up for the missing vitamins A, E, D, and folate. Still, you need C, (citrus) to avoid the serious risk of scurvy.

Have a checklist of questions to ask your doctor.  It is your job to keep your body up to date, and to decide what you will and will not take.  It can be your job to spearhead the quest for the discovery of a cure. 

Medicine knows that the money is in the maintenance and in secondary sales. You can French press coffee and never as much as look for a paper filter.  Pick the things on which you will allow yourself to be dependent. Single source the list of all your pharmaceuticals.

Midsection Muscle Management

Manage the muscles in your mid-section. If you keep announcing that you are going to the gym.  And you get naked and do not look like you have been.  Someone may ask that you stop carrying that bag. 

We are judged by our midsection.  Midsection muscle management can be as simple as twisting side to side, up and down or left and right, like the leaves on a tree. You can be Fit by the Force of Wind®. You can burn fat; it is up to you if you want to lose weight also. You may move (exercise) for five hundred repetitions for maintenance or forty minutes (or twice that,) a day. In this, like in that, biosphere, your major job is to stand tall, react to the force or wind, be reasonably healthy, and to look good naked, or to try. You could do this and never break a sweat. You may walk back and forth on a treadmill, for thirty minutes, at a low speed, and pull in your midsection, front and back, and enjoy the yawn.  I will run when a tree does. I will see you when you get back from burning fat.

You may lift light weights, five, ten, or fifteen pounds per hand, and look up or down as you are pulling in. You can sit down at a machine and go side to side or front to back learn the power of the wind starting at zero.  You could lift more if you want.  Go be young.

Men's Personal Grooming 64-85

Men’s Business Etiquette
Cool Rules to Know 

Men’s Business Etiquette In US ISBN 978-0-917921-12-4

Professional and Graduate
Male Care Matters

                               

Things Expected from the Male Half

Traditions Governing                 

Business and Social Behavior               

University Etiquette
Outclass the Competition

An At Ease Press Etiquette Guide                                   

A Be at Ease School of Etiquette Course Guide                      

(102)

Text by

Harold Almon

Published by

At Ease Press
schoolofetiquette@ateasepress.com

All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this guide, or parts thereof, in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

ISBN 978-0-917921-12-4  

Copyright (c) 2012, 2019

Printed in the United States of America

Text by

Harold Almon

Foreword

Men’s Business Etiquette is about cool rules to know: traditions governing business and social behavior, consideration, and taste: things expected from male young professionals and university students. 

“Do not hate the player or the game.

Hate (having the talent, and)

Not knowing the rules.”

Those who have talent and execute the rules best wins.

Etiquette: considerations that delay the inevitability of war and the license whereby someone may sue for peace. 

Business Social Traditions

Before you agree to stay, there are rules about business social traditions: how you get approval that someone really meant to tell you. There are things you want to remember and enjoy, and games you want to know how to play.

.In home training, there were comments made to you from someone like me: “Why cannot you be more like Johnny?” There were tests, and gold stars, allowance, permission, and being grounded; and there were other forms of adult-imposed punishment. And there was the knowledge that when you got a car, home, or a business, of your very own, you could run each - any way you wanted. Gold stars were given based on how well you could test. Your performance was rated, not based, on "Hard work," but on "Good work,” how well a job is thought to have been done: approval.

In business, (in the place you are now,) no one makes comments anymore, but they still speak fondly of Johnny. There are still gold stars, given based on tests. There is performance, and approval, and “Unhired,” and there are other forms of adult-imposed punishment. If you are lucky, someone will tell you about consideration, that when you get “one” of your very own, playing by the rules - is no less a requirement.

Staying is based on personality and approval: how well you are thought to play.

This guide covers rules on men’s etiquette. Remember rule number one; it matters, and rule number two; he who has talent and executes the rules best wins. Let the games begin.

Men Get a Public Business Partner

Avoid attempting to master business-social etiquette alone. Get a public partner. Share social information with this person. Share the process. Get, and provide feedback.

In business, it is not a matter of being good enough or knowing your stuff. It is a matter of how well you play, and how you will play at the next level. Attend social events with your partner. Where possible, this person is to be of the opposite sex. After five o'clock, the public partner for a married person is to be his or her spouse. Your public partner need not be a romantic interest. He or she may be retained long after any romance is over.

