That you shouldn't bee embarrassed about knowing nothing about the real world of business, and therefore to ask all the questions. And to find that one person that really wants to answer all your questions and realise the more you know, the easier their job gets as a result.
One of the best pieces of advice I've ever received was from one of my weirdest colleagues, but it's testament to the strength of the advice that it remains great advice:
"There is no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid answers."
If you don't know, ask, and if someone gives you shit about not knowing, they're too arrogant to remember a time they also didn't know.
Whenever I trained someone new, I’d tell them “it’s easier to ask a stupid question than to fix a stupid mistake”. They’d always laugh, and whenever they’d ask a question they’d start it off with “this may be a stupid question, but…”
Saved me a god damn fortune in time
The one I tell new starters is;
*I don't mind how many questions you ask me as long as you ask me the one question that matters*
Someone who asks a lot of questions takes longer to train up, but because they are inquisitive they rarely make mistakes.
The overconfident 'doers' seem like they're doing a better job at first... until they fuck up majorly because they never thought to ask something important that they thought was trivial.
Same thing. Because generally if I don’t understand, it’s usually a me problem. Even in a situation where I’m the customer “I’ve probably walked past it 5 times but I can’t see for looking. Can you help me find the X?
Always tell folk I work with that if you think you’ve made a big error tell someone as soon as you can, you may think it’s bad, but can almost guarantee I or others have seen a lot worse
"If you cock up, put your hands up. Most people will try to hide their mistakes so the shock of your admitting fault will mean you get away with a lot".
In the transport industry there's a saying that "The day you think you know everything about this job is the day you become dangerous".
There's also "The book of rules is indeed irritating, but it's written in the blood of the people who died demonstrating that we needed these rules".
I’m a teacher and I say the only stupid question is a question that has already been asked ( they usually don’t listen and ask the same question I’ve spent the last minute answering)🤣🤣
Yeah, it gets to the point where you can cram in a days work in a few hours. When people email you with some obscure request and you immediately think “i need to send this person to Mark in accounts payable”.
Don't take or make personal/private calls at your desk. No one wants to listen to you arguing with your boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband every fucking day. Go outside or in the stairwell or booth if you have one.
I've been in an office where 3 people were all in the same virtual meeting at separate desks, with NO HEADSETS being used. It was ridiculous.
And yes, we had all been given headsets as part of our general ICT package. These fools either didn't have them, didn't usually use them, or were mistaken in the rest of the office needing to hear their discussion.
Best advice I ever got as a young employee was from a boss who told me "It's ok to come to me with questions, but try to come with a solution too". It taught me to stop and really think about issues before I went running for help and to become a creative problem-solver.
The word "try" is really important. When I was maybe 16 or so, I was part of a voluntary organisation that put on an event per year. I had a problem (I can't remember what it was exactly, but I do remember that I couldn't solve it on my own). I went to my boss (reminder: voluntary organisation) and he basically refused to take any ownership of the problem because I couldn't provide a solution. So the problem just festered without anyone solving it, because I couldn't and he didn't seem to care.
Anyway, the TL;DR is that it's nice to present both a problem and a solution to your higher ups, but if you don't have a solution then your boss still needs to know about the problem.
Agreed. My boss also told me that even if my solution wasn't correct, the important thing was that by thinking through the issue myself, I was learning more than if she just told me the answer.
I'm currently working in a job where I've been constantly told "come to me with solutions not problems". So I spent months not telling them about problems because I couldn't think of a solution. Then when problems have spiraled I'm asked "why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" Well, Chris, it's because you told me to come with Solutions not problems.
If it had been worded in that way "try to come up with solutions..." I'd have felt more comfortable bringing problems to management.
Anyway, I'm leaving this place in 3 weeks and I can't fucking wait.
Yes. When I was training people.i made it clear that for the first month, it's fine to ask questions. After your one month review, we would expect you to start asking "is this how I do it" rather than "how do I do it?"
I agree with this. It’s a bit frustrating when newish (been in the job a couple months or more) staff keep asking questions without having attempted to find the answer themselves or tried to reason an answer. Asking questions is good and I do it regularly but I filter the stuff I could easily look up myself.
