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It's a once-a-year opportunity to have a fantastic time. And damage your career.

There's a legendary story they often tell this time of year at a large New York public relations firm. It's about when a new hire fresh out of college had too much to drink at the company holiday party. She shared a cab home to the same neighborhood with one of the firm's vice presidents, and, well, she barfed in his lap.

Probably not what you'd call a good career move.

Don't be that person this year. Be merry and festive--have a few drinks and laugh with your colleagues. But don't overindulge. If you get drunk and act foolishly, no one will forget. No one needs any blemishes on his scorecard this year, when layoffs loom at so many employers.

Instead, use this as an opportunity to mingle with higher-ups and staffers in other departments. Holiday parties are a great opportunity to meet important people at your company in a less formal setting.

In Pictures: How To Behave At Your Office Party

"The most important thing employees should always remember regarding office holiday parties is, regardless of where the party is held, it is an extension of the workplace, and you need to behave accordingly," says Lori Erickson, vice president of human resources at Monster.com.

At Bliss PR in Manhattan, founder John Bliss doesn't take chances. For more than 15 years he has required his employees to eat at a pre-party pizza dinner. He orders enough pizza for the 30-member staff at around 4:30 and watches to make sure everyone has a few slices. It's the best guarantee possible that no one will drink on an empty stomach.

"It makes sure people have something in them like blotting paper before starting the party," he says. "That way, you have fun without getting embarrassed."

Companies like Bliss have a lot at stake. When they invite clients to their parties, the last thing they need is a drunken staffer. That might be less of a concern this year than in the past, though. With budgets tighter than ever, less alcohol is being served. Only 71% of all parties will offer alcoholic drinks this year, according to an annual survey on holiday celebrations by the executive search firm Battalia Winston. Alcohol service hit a high in 2000, when 90% of firms served booze, according to the 20 years of Battalia reports.

The dwindling amount of alcohol reflects the state of the economy. "Throughout the years, we've learned that the percentage of company parties is directly linked to the health of the economy," says Dale Winston, Battalia Winston's chief executive.

It's likely a blessing in disguise. Annmarie Woods recalls a holiday gathering a few years ago for her sales team at a leading financial services firm. The group began the evening at a downtown restaurant and then headed to a dance club. This being a celebratory evening, their boss picked up the bill for a limousine to get them from the restaurant to the club. While en route, one of the staffers got sick and ended up vomiting into her purse.

"The next day at the meeting everyone was talking about it. Their opinion of her had been altered," Woods says.

When your partner's real partner is work, here's what to do.

In Pictures: Nine Ways To Survive A Workaholic Spouse

Sarah Morris Smith used to spend 70 hours a week selling Mary Kay cosmetics while her husband, John, a part-time sales associate at Walgreens, stayed home with their infant daughter. "He always did the housework and cooking," says Smith. "I'm sure he resented doing all those chores."

Smith admits that her workaholism ripped her marriage apart. She and John still live together, though they are legally separated. No longer with Mary Kay, Smith works well into the evenings as a recruiter for nSight, a business consultancy in Burlington, Mass.

"I think we might have had a chance if we had shared hobbies or scheduled time together, but I come home and monopolize the computer," says Smith. "Even down-time is work time. I'm giving him primary custody of our daughter because I know my work habits are not fair to her."

In Pictures: Nine Ways To Survive A Workaholic Spouse

In Pictures: Seven Work-Stress Relievers

Sarah and John's situation is all too common. Addiction to work is a marriage killer: Unions involving workaholics are twice as likely to end in divorce, according to a study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. And for couples that choose to gut it out, the psychological toll can be devastating.

Detroit's long-overdue reckoning is here. With its cash vanishing at the rate of $2 billion a month, and with no bank in the world willing to lend it money, General Motors is headed toward bankruptcy or a government bailout.

On Thursday and Friday, executives from all three Detroit automakers will be on Capitol Hill arguing why it should be a bailout. Either way, assuming it survives at all, GM (nyse: GM - news - people ) will look a lot different than it does today: leaner and--keep your fingers crossed--more capable of competing with foreign nameplates. But you won't recognize what's left of the automaker William Durant cobbled together in 1908 and Alfred P. Sloan built into the world's largest and most powerful corporation.

Workers, suppliers and creditors will suffer. So will taxpayers. GM so far has asked for a bridge loan of $10 billion to $12 billion to allow it to pay bills until the global financial crisis eases, perhaps by 2010. But no one outside of GM thinks that this will be enough to get the company back on its feet. A more likely cost, we are told by Wall Street analysts, is between $20 billion and $40 billion. Congress and the Obama administration would probably be willing to sign the check in return for some environmental promises (making more small cars, for instance), some concessions by workers and the departure of the top executives.

Could the automakers forgo handouts and solve their problems via Chapter 11?

Not easily. A bankruptcy court could shrink liabilities for retiree health care, break contracts that protect auto dealers and order plant closings.

But judges cannot make workers accept lower wages and they cannot order customers into the showroom. A GM bankruptcy could drag down hundreds of suppliers and redouble existing worries about whether warranties will be honored.

GM's crisis is so dire that the company might well be able to achieve significant concessions without having to file for bankruptcy. This assumes, however, that management sheds its business-as-usual mentality.

Like many medical centers in Asia, Bangkok's Bumrungrad Hospital had big expectations for a global trend known as medical tourism. Administrators were especially eager to attract more patients from the U.S. (BusinessWeek.com, 3/17/08) keen on saving money by having hip replacements, cosmetic surgery, and other operations overseas. For years, some of Asia's premier hospitals have been popular destinations for U.S. patients who either lack health insurance or can't get coverage for certain procedures. And recently there have been signs that insurance companies might start actively encouraging this trend to save on costs.

But Bumrungrad has been hit by a double whammy this year. First came the political unrest in Thailand, with anti-government protesters taking to the streets of Bangkok and constant rumors of a military coup. The prospect of instability seems to have discouraged would-be patients from making the trip. Even more worrisome for Bumrungrad management, the financial crisis has suddenly made the cost of travel to Thailand from the U.S. more of a stretch for many Americans who might have considered choosing the Bangkok hospital in the past. "We are not predicting robust growth," concedes an understated Curtis J. Schroeder, chief executive of Bumrungrad, who says the hospital will take the occasion to refurbish its rooms, as many hospital beds are empty.

Analysts are more direct: DBS Vickers Securities predicts earnings will fall 9.2% this year and 20.9% in 2009. "We foresee the number of international and local patients to be scant," write the Singapore-based bank's analysts. "Patients [will] delay unnecessary or nonemergency treatments (i.e. plastic surgery, hip/knee replacement, etc.) and decrease length of stay, as the financial turmoil has caused significant cutback on expenses."

Grim Outlook

With the financial crisis turning into a global recession, the outlook across Asia's medical tourism industry is grim. From Thailand to Singapore to India, hospitals that had been counting on a big influx (BusinessWeek, 3/13/08) of overseas patients are scaling back expectations. Those counting on large numbers of Americans, like Bumrungrad, are especially at risk, says Ruben Toral, CEO of Mednet Asia, a Manila-based consulting firm specializing in medical tourism. "You are going to see U.S. patients take a very, very defensive position," he says.