Share games. If you are lucky, your partner will know how to play golf, tennis, racket ball, and cards. He or she will have been to a museum, theater, opera, on a cruise, or on an away trip, at least once.  Share parties. If luckier still, your partner will know how to dine: attend a business social party,  and practice and share skills in business dinner etiquette, and know the prerequisites to business success: how to engage in table talk, not drink or talk too much, and know how to dance.

Give back, volunteer. Join a committee. Accept an appointment to a board. Join an association. Take an academic class. It is in one of these environments a partner of choice will be most evident doing social polishing: making mistakes where it counts the least, practicing social graces, and being firm and considerate.

Your social partner will be aware that there is another level, to life, and another side to moving forward. Say thank you often. Practice presentations on each other. Share heroes and spotlights.

Men Get a Promotional Partner

Get a promotional partner: someone with whom you seek the same target market but with whom you are not in direct competition.

Share precious resources with this person.

Pool advertising budgets.

Share advertising spots.

Swap mailing lists.

Share display space.

Sell the experience.

Insert promotional advertising items.

Bundle products and services.

Co-sponsor events.

Share public exposure.

Share literature in racks in waiting areas.

Each can be an ideal solution to maximizing advertising dollars.

Male Schedule Management 

In business, arrive “Just in time” for any appointment you intend to keep. You can get there ten minutes early, and then walk around the block.

Organize your thoughts beforehand. Send business information in advance of a meeting where practical. Be prepared to wait up to ten minutes after the time specified to be seen. Telephone whenever being late is unavoidable. Apologize for a missed appointment mischance. The apology must be accepted with as much calm as can be mustered. Suggest another appointment.

In social life, arrive "Just in time" for any event you plan to attend, whatever "On time" means, in your community. For an informal party at a private home, a business party, or for a large or small dance, arrive very close to the time specified (in descending order of importance).

Manage your daily schedule by using a portable organizer; it can be new-school, a smart telephone. It may be old school, a sleek leather system organizer full of crisp visiting and business cards with color dividers, or a spiral planner.

It could be a laptop or notebook PC for salaried workers, workers on flex time and independent business people.

A daily schedule might be managed by using a computer-generated calendar, a loose-leaf sheet calendar, or by sharing a multi-person calendar.

Things to do can be spoken in a pocket-size tape recorder or listed on a note pad and transcribed later.

Ask for one or more of these as a present and/or as a benefit to allow you to provide better service in your employment.

Male Considerate Actions

Carry items in your left hand. You can carry a woman's heavy package, coat, or suitcase as the occasion arises.  (Omit from carrying a woman's purse.) You may carry a bag strapped over your right shoulder. Avoid carrying a backpack over your lower back (and causing you to have to give it another name).

Offer to carry anything for a person who is old, sick, or who is carrying a child. Offer your seat to any senior person in your company.

Offer your arm, or take the elbow of a companion, but only if that person needs assistance in crossing an area, at a curb, or on stairs.

Carry money in a money clip for tipping, taxies, and for mad-type emergencies.

Carry a pencil and a pen with as much metal in each as possible. Carry a fountain pen when you can.  Even a non-expensive one can leave a good impression.

Carry a timepiece: a wrist watch for work, a pocket timepiece for formal and social occasions. A timepiece can be handed up from father to son.  It is about the totem, not the time.

Perform small services. Offer to open a window, and/or tell someone the time, when the desire for each is identified.

You might carry a cellular telephone. It is another kind of totem. It can be about the time. Each person may have a need to track it. It may be about an emergency: place an “ICE #” In Case of Emergency contact number in your contacts.  Use lockout codes in case you lose it. You may add to it a GPS in case you or it gets lost. It could list REWARD # to call to have your telephone returned to you.

A cellular telephone is to be used in private as much as possible. When engaged in a conversation, step outside out of earshot of others or step inside into an empty bathroom or stairwell to enjoy your call. Thank you.  Notification of an incoming call is to be by vibration. (I am going to go ahead and hold on to this dream.)

You can stay “miked.” Any wire is to be worn under your clothes, and ideally, any earpiece is to be worn in only one ear or stored behind the neck.