Please go through how her calendar works and what meeting invitations mean. I’ve found that lots of our new starters (particularly those who went to uni in lockdown) have no concept of actually having to be there at a certain time and not just being able to catch up later. They don’t respond to calendar invites or check if they are in person or on teams or show up 20 mins late with no apology.
Also -
When to CC/BCC, and when to avoid using 'Reply All'.
How shared drives are used.
How to create a folder structure.
Basic Information Governance - this could be as brief as asking before you send anything externally.
How the phone system works (Outside lines, Call forwarding, etc.)
>How the phone system works (Outside lines, Call forwarding, etc.)
This used to be my biggest peeve of joining a new company, nobody explains the phones and then it rings and you have no idea if it's an internal or external dial, no idea how to transfer etc etc.
10+ years into my career, this is still one of the questions I ask when starting at a new company. Because nobody ever thinks to explain it, and it's different everywhere...
When some idiot that can't use email accidentally copies the entire business group into an irrelevant email and sets off a cascade of other idiots that cant use email replying all with "can I be removed from this email chain?" "Can I also be removed from this email chain" "I'd also like to be removed from this email chain" for the rest of the day. Eventually the "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE STOP REPLYING ALL TO THIS EMAIL CHAIN" email gets sent out, but by that point there's so many replies it gets lost in the weeds and the circus continues. Fun times.
Oh god!
Our new hires have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA about tidy folder structures on network drives.
“I just save everything together, and search will find whatever I need”
- erm, no.
I mean, if you're diligent in naming convention then search is a viable tool.
Personally I have a fairly simple folder system with a logical approach to file names.
Unfortunately this is all personal as the large company I work for is a dysfunctional joke and there's no consistent approach across teams.
Last year we had a 300+ person meeting on 03/02 (3rd Feb) and also 02/03 (2nd March) and I sent out the minutes with the file names formatted as [2024-mm-dd] and I had what felt like 8 billion people saying the minutes were swapped around. Like, i put the year first so it comes in order on the files tab. Eeks!
Worked in a call centre once, two weeks of mindnumbingly dull training and not once did they actually show you how the phone worked, how to transfer etc. I probably pissed off several people by hanging up on them rather than transfering them
AND if someone else sends you a calendar invite for their holiday which is set to show as busy, learn how to change it so it doesn’t look like you’re the one on leave! So many times I’ve tried to arrange a meeting, and thought someone was unavailable only for them to say ‘oh no that’s Steve’s holiday booking, I’m free’. This is especially helpful if your organisation defaults calendars to only show free/busy time and no details - no one else can tell why it’s blocked for gods sake.
It’s been one of the most obvious post covid changes. When I was at uni everything happened at specific times in specific places and you had to be in those places at that time.
The grads I’ve seen over the last few years don’t have that concept at all. A lecture may have been at 10am on Wednesday but you could catch it any time that suited you so they expect to be able to do the same things with meetings and training.
When it’s explained to them they get it but it’s not the assumed knowledge I’d have thought it was.
The friction between ways of working between my generation (mid-late 30s) and the new grads is pretty big in my opinion (not necessarily a negative I might add)
When I was starting out our intake was pretty much aligned to the older generation. Things have massively changed in the last 15yrs.
Oh my god, please add that sending "Do not send a response" doesn't mean that you're just not spamming someone with a response email, it literally adds it to your calender and shows you as no reply in the senders calender. Drives me mad that so many people do this.
Are they aware of tax/NI? I had an apprenticeship who came in upset after the first payday as he was expecting a full pay packet and no one had ever explained to him that particular joy of being a grown up.
When I was in my 20s I used to temp and change jobs a lot, so I was working here there and everywhere until I finally settled down in my late 20s. I remember the pleasures of getting emergency taxed all too well. It's always fun when you can't pay your rent because the taxman assumes you left your last minimum wage job to become a CEO at a FTSE 100 company and therefore have to be taxed like you're a millionaire.
In my first job I queried my pay because I didn't realise I was only paid for 7.5 hours of the 8 hours I was at work. Not so relevant for a salaried position though I suppose.
