The t-shirt sign 'Take my advice. I don't use it anyway' applies best to these folks who think it is their moral and ethical duty to off their pearls of wisdom freely.
Make the mistake of saying something innocuous and bam! Your colleague will tell you what a fool you are and what a terrible idea it was to do whatever you did.
No stopping these folks. Really.
First off, it's a myth that only women gossip. We can assure you from personal experience that men indulge in as much office gossip as the women.
Of course the kind of gossip might differ a little bit but really there isn't anything as annoying as seeing a bunch of colleagues gossiping by the coffee machine which means one of the two things: a) They're keeping you out or b) they're gossiping about you which is most annoying!
Sure office parties are fun! Everyone's having a great time, letting their hair down and you finally get the chance to chat up that hottie from marketing you've been eyeing for the last s-e-v-e-n months.
The sad part -- and it's really sad we think -- are those who get drunk.
Of course we do find the drunk men who dance on tables immensely funny but the ones who start hitting on women about two pegs down are the ones who deserve to smacked in the face.
Apart from the fact that smoking is not good for your health and neither is execessive chai/coffee it simply isn't professional to disappear from your desk every half hour
Imagine you turn around to ask your colleague to take over something from you or ask him/her about the email you'd forwarded some two hours ago and you find yourself talking to an empty chair!
Half hour later you turn around again and the chair's empty again and mysteriously stays that way every time you have some work with this particular colleague.
Turns out the only time you can catch him is when s/he takes that smoke/chai break, which is basically once every 20 minutes.