Male Words to Say in Passing

When passing someone, in business, first provide a greeting appropriate for the time of day. Say, “Good morning,” or “Good afternoon.” Know that “Good" is normally said only in business. "Good evening," is normally said only by staff to senior people. "Good night," is said only when dismissing oneself from someone else. Each phrase without the word “Good” can be said by peers. Use each, try.  With peers, you can say, "Hello," “Peace,” “Out,” and “Later.” The reply to a greeting is to be in kind. Formally, people of about the same social position can perform a greeting by saying, "How do you do?" The reply is to be "How do you do?"  Avoid messing up a perfectly good “How do you do,” with a “How are you?” Informally you can say, “How are you?”  The reply “How are you?” or “Very well thank you. And (how are) you?” It can be "Miserable, but thank you for asking; (and you?") People might want to see if you are listening or just need some company. More informally the reply to “What’s up?” has been seen to be “What’s up?” Sometimes a senior person will hear an informal greeting and remain silent. (This is just an observation.) (“How do you do?”) You may say, “What’s up?” The reply is to be the same.

Acknowledge a need or a mishap in passing by saying, “Excuse me,” or “I beg your pardon.”  (Avoid saying, “Pardon me.”) You can say, “I am sorry.”

Ask, “May I (we) get through please.” You can say, “After you,” “I yield,” “Please,” “I insist,” or informally, “Dance?” to let someone pass. Pass to the left. You can stay to the right.

Motion with your left hand, smile and allow the person to pass. After passing, or being allowed a request, say, "You're welcome," or "Thank you," as appropriate. Learn to say, “Nice to see you,” and/or “Looks nice.” A person who is reluctant to say anything in passing is to learn how to nod. When someone is being offensive, the best defense can sometimes be a smile, followed by a “Is there a problem here?" “You doing alright today: (street code for “What the hell?” or “You having a good day?” You can say “You O.K?” or “Can I help you.” When you want someone to go away, you may say, “Good day." If more of a hint is needed, it only needs to be repeated, (Sir. I say,) Good day.” Be prepared to defend yourself or to duck. The best defense may be a smile, followed by, "I see," "I understand," "How can I help you," or with an "And you have a nice day." You could add, "That’s not very well brought up behavior." You might say, “Hey man, can you help me with the language.  I said please.” When someone is being intrusive it has been seen said, “I am fine here, Sir,” or “I do not mean to keep you,” “May the peace of the Lord be with you.” When you hear a request for, “Spare change,” what you do is up to you. When refusing an offer for charity you are to say, “I am sorry.”  When refusing an offer of an item you can press your open hand to your heart, tilt your head slightly aside and say, “Thank you.” Verbal communication can begin with three of the four Ws or an H: When, Where, What, or How. Avoid asking why.

Male Business International Non-verbal Communication

Be careful of what you say non-verbally. Avoid signing the backward "V" for victory (“I still have my (bow) fingers,”) thumbs up or the sign for "O.K." Outside of the USA, each is considered vulgar and/or an insult in more than one culture. Signing a Cross might be favored and used in lieu of signing a single finger.

Words that a woman may say better not to be believed, “Please don’t get up,” “Please sit down,” It is OK, I can manage,” or “Go ahead, I’ll be alright.” You have a firm duty of care; until the world can see your attempted efforts have been rebuffed enough to maybe consider thinking about forgiving you.

Walking in Business

In business, a junior person is to walk to the street side, or one step to the left and behind any senior person.

A senior person can walk to the left of a junior person. When this happens, a junior male is to walk behind a senior person until he can get to the other side. An employed woman is to be regarded according to her job position. In social life, a woman is to be regarded as a senior person.

Step back to let others come out of any doorway, room, elevator, or area in which you wish to enter.

Hold a door open from the side for any person in front of or immediately behind you going out of or into a doorway. Push any swinging door; go through first. You can pull any swinging door, or step back from an automatic door, and let a person precede or follow according to his or her sex or seniority. (People will notice.) 

A senior person is to precede a junior person and a “Host” in going into or out of a doorway or office. Say, “Please,” to acknowledge the senior person. This person can say, “I insist.” You may say, “I yield,” “I am honored”  “Thank you,” or “Sir.” The junior person is to know when to give up the fight.

You can offer to enter and exit an elevator or any doorway last. This is a right of a host or hostess. It is the duty of any person in his or her own country. Peers can go through a doorway shoulder to shoulder.

In social life, a woman in a line is to precede any man with her, unless he can in some way help by going first. In official life, an official in a line is to precede the person with him or her. A designated escort may walk to the left and ahead of a visitor when escorting him or her into an unfamiliar area.

When walking alone, in the United States of America, walk to the right. Honor is to the right. When walking with a senior person, walk to the left and one-step behind, or to the street side. When a senior person stops to talk to someone, to use an ATM, or to write a check, the junior person is to step back or to walk ahead slowly. The senior person is to be allowed to decide if introductions are in order.