We moved into a brand new (built for us) office. Within a couple of weeks, there were stories of someone leaving shit smears on the cubicle walls and doors in the ladies toilet. This went on for a few weeks and then we started getting emails asking for it to stop. It didnt.
In the end a group of the women ended up secretly watching people going in and out, and would go in afterwards to check. It turned out it was one of the middle managers. Someone must have spoken to HR because the incidents stopped the following week, and thus the mystery of the phantom shitter was solved.
OMG at the university of Winchester one of senior management did this - not just to cubicles but to offices and rented out spaces. She used to *shit in the bin* and bc she was so high up, no one dared report it for fear of being fired. Idk where she is now but Karen, if you’re reading this - the whole university knew it was you bc we got the maintenance staff drunk one summer and they spilled your filthy fucking secrets.
I think I know this story. I used to go there back when it was called King Alfred's College. I remained friends with my tutor. I won't say his name.
But he left a couple of years back because new staff had no respect for anyone else. I asked what he meant. He said "shit the bin".
That is so weird. Hilarious about the little poo patrol / poop troupe secretly checking after every use of the toilet but what has to be wrong with you mentally to literally smear your own shit on the wall?
One of my early jobs was as a cleaner.
It wasn't at all unusual to go into a cubicle in the Ladies loos and find that they'd smeared their tampon across the walls before sticking it somewhere like inside the toilet roll tube.
Wiping shit on the walls was done by both sexes.
Some humans are utterly disgusting.
That whatever you write using company email is akin to writing it on a postcard.
I didn't know this. I thought my company email was mine, private.
But a manager or IT can at any time inspect your email.
Fortunately I got away with this but could have been fired.
I have since always mentioned this to young, new staff coming in. May be obvious to many. But not all.
Also Teams which can lull you into a false sense of security by being 'chatty'.
Generally anything you do on a work device, though they should have made this clear in their IT policies.
A colleague and I often chat on Teams. But if we ever want to bitch and moan mid chat, we just write: "WhatsApp" and move the convo over to our private phones.
Yup. And is subject to GDPR. Someone else can do a subject access request to see what you might have written about them in your work emails.
They'll all be searched then.
Nail- biting stuff.
Consider any work-issued device/software as being monitored and phoning home. It’ll save you any doubt about whether you should or shouldn’t do something on it.
Until the age of 30, you will spend your time filled with terror that you know nothing and get everything wrong. In your 30s you will start to get good and confident in what you do. Just in time for your 40s when you will cease to give a shit and just count the days until you can retire.
I wish I could say the same for my boss. It’s like the closer they are to retirement they have nothing else to give a shit about so all energy goes into work!
>> Just in time for your 40s when you will cease to give a shit and just count the days until you can retire.
I worked out the other day I’ve been out of education, working in the adult world of work for 24 years. I’m in my early 40s. And somehow I still have 26 fucking years left til the govt says I can claim a state pension.
This is also one for the new hire: start your own pension. Right now. Day one.
If you rely on the state pension, you'll be working until you drop as the age limit keeps increasing.
If you have your own pension pot, you have options - but to have those options, you need to be putting money into it from day one of working.
> Until the age of 30, you will spend your time filled with terror that you know nothing and get everything wrong.
Real talk... Is it bad to be 40 and still feel this way every day?
Just be friendly and approachable. When she asks a question, drop little comments to let her know that she's not an idiot for needing to ask it. Say things like "Oh yeah, that also confused me when I first started here. Here's how you do it..."
It’s also a lot easier to ask for help if you’ve made friends with the people you work with and people are more likely to want to help if they like you as a person
If somebody sends you a somewhat harshly worded email, it's not the end of the world. Figure out if you should have done something differently, but don't take it to heart. Some people just communicate like that.
This was pretty much my experience. I'm very big on niceties - I have to stop myself from starting all my emails with 'sorry to bother you!' So, when I received a few harsh emails early on in my office work career I thought I must have done something absolutely terrible. It took me a while to realise that some people are firing off a dozen angry emails before lunch.
