While giving a talk to a mostly male audience of about 80 people over 80 years-old, I was surprised to find that their biggest etiquette pet peeve was not the rude use of cell phone and texting. They were most irritated by young men who enter restaurants without removing their hats. (They were referring to baseball caps, but it could be any hat.)

Never underestimate a senior person’s ability to note the details. When dealing with the “young at heart” in business or social situations, take care of your appearance. Shine your shoes, press your clothing, button up (you too, ladies), comb your hair and gentlemen, please remove your hats.

And while you are at it, please call your grandparents.

Thanks to the Culture and Manners Institute at http://www.cultureandmanners.com/ for this etiquette tip!

To make the best impression with your handshake, reach for the person’s palm, not the fingers.  Use a firm grip, that shows you are confident.  If you give a weak handshake where you don’t really grip the other person’s hand, you appear weak, insecure, non-committal. (Message: “I am a doormat, feel free to walk all over me.”) And let’s be honest, when you are on the receiving end of the “fingers handshake,” it’s kind of a yucky feeling.

When you squeeze the other person’s hand so hard, it hurts, you appear domineering, angry, inconsiderate. (Message: “Please hire me, I want to scare the living daylights out of everyone in your workplace.”) 

Shake a woman’s hand as firmly as a man’s hand.  To give a woman a lighter handshake is an insult.

Thanks to the Culture and Manners Institute for this tip!  http://www.cultureandmanners.com/

Call-back interviews happen in many different ways.  They can take place at the interviewing law firm, here at the school, or over a meal.  If your call-back interview takes place over a meal always remember, when you are eating with potential employers you are still being interviewed.  Do not let the relaxed atmosphere lull you into relaxing your guard.  Callista Gould, a certified etiquette instructor with the Culture and Manners Institute, lists ten tips to make sure your table manners are ready for the call-back meal interview.         

Tackling Table Manners

Tips for Your Team

Here are ten errors to avoid:

1. Delay of Game:  Arrive early for your business meal, whether you are the host or the guest.  Do not order alcohol while you are waiting. 
2. False Start:  Wait for the host to tell you where to sit.  Place your napkin on your lap when your host does and being eating after your host.  Order first, then talk business. 
3. Illegal Procedure:  Napkins are not for blowing your nose or spitting out unwanted objects.  Blot your lips with your napkin between food and drink.  Remove unwanted objects with thumb and index finger, cupped fingers or discreetly moving the object from your mouth to the fork or spoon. 
4. Pass Interference:  When someone asks for the salt or pepper, you may not intercept and use it for yourself.  The same goes for shared dishes, which are passed to the right (counterclockwise).  Salt and pepper are passed together, one in each hand. 
5. Illegal Use of Hands:  Do not reach for items beyond your grasp.  Say “please pass the…” and “thank you” when it arrives. 
6. Illegal Motion:  Keep your elbows in.  No elbows on the table except between courses when there is no food on the table. 
7. Unnecessary Roughness:  Be kind to the cook, especially when dining in someone’s home.  Do not say you do not like something.  Let the host/hostess know when you do.  (This is delicious!)
8. Technical Foul:  Do not lose patience with the wait staff – kill them with kindness.  Try not to send anything back, unless it is so undercooked it is crawling off the plate. 
9. Unsportsmanlike Conduct:  Do not talk or take a drink with food in your mouth.  Do not use a toothpick or chew ice.  No grooming at the table – do not use a comb, nail clippers or apply lipstick. 
10. Fumble:  If you spill something on another person, such as a glass of wine, apologize and offer to reimburse him or her for the cleaning expenses. 

When the meal is over, do not stack the dishes or push them away.  Leave your napkin slightly crumpled to the left of your place setting. 

If you need additional information on what to do or not to do during a lunch or dinner interview see Kimm Alayne Walton, Guerrilla Tactics For Getting the Legal Job of Your Dreams,  614-628 (2d ed. Thompson/West 2008)(1995), visit the Culture and Manners Institute online at www.cultureandmanners.com, or stop by the Professional Development Office.  Good luck!

When traveling by airplane on business, you are representing your company. Dress professionally as you would for the business meeting to which you are traveling.  Do not dress like you are on vacation.  (Shorts and flip-flops are not a good image to project for your company…even if your company sells shorts and flip flops). 

There is always a chance that you will run into someone on the airplane who is from the company you are to meet with, or a representative of another company with which you do business.  Dressing down makes you appear too informal and not credible.  Also, if your flight is delayed and your luggage lost, you may have to step off the plane and go straight to your meeting. 

Stick with professional attire for the trip out and the trip home.  You never know with whom you will be sitting and what they can do for your career.

Thanks to http://www.cultureandmanners.com/

If you have a little bitty fork resting at a diagonal in the bowl of your soup spoon on the right side of your place setting, it is not for your baby carrots or your baby squash. It means the first course will be a seafood course, such as oysters, shrimp or crab.

If the little fork has two prongs, instead of three, the seafood course will be escargot (snails).

Thanks to http://www.cultureandmanners.com/