Walk erect: as if your back rib cage is against a wall, and your arms were almost pinned to your sides. Stop for red lights. You are walking and I can hear you.  And if I do, time to learn a new way of walking or to get new shoes. Advancing is to be done on the balls of the feet. (It can be controlled from each quadrant listed for midsection management.)

Pausing in Business - Working a Room

Learn to pause (often). Pausing is an action that will allow you to take control of a room or to give notice of your intent to leave one. It can allow you to make your presence known without disrupting or upstaging anyone. It may let you get a little extra from being where you are.

Pausing could be done at the top of stairs, in a hallway, doorway, or center of a room, by a mere stop. You might allow yourself to act as if you have entered the limelight. This is an especially useful thing to do, if you really do have a “bad” knee. A pause is to be enjoyed. Take a breath, or make a small noise so that someone can see you. Continue your walk in company.

Free Download Business Dining Etiquette Guide 301

Business Dining Etiquette Guide 301         In US

Professional & GraduateISBN 978-0-917921-80-3 

Free Download Business Dining Etiquette Guide 301

Business Etiquette Dinner

Eating in Courses
Look Polished

University Etiquette Outclass the Competition

An At Ease Press Etiquette Guide             

A Be at Ease School of Etiquette Course Guide                     

(137)

Text by

Harold Almon

Published by

At Ease Press schoolofetiquette@ateasepress.com

 

Business Dining Etiquette Guide 301

Professional & Graduate

Business Etiquette Dinner

 

All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

ISBN 978-0-917921-80-3

Copyright © 2014, 201, 2018

Printed in the United States of America

Text by

Harold Almon    

To:  Proofreaders and reviewers;

If you have additions, corrections, or questions let me know, the worst it can get you is an updated copy.

Your forever re-writer,

Acknowledgments

To: Travis,       

On the way to being a Five – you knew your ascension had begun, when someone said to you more than once, “Let’s do lunch.”

 

Foreword

Business Dining Etiquette Guide 301 provides an excellent opportunity to learn (or brush up on) business table manners: rules of etiquette used for business dining: pre-steps, dining stations and lines, presents, name badge placement, handling cocktail foods, mock-tail introductions, notes on handshaking, getting business cards, standard USA menu and order of courses, napkin rules, advanced-formal place setting, flatware rule of three & ten, cutting meat Continental style, eating steak with a dinner knife, eating in courses, salad with the third fork, saying thank you part I acknowledgment and part II a note by hand, and there are other things to ponder.

This is written because the more you climb the corporate ladder the more dining protocols matter. There comes a time to transcend coffee shop habits and dining hallways. The way you drink and eat reflects on you and your company.

Business dining is a ritual at which more than eating is done.  Eating in courses? Look polished. Dining is a dance. Learn the steps and practice. Get etiquette. Outclass the competition. On the way to the top, there are stations and lines at which to stop.

  

Pre-Steps to Business Dining

You have responded to a request to RSVP and have accepted “with pleasure the kind” invitation, and have identified any meal restrictions. You have agreed to the dress request. Yes, dress as your host expects. It does not have to be new. It can be a consignment purchase. It can be rented.  It can be acquired and taken back. Dress in season. Learn business dress suit etiquette, business personal grooming, and business etiquette to know. Meet conduct expectations. Plan your transportation. Get directions. Know the name of the venue, location, and time of the meeting. Engine search the location and map directions. Get a trip planner, bus, car, and ride-hailing application. Get a parking application. Learn the most favorable driving directions and parking instructions for each place to which you will invite someone. See if each parking pass can be validated by the venue. The discount for the special of the day can be overshadowed by the cost of parking or the valet. The Valet: the person who will park your car. Someone asked me about parking to which I replied, “Get a Valet key and let a valet park your car.  It is OK, really.” If you let this happen, place what you want to keep in the glove compartment or in the trunk. Avoid tempting an angel. Tip this person one dollar to five dollars and the posted rate on the way out. This person can expect that you have already mastered the art of palming. When a valet is not present, learn if the venue will validate the parking pass.

Review the online menu. Get fast food coupons; (eat a little something before you get there.”) Now back to stations.

 

Dining Stations and Lines

Know that there are eight stations and lines for each dining event.

*

Station One                     The Meeting Line

Station Two                     The Reception Line

Station Three                  The Line to the Bar

Station Four                    The Line to the Table

Station Five                    The Line to the Food

Station Six                              The Line to the Bathroom

Station Seven                  The Line to Things to Take Away

Station Eight                   The Line to Goodbye

Every phase of each event must be done by going through one.