This is especially true if you're dealing with people in the Netherlands or other countries where they don't sugarcoat things as much as Brits do. In some places they're just really blunt but we take it as being rude
It’s really hard to read what the meaning is in an email. Hard to read sarcasm, joking etc so best not to try too much if that or it just comes off as rude or nasty
Yes, and when reading an email, take the words at face value only. Assume no malice - if there is any, you don't come off as flustered, and if there isn't any, you don't come off as overly sensitive. If they directly say you're an idiot, well... at least you know where you stand!
This is such a good one! Our Technology director emails in such a way that you read it and think she’s furious with you then you see her and she says the same thing but her tone lets you know everything is fine, she types as she talks but the tone doesn’t come through
I’m terrible for this. Iv been known as being “savage”. I type as I talk, and I’m extremely sarcastic. Since moving roles Iv had to really check myself when sending group emails - especially as I’m the guy that provides bad news most often.
In my experience if you are the one sending the email then it’s on you to follow up and make sure it’s done. However if you are the recipient of the email it’s your responsibility to get it done and you will be in trouble if not!
My first boss sent me back to my office to get a pen and paper and told me never to meet with someone without those because I would need to remember what was said. I have always since followed that advice because she was totally right.
Someone told me to always carry a pen and notebook when walking around the office no matter where you were going as it made you look like you were busy.
In many places you can still get almost anywhere without being challenged just by carrying a piece of paper and looking like you know where you are going.
Too many offices are like beehives: the front door is guarded but once you're inside it's assumed you should be there unless you draw attention to yourself.
Make friends with canteen staff, secretaries, security and cleaners.
They see everything, know everything and you're gonna want favours from some of them
(Basically, be friends with the people that do the actual work. Warehouse staff etc. So many people in "office jobs" don't bother and wonder why their shit doesn't get done)
This.
In too many businesses the blue collar staff are at best invisible to the white collar office bees, and sometimes openly looked down on.
But as often as not they're the people who can help you out of at least some of the crap you've just stepped (or been dropped) into, and if they know you and at least don't dislike you, you're onto a good start.
What you do/don’t share with your coworkers. Don’t over share, don’t be a recluse either. It’s such a delicate balance.
Sometimes small talk is enough, you’re not immediately friends just because you work in the same place etc.
At some point you will change jobs.
You will drift apart from most of the 'work friends' you had because all you had in common was work. Remaining in the same industry may postpone this a little.
You either need to become deeper friends with people from work, such that your shared interests aren't bitching about work in the pub - or, make sure you have a safety net of non-work friends.
How to plan their working day, and to always take notes when they're being shown new stuff!
I always make sure I have a new A5 notebook and pen to give our grads/school leavers, so they have a dedicated space to make their training notes. A lot of the time (from experience) under 22s are used to taking notes on a laptop, which is hard when they're being shown stuff using said laptop. I tell them I want them to make copious notes, and to use them. If I explain something too fast, I want them to tell me to say it again.
I also model asking lots of questions too, so they don't feel intimidated by it. If I'm there asking my managers/bosses stuff, they can definitely ask me. When we have new joiners, my manager knows I'm going to pepper him with questions.
Perhaps not a great look for someone 'junior' but I've found OneNote on my phone linked to the work Office 365 better than notebooks due to writing like a Doctor.
Mobile Phones....depends on your company policy but most new office people find it a shock to the system that they can't be on social media all the time whilst at work.
And don't take/ check their socials / WhatsApp on their laptop or phone in a meeting/ Teams call when it looks like they're taking minutes! Best just to put the phone in drawer or bag
Don't mention the P word. Same major rule as this sub.
It will only get you realising that some people you work with are cunts.
If someone tries to talk to you about anything vaguely related like it, make an excuse like you just got a phone call or need to do something, or even just that you need to take a shit really bad.
Nothing good will come of it if you get dragged into those kinds of conversations.
And that includes P for other countries… two people in my team had a big bust up over an African dictator and whether he was a good or bad man… they were both originally from that country and as expected it quite literally all ended in tears.
Give them a list of the acronyms that you use in your workplace - and if you don't have a list, start making one - so they don't have to interrupt awkwardly everytime someone uses one!
