I agree that schmoozing does come off as a nicer concept. I feel it's more used in the sense of "chat up" a superior for personal gain.
Schmooze would also be a good Good Word. We haven't done it yet. It's fairly simple in etymological terms, but it is both transitive and intransitive, and can be a noun, too. An Americanism from the last years of the 19th century, it comes from Yiddish for gossip or idle conversation.
That's chat up in the American sense, by the way.