Dating Dish is a monthly feature that brings you hot dating tips and sassy how tos to keep your dating life sexy.

‘Tis the season of office holiday parties, along with all the what-ifs that accompany the dating girl during this time-honored annual tradition. And if that “what-if” has turned into a “now what”, i.e. you don’t have a date and the party is next week, here are five ways to make being minus a plus one a plus for you.

Photo credit: Dennis Crowley

 

1. Take a friend. No one said your plus had to have a romantic connection with you. Grab your favorite party-loving bestie and prepare to have a great night of dancing, snarky observations and general (somewhat restrained — after all, your boss will be watching) debauchery. If it works out, return the favor and be their date to their company party — you never whom you might meet.

2. Go by yourself. When you work in a company big enough you don’t know everyone well, having a date can sometimes put a damper on the random “OMG, you play in the community volleyball league, too!” conversations you might have with those co-workers you’re currently on only a smile-and-nod basis with. Embrace your untethered status and meet some new people. Bonus: Your co-wokers are people with lives too. The more of them you’re friends with, the more people you’ll meet through them, and the more likely it is you’ll meet your next date.

3. Ask your co-workers if their dates have single friends you can get set up with. If Cindy in marketing is bringing a new fling, chances are good that her date would love to have a friend there to hang with. Guess who’s free to help her out? That’s right — you are.

4. Use this an excuse to stop dithering and ask out the cute guy at your local coffee shop/yoga class/photography lecture series. What better no-pressure, “you’re just doing me a favor” excuse to ask him out than your mandatory company holiday party? Try something like this: “Hi. This is going to sound crazy, but I was wondering if you were free next Friday. I need a date to my company holiday party. Do me a favor and be my plus one?” It’s just crazy enough to be funny and because he’ll be helping you out, it’s more low-pressure than if you had just asked him to “hang out sometime.” Plus, who doesn’t like going to someone else’s company holiday party? It’s all the fun without the stress.

5. Message every attractive person you can find on your favorite dating site and ask them if they’re free next Friday for your company holiday party. Same idea as #4, but with less knowledge of your potential date. Who knows — you might end up meeting someone awesome. Anyone cool enough to jump in and commit to a whole night of company mingling is worth exploring.

Yours in lemonade, S

Samantha Scholfield

Samantha Scholfield writes the monthly blog feature Dating Dish and is a dating coach, freelance writer and the “considerably hipper” than The Rules author of the popular dating guide, "Screw Cupid: The Sassy Girl’s Guide to Picking Up Hot Guys". Her articles regularly appear on Yahoo.com, her advice has appeared in Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post and Seventeen. Her second book, about awkward situations in love and life, "Awkward: What to Do When Life Makes You Cringe", was released on August 9, 2011. She’d love to hear from you at sam@samanthascholfield.com | www.samanthascholfield.com