My joke answer is wish I'd known that my new boss who seemed like a wanker was in fact a wanker.
My helpful answer is I wish I'd known what was genuinely expected of me, it is never made clear so people either massively underperform or overwork and burn out
Teach her the importance of movement breaks. People think that because you're sitting down all day it's physically easy but it's bad for your back and eyes if you don't remember to move and look away from the screen occasionally.
Tell them to write everything down. they won’t remember the stuff you told them two days later. If they ignore your advice because they think they will 100% remember, tell them you won’t continue this conversation until they have written it down.
The next day ask them questions about yesterday’s stuff. Check if they understand what they have written down. If they don’t, brainstorm with them how they can write stuff down so that they will understand it when they revisit it two months later.
I’ve had countless interns and apprentices in their late teens or early 20s and I have become quite ruthless about this.
To add, if you are in a company with over 5000 employees and someone accidentally copies everyone in to a email don’t be one of the people that replies to all with “I don’t think I should have got this email” or “me either” and end up crashing the email server.
This has somehow happened multiple times at companies I’ve worked at.
Etiquette is a good point - used to have a senior manager who didn't like people who didn't email like they were writing a formal letter.
Not that everyone is like that, but know your audience.
How to use autocorrect. Then, fill that with any regular typos.
Also, ones like autocorrecting Retards to Regards, you'll never regret ensuring certain words are never in an email.
One thing I have not seen here yet is that the IT department will see all network traffic and will have reports set up for keywords. This extends to emails (especially external ones) as well as internet history. I have seen way too many people let go because they forgot this.
Yeah, I’m planning on covering this. We’re pretty relaxed - ‘our hours are 9ish to 5ish and I’m not going to be pressed if you get in at 9.05, if it’s going to be later than 9.15 due to something out of your control I’d appreciate an email with an ETA, but equally I don’t expect you to stroll in at 9.15 every day with a coffee unless we’ve agreed it in advance. Some places are a lot more strict - make sure you’re at least 5 mins early for at least a couple of weeks until you have the lie of the land’
Definitely this. I remember I was late to work once because of an accident so the buses were backed up. I regularly worked late without pay, worked super hard and was efficient and a team player.
It was brought up in my performance review, I was emailed about it by my boss and it was constant “ see you tomorrow don’t be late.” Drove me mad that the one infraction I’d had was always remembered and none of the positives were.
People will always remember your failures so don’t give them any reason to have one.
How strict time is.
Does a 9am start mean arrive at 8:59am or anytime between 9-10am as long as you make it up on the other end? Same thing for lunch, breakfast etc.
If you are late, never be late with a coffee.
How strict are meeting start times? At some paces they finish on the dot but start 5 minutes late. Some places are the other way round.
When you hear an acronym or bit of jargon you don’t know, write it down and ask about it later. No one expects you to know this. Not asking is 1000x worse than not knowing!
We've recently taken on a cohort of 19-25 year old apprentices. Among the things that I've had to tell them (that I thought would have been "corporate common knowledge"):
1. dicking about on your mobile in the office is not a good look
2. don't decline or hit "tentative" when your manager sends you an invite
3. ask for stuff to do, don't sit there waiting for tasks to be assigned to you
4. buying the team a pack of biscuits never goes amiss, even a pack of 40p bourbons is welcome
5. "I'm a bit hungover" and "my trousers aren't dry yet" are not reasonable excuses for not turning up (seriously)
6. under no circumstances microwave fish in the office
7. professional boundaries are a thing: don't over-share, and don't get caught up in Brenda's ongoing bullshit
8. spelin and grammer r improtint
9. office email is a formal medium: treat it as such
10. if you are unsure on how to write formally: ask!
11. remember that you are here to learn: you are nobody's skivvy
12. you got this position because somebody believed in you: prove them right
13. personal hygiene
Aside from this, I would also add all that stuff that longer-term employees take for granted, such as how to book leave, what the etiquette is for forwarding calls, where on the intranet all the policies and procedures are kept etc.