Only what is in each station, and who has to go through each line can change. This way, please.

       

Station One
The Meeting Line

 

 

 

 

 

 

Station One – The Meeting Line

 

The meeting line begins from thirty feet out and ends at the front door. It gives an indication of the care to be provided;
thus, the resurgence of Landscape Architecture.

The meeting line is where you meet people or assemble before calling on the event host or hostess or a commercial host. It is here, that someone from the inside can get a first glimpse at you.

1.     Be punctual. Arrive, “Just in time,” whatever this means in your community. You can get there early and take a walk around the block. You may wait in the downstairs lobby. You could visit a restroom to tidy up. Avoid showing up early in the reception area, or waiting for someone at the bar.  No one will know what to do with you. At the appointed time you are to arrive. You can check to see if your party is there, and ready to receive you.

2.     In a commercial dining establishment, open the door for any person with you. Give each revolving door a push. Step back. Let each senior person (regardless of gender) enter the door before you do.

3.     Remember, it is the right of a host to enter a doorway (or elevator) last. Know when to hold to your position and when to give up the fight.

Bolded items are contained in a PowerPoint presentation.

 

The Line to Presents

Occasionally show up with a present. A guest is to take a present to the hostess of any event where he or she did not have to work or pay to attend. The present is to be carried by the senior male guest when in tandem and is to be given to the hostess (when there is one). Avoid the expecting receiver always being able to say, "Here he comes again, one hand just as long as the other.”

Presents can be omitted at events where you had to pay to attend when you are there to do work, you are a single male, or when you are young. Avoid pushing the latter two rules.

A table for presents can be omitted. If no one else has bought a gift, give your gift in private.

You could bring personality to the table. Have a story (or two) prepared that can be shared. You might bring a card game, or know the one that can be played.

 A guest has been seen invited to an event to be a role model. Someone is waiting for you to show someone else how to ask, “How can I be of help? Volunteer to help set a table, eat in an established style, clear a table, ask where each item is to be placed, help wash dishes, offer to strip and remake a station, call and say thank you, and send a thank you note.  Most have someone in training.

Presents for an Interview

Remember the purpose of the meal.

Bring copies of your resume or ready one for forwarding.

Have a pen and note pad.

Research the company. Complete a company fact sheet.

Practice responses to interview questions, and

Prepare a list of questions to ask.

Follow the lead of your host or hostess.

Be discreet.  Eat a little something before you get there. (Eating is not to be the reason for the meeting.)

Look better eating in style. Get etiquette. Outclass the competition.

Station Two
The Reception Line

Station Two The Reception Line

The reception line starts behind the front door. It is where people invited to an event can be made comfortable and introduced to someone else. Socially, a woman or senior person is to be lead into this area. Here, help any woman with you to take off her coat. Check it if asked. Check any other items such as an umbrella, package, briefcase, coat, and/or hat.

The reception line can lead to hired help who will say, "May I have your “card,” “ticket,” “Invitation,” or "This way please."

The reception line may lead to a table set up so that a present may be placed on it. (You can have at home a closet from which you may select and provide a proper present, where required.) Note, people give presents; gifts come from another source.

 

In a commercial dining room, the reception line can lead to a Maître d’hôtel that may provide you a menu to view during your dining room review or a menu that you can take with you.  Ask if they have one. Note on it what is offered that you can recommend, (know how to eat,) meets any meal restriction, what is not to be missed, a signature dish, and in company what is not to be ordered. It could lead to a plan de table; it is to be studied to identify an ideal table and seating arrangements.

The reception line may lead to a receiving line; a place to greet the host, hostess, and any honored guest(s.)

1.     The official host or hostess is to be in the front of this line unless there is a designated introducer assigned. The spouse of this person is to stand next in line. Then the honorees stand in precedence. Informally a spouse can stand to the left the senior honoree, guest of honor, or any person who is a stranger.

2.     A designated introducer may take the name of each guest and relay it to the host or hostess. The guest of honor is to be addressed as the introducer says, "This is..." or "May I present...," followed by the name of the newly arrived guest. More formally, this person can be instructed to just repeat the name of each guest to this person.

3.     At a small party, a guest of honor who is not a stranger can be relieved from receiving people with the hostess and instead sit or stand somewhere close so that others may come up and talk to him or her. Introduce yourself and your guest to this person.

 4.    In official life, an official going through a receiving line is to precede the person with him or her. In social life, a woman is to precede any man with whom she is partnered.

