The annual office Christmas party has become an important festive ritual, the chance for workers to let their hair down.
However, the annual event has notorious pitfalls, from drunken rants at your boss to inappropriate romps with your workmates.
Now, a new study by the Village Urban Resorts hotel in Hull has discovered almost 80 per cent of workers admit they're petrified their drunken antics will appear on social networking sites.
Calum Russell, of Village Urban Resorts, said: "It is so easy these days to use a smartphone to record embarrassing incidents at a work Christmas party.
"Combine this with Facebook or Twitter, and news of your festive faux pas can soon spread far wider than those who were at the event.
"Once it goes online, evidence of your dodgy dancing or drunken antics will live on longer than gossip about you kissing the boss."
The research, conducted last month, was targeted at a consumer group of 1,656 and found that almost half of party-goers choose to leave their partners at home – preferring not to mix their professional and personal lives.
Despite Strictly Come Dancing fever gripping the nation, many dread venturing on to the dancefloor, with a third of those polled admitting to tripping up after throwing one too many shapes.
Almost 50 per cent confessed that they failed to recall a lengthy drunken conversation the following day but, perhaps surprisingly, only one in five regretted kissing a co-worker in full view of colleagues – suggesting office romance is never far from their minds.
Just a crafty 25 per cent reveal they have waited for their boss to leave before making a shifty exit but 50 per cent said they were happy to stay until the very last moment when the music stops and the lights come up.
But what makes a great party in the first place?
Unsurprisingly, 40 per cent revealed free alcohol is the sole contributing factor to a good office Christmas party, with only 14 per cent favouring music.
Of those asked, 20 per cent agreed that coffee and painkillers are the most popular post-party hangover cure.