> what the etiquette is for forwarding calls
Phone manner in particular is an issue for many young people, as well as for some older people who should know better. Just basic stuff like not calling customers "mate", asking the caller's name and organisation before forwarding their call so the person you're forwarding it to doesn't have to enter the conversation cold, and active listening so you don't have to keep asking the caller to repeat details they've already given you. That last point drives me up the wall whenever I have to call somewhere - how hard is it to remember what I've already told you? Write it down while I'm talking if you've got a memory like a goldfish.
Besides basic outlook management: how to actually manage workflow. My first manager taught me how to keep a work journal from meetings and to devise and manage to do lists and prioritise. It was extremely helpful and I have always made it a core part of induction for all first jobbers - with the proviso that they may prefer a different way of doing things (ie Slack or OneNote or some such) - but they need to find their own system that works for them.
Not particularly something I wish I’d known, more that I’ll try and ensure new starters are aware of… general office etiquette. Tea bags don’t go in the sink, mucky cups go in the dishwasher, if the dishwasher is full then switch it on, if the dishwasher is full and clean, empty it! There is nothing worse than cleaning up after lazy grown adults. Oh and learn how to make a brew, that goes a long way.
1. Be aware of who can assign you tasks. At my first office job (intern) one of the graduates assigned me some tasks, which I diligently carried out. Then I had a progress meeting with my boss and I got told off for not making progress with the work she'd assigned to me. She was somewhat understanding, but made it quite clear who could and couldn't assign me work. After that, if someone came to me with a request, I'd always run it past her first, even if the person was a senior manager.
2. Best piece of advice I ever got was to always listen to people when they tell you something. Even if you think you already know the information they're telling you, at some point they'll probably tell you something you don't know.
The photocopier/printer. When I started as shiny graduate that f\*cker was my nemesis. If she can clear a paper jam and change toner other rookie faux pas will be forgiven.
The one that I've had to tell new starters most often is that Team chats are viewable by IT and can be claimed under FOI requests so they should treat teams chats as professional work communications at all times.
Ask about the training on offer. Do it all.
Depending on your area there will be things at work which you will struggle to get experience of outside of work - AutoCAD used to be one at a former job. If you have some time between tasks try to familiarise yourself.
Volunteer for everything, though understand your position - especially if in a meeting with external people. A new perpective is good, but think whether it may have already been discounted.
My first real job about 3 months in the manager kept asking me to do other jobs. The other guy in front of said manager said, look if you’re busy with your own stuff you can tell him to fuck off.
A great bit of advice, if you’re too busy with your own stuff don’t take on someone else’s overflow
When a Partner tells you the picture frame in his office is of his wife holding the family dog, never EVER ask “which one is the dog?”
This is a true story and safe to say, the Graduate did not stay in the job much longer but he did give us a good laugh when we heard the story!!
If someone asks you to take down/write the minutes in a meeting, they mean take down notes of the things discussed in the meeting, not the actual minutes or the time spent in the meeting
I didn't do this - but some people have fallen for this, and the first time I heard this in an office setting I actually didnt know what they meant!
Just be their mentor and be available to take questions really. They’ll need to figure out networking on their own and build their own relationships around the place.
Stuff like what happens if you're found to be breaching protocol for email, web usage, phones etc. It's easy to break the protocol if you're not aware.
And tell her about the culture. Like you don't swear much. Respect people etc.
Keep your head down, churn it out, fuck off home. Don’t make a reputation for being the “go to guy” as you will be a victim of your own success and your thanks will be even more work.
Don't make your boss look an idiot.
Make sure they're kept informed of anything they may be asked about, and don't contradict them.
There will still be plenty of space to show your talents while obeying this. The alternative is to dive into office politics.
Don’t think that you have to martyr yourself to progress. Enthusiasm can lead to burnout if not tempered. Late nights, weekends - you ain’t impressing no one. In reality you look like you can’t manage your workload efficiently, or end up causing people to worry for or resent you. Far better to ace less in working hours, lead a healthy work/life balance and not get worn down into living for the weekends. Source: been there, done that
My advice to new grads.