A woman can walk on the right side of a man. At the front of the line, a man can step to the right of the person with him and provide the introducer with his name and with the name of the person in his company.

Next, you may find a Plan de Table and locate the table to which you have been assigned.

At each restaurant where you plan to have an event, each table plan is to be studied to identify tables and seating arrangements for your dinner parties.

 

Rules for Name Badge Placement

Get a name badge holder with a clip, pin, or magnet; not crazy about cords.  You may get two, each in a different size.  Place any stick back name badge atop and around a business card and place this inside your name badge holder. Get and wear a name badge. The number one accessory in Business Networking can be a name badge.  It can say, "Hello," "Let's talk," or "Let's do business."

Know where to place that name badge: theirs, single-line up high to the right (to show courtesy).  A badge, when it also has your company name goes high to the left, (to show allegiance,) above the right pocket (to show authority,) at the chest (to show security,) or at the belt (to show a pass ;) there are limits to how low one could have to go to learn your name. A badge with your name and the name or your company goes to the left when you are a host, allegiance is owed. Who knew? I do and I am not alone. Note the Family Feud name badge placement for a guest. You can check your name badge placement in a mirror or in a headshot. If your name is not in the frames you are not in the game. Adjust it until you get a picture-perfect match.  A reception line may lead to a reception table on which there is a check-in list with your name on it and a name badge for you to wear. Get a name badge for your guest, and/or the envelope with your name on it, containing your table assignment and the name of the person you are to "Take into dinner."

     

Station Three
The Line to the Bar

 

 

 

 

Station Three The Line to the Bar

At a no-host event, you can order and get a pre-dinner drink for yourself after you have said, "Hello" and "How are you" to people near you. Someone may say, “What can I get you?” It is the same as saying, “What drink can you call by name?

A pre-dinner drink is called an aperitif: used to stimulate appetite. It could be made available at a bar or at the table. Common choices are Campari, Champagne, Dubonnet, Lillet, and Vermouth.

Know how to respond to an offer of a drink. During mock-tail hour order a non-alcoholic or “Zero proof” one. “A virgin (something) drink” is just easier to say. During Mock-tail hour you can order

Water Always (Sparkling-mineral) or (Tap – flat) w/ lime/lemon/juice or a twist (in a rock glass)

Soda w a twist   (Club soda with a lime in a rock glass)       

A Soft Drink Sometimes (Roy Rogers in a rock glass)      

Fruit-juice (Cranberry with a twist)

Alcohol Never (Except for the 1 when you ought)

Shots (Rarely ever) (Never.)

Normally the line to station three, the bar, leads to an area set in the corner of a room. It can be an area for secondary introductions. At the bar, a host will most likely call on someone to prepare a pre-dinner drink for you: well, call, premium, or top shelf.  

During cocktail hour when a drink ought to be alcoholic, get a   Gin and Tonic (or Gin and Soda) with a twist. Be aware of the sugar in the tonic water. You may get a Martini with an olive or twist, Gin: Tanqueray Ten, or Vodka: Belvedere, or stay the course, and get yourself a soda and a lime twist (in a rock glass.)  Squeeze the lime and put it in the glass.

Pre-Dinner Drink Napkin Rules

1.     A pre-dinner drink glass is to be given in a glass with a cocktail napkin. OK then, ask for, or go get one. In formal tray service, the glass (with or without a napkin) is considered given when the tray is offered.

2.     In a commercial bar, the drink glass and napkin are considered given when set center the space in front of the person who ordered it. At a table, it is set or a napkin or coaster to the right of the last glass. Both items can be served by being given directly to you or directly to the person who requested it. In formal service, this practice is to be avoided.

3.     At a business social party, know what to do with that cocktail napkin. When away from a bar, the cocktail napkin is to be picked up and placed on your left-hand between the index and middle finger. It can be held between the middle and ring fingers. It may be placed on top of a bar or on a table. It is to be used and treated as both a napkin and a coaster.

A napkin has been seen used as a sleeve wrapped around a glass. – Avoid doing this. Away from a bar, a napkin is to be in your hand before you stand and drink anything. The napkin is to be held under the glass without touching it. A napkin can be rested atop a drink that is to be temporarily left. A napkin left under a glass unattended may be removed with it. When at a bar, when a drink is finished it is to be reset on the cocktail napkin to indicate that both could be taken away.

At a table, the cocktail napkin and the glass are to be taken away from the place setting position in which it was set.