Meeting a client, a partner, a potential employer or any other business connection over a meal might create some anxiety.

Unless you have the social graces of a bear, you will be concerned with the first (or lasting) impression you make on them.

As MBAs mind their manners By Rebecca Knight (FT, February 2 2009) reminds us, getting a refresher on proper table etiquette could ease your anxiety.

In Mind your table manners, especially for business, Donna Pilato (About.com) shares basic rules for the American table.

Besides the location of your bread plate, water glass and the like, she notes as worse offenders picking food from your teeth at the table, burping and taking calls during dinner.

Of course, depending on the country, manners, dress code and culture vary. Lydia Ramsey highlights some of these differences in Minding Your Global Manners (Leader Values, 2005).

All this goes to prove that as cars need regular tune ups, it would wise for us to find time to brush up on the rules of Etiquette.

Food for thought on Monday Work Etiquette # 75

Last week: Could Bad Spelling be Worse than Body Odor?

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