Potential for Embarrassment
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Potential for Embarrassment
If you have ever felt nervous, had an inability to speak in proper sentences or have started to sweat and go red in the face, then you will know what it is like to feel embarrassed in a social situation.
We’ve all had it. Maybe you were the one being the butt of an ‘in joke’ and had to laugh away your mistake. Maybe you acted, or said something wrong without knowing why, in a certain social situation. Or could it have been that someone pointed out your misdemeanour to the boss. Whichever of these happened, with hindsight could they have been avoided?
Most embarrassing moments happen when you are at work or socialising and there are other people about. The ‘faux pas’ we make in private tend to stay that way.
Here are just a few things to think about to help avoid those “bright red” moments:
Meeting someone for a second time, how do you greet them? Don’t assume that because you have met that they will remember you straight away. Some people have a memory for faces others for names and some not at all. Opening the conversation with what you were talking about last time might result in “I’m sorry, but who are you exactly?”
Your mouth has greater opportunity to make you go red than your ears do.
An open mouth is a dangerous one. As the husband of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said “It is better to keep one’s mouth that and be thought of a fool that open it and remove all doubt”
It is good to be chatty and open. On the whole people enjoy listening and want to hear what other people have to say. But there are several main things that you need to be careful of doing while ‘chatting’.
You should be aware of who you are talking to and how long you expect to keep them talking. ‘Hogging the host/top person’ could lead to whispers from those around. Talking too long could make you boring.
In these days of social networks and names and photos being blasted all around the web, how much information do you reveal?
Events with food are a minefield of embarrassment opportunities. Walking around with a plate stacked high with goodies allows you the possibility of; tripping, dropping, splashing, and tipping any or all, not only onto yourself but others around you.
Speaking with your mouthful and with a fork full for the next gulp is not a pretty sight and does not give a great impression. Unless ‘greedy pig’ is the one you are looking for. Take your time there will always be more than enough food for those present.
Early arrival can be embarrassing and show lack or preparation especially if you then take on the wallflower syndrome and sit and do nothing until someone else comes in. Waiting until someone talks to you could mean that you are waiting all night.
Finally if you are loud, pushy and rude don’t even go to an event. Barging into other people’s conversations will not endear you to them and your reputation and even your business will be in the red!
If all this sounds like you, then you DEFINITELY need our online networking course.
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Business networking skills – New course launched
We are delighted to announce that our latest course “business networking training” is launched today (ahead of schedule).
Aimed at new networkers and businesses, the multimedia course features information and how-to’s to get the most out of networking.
More information is here
Sharp End Training is the UK's leading online training company. Get exclusive discounts on high quality, interactive online training material. Just enter your email below and we will rush you details of your 50% off voucher.
Affiliate news
All affiliates received the text below last week.
To sign up as an affiliate and get 50% of every sale you send us – just go to our affiliate site
Important news about courses you promote.
As part of ongoing quality control and a general spring clean, we have slimmed down the number of courses we promote.
We have removed a number of courses from our inventory and you should check to make sure that you haven’t got any redundant banners. These will send visitors to a “Not found” page.
The following courses have been removed;
Womens Personal Safety
Train the trainer
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DSE risk assessments
Planning the training process
Violence at work
The following courses have been removed from the affiliate scheme but are still available for multiple users. If you want to promote these, please contact us directly.
Money Laundering
Data Protection Act
The following courses are still being promoted
Stress awareness
Plain English & letter writing
Presentation skills
Interview skills – get that job
Writing a CV
You can log in at http://www.trainingresellers.co.uk/affiliate/affiliates/login.php#login to make sure you have got the correct banners etc
Important News
We will be shortly starting work on a BRAND NEW BATCH of courses more in keeping with the economic times and the needs of our customers so we will email you again in a week or too with further news.
Many thanks for your support
Sharp End Training is the UK's leading online training company. Get exclusive discounts on high quality, interactive online training material. Just enter your email below and we will rush you details of your 50% off voucher.
Special facebook offer
To get a special bonus coupon worth £36.17 at absolutely no charge- read on
Just add our Director Jonathan Senior as a friend on facebook and we will send you a voucher worth 85% off any training course.
This means you can get 30 days access to superb online training usually selling for £42.55 for just £6.38
This voucher can be redeemed against any of our online courses.
You can pay by paypal or any major credit card using worldpay.
That’s it – our normal terms apply.
You have no further commitment.
Just add Jonathan as a friend and quote reference “FBB1″ in your friend request message.
PS – Don’t forget – that facebook puts a limit of 5000 friends. So there will be no more vouchers after that…
PPS – We will send you a voucher as soon as we are back online. This process is not automated.
Sharp End Training is the UK's leading online training company. Get exclusive discounts on high quality, interactive online training material. Just enter your email below and we will rush you details of your 50% off voucher.
How to stay safe online
Staying safe online
For many people, the internet is new and exciting. But it can be a very dangerous place.
For increasingly busy people who maybe just pop online quickly to check email it can be very dangerous.
People will tend to get “accustomed” to the type of email they receive – facebook status updates, newsletter updates and ticket confirmations etc.
Thieves are openly trying to capture personal information and they do it like this.
Firstly, they will collect hundreds if not thousands of email addresses from forums, blogs and the like. There is even specific software to “harvest” these addresses.
The object of the exercise is to lure the recipient into revealing sensitive information. This may include passwords and credit card information.
No one is going to knowingly reveal that information so the scammers have to be more cunning.
An email is sent which deliberately tries to jolt the recipient into action by making them temporarily losing control of their senses and taking action they wouldn’t normally take.
Some examples could include
You are due a tax refund
You have received funds (from paypal or moneybookers)
Your paypal account has been hijacked
For each example – the user is asked to sign in and confirm their details
Or “questions” from ebay users including
“Is your Sony laptop still for sale?”
“Why have you not sent my goods? I will report you to the police”
Of course they hope the recipient will immediately panic and leave their normal senses aside for a few moments.
Now the scammers are quite clever and they may have either “spoofed” the “from” email to make it look it has come from where it says or formatted the email in the corporate layout of the organisation concerned. (PayPal is blue and black; eBay is yellow, green, red & blue etc etc)
Of course the website where the user is diverted to is a copy of the real one and the scammers may have even registered a similar domain such as
nameofbank-complaints.com
How to spot a fake email and what to do
There are some tell tales signs that the email is not original and these include.
The recipient may not be named in the “to” field of the email. It may just be addressed to customer@bankname.com
This is an indicator that the email has been sent to hundreds if not thousands of recipients.
The text of the email may be in poor english and may contain spelling mistakes. The scam may have originated in non english speaking countries. The marketing departments of large corporations would not have made such mistakes…
The link where the user will be taken is shown at the bottom of the screen BEFORE the user clicks and it is unlikely to be anything to do with the institution.
If you use an anti virus like Kasperksy, it may pick up that the email content contains a virus or a link within it goes to a known fraudulent website.
What to do
The best thing to do with these emails is to just delete them. Replying or clicking any “unsubscribe” link will just confirm that the email address is “live”
You can forward them to the relevant complaints department at paypal/ebay etc but it is most likely that someone else will have already done it…
You should educate yourself by taking our online training course “Safe use of the web & email”
Sharp End Training is the UK's leading online training company. Get exclusive discounts on high quality, interactive online training material. Just enter your email below and we will rush you details of your 50% off voucher.