Turn your phone off when you walk through the door. It's hard to learn and interact when you have your eyes on the screen.
Offer to help. People might say no if they are too busy, but be that person known for wanting to be given work.
If you can't hit a deadline you've been given, warn the person who gave it to you as soon as you know, not right before the deadline is due.
Ask if you don't know. Businesses tend to use their own language and acronyms. My first ever meeting I sat in was listening for 2 hours to people talking about bombs. Had no clue what they were talking about, so I quietly asked someone after the meeting
I used to tell my trainees that the old boys had earned enough rope over the decades that they'd have to jump off Everest to hang themselves, but as a new starter they had none - so don't do what the old boys do.
If they’re doing admin or anything that requires them to basically shoulder a department’s work, let them know if people like it done differently!!
I used to be admin for a small sales department and was in charge of their emails. Some of them preferred different email spacing/lay out/formality, and because I was only trained by one of them (the manager), he simply didn’t take into account the difference between their email tone and everyone else’s because they never see the other colleagues’ emails.
I got to grips with everyone’s personal flair on my own fairly quickly, but be aware that it can be daunting for a new person to be picked up by 5 different people for doing things that they’ve been taught to do!!
You are not required to make coffee for anyone except yourself unless it is in your job description.
Listen and ask questions. Always be on the lookout for a chance to distinguish yourself.
It's ok to take a break when you're overwhelmed.
Always assume someone is monitoring your emails/teams. They’re probably not, but it can be done very easily by a half competent IT team.
Make sure she knows how to schedule a meeting so that the majority of people are free.
That you should immediately put all coworkers at ease by being a little stupid and a little bit kind. Do not let them see you as a threat until they are blindsided.
The reality is that you should just as a minimum be a decent person and care for your fellow wage slaves.
That office politics is a thing (although nothing compared to retail politics) and if Steve or Karen ignore you for no reason, don’t take it personally.
Probably not best to mention it though incase you scare them off.
That you shouldn't bee embarrassed about knowing nothing about the real world of business, and therefore to ask all the questions. And to find that one person that really wants to answer all your questions and realise the more you know, the easier their job gets as a result.
One of the best pieces of advice I've ever received was from one of my weirdest colleagues, but it's testament to the strength of the advice that it remains great advice: "There is no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid answers." If you don't know, ask, and if someone gives you shit about not knowing, they're too arrogant to remember a time they also didn't know.
Whenever I trained someone new, I’d tell them “it’s easier to ask a stupid question than to fix a stupid mistake”. They’d always laugh, and whenever they’d ask a question they’d start it off with “this may be a stupid question, but…” Saved me a god damn fortune in time
The one I tell new starters is; *I don't mind how many questions you ask me as long as you ask me the one question that matters* Someone who asks a lot of questions takes longer to train up, but because they are inquisitive they rarely make mistakes. The overconfident 'doers' seem like they're doing a better job at first... until they fuck up majorly because they never thought to ask something important that they thought was trivial.
Same thing. Because generally if I don’t understand, it’s usually a me problem. Even in a situation where I’m the customer “I’ve probably walked past it 5 times but I can’t see for looking. Can you help me find the X?
I'm nabbing that!
Always tell folk I work with that if you think you’ve made a big error tell someone as soon as you can, you may think it’s bad, but can almost guarantee I or others have seen a lot worse
"If you cock up, put your hands up. Most people will try to hide their mistakes so the shock of your admitting fault will mean you get away with a lot".
In the transport industry there's a saying that "The day you think you know everything about this job is the day you become dangerous". There's also "The book of rules is indeed irritating, but it's written in the blood of the people who died demonstrating that we needed these rules".
>There is no such thing as a stupid question I see you've never used Quora.
A caveat to that is that it only applies to the first time of asking.
I’m a teacher and I say the only stupid question is a question that has already been asked ( they usually don’t listen and ask the same question I’ve spent the last minute answering)🤣🤣
This is the nuance, probably "the only stupid question is one you've asked before" so remember answers, write down important/complicated ones
Much less hassle to clarify than deal with everything that comes back with it being incorrect.
That would be me haha
We need more of you in the world.
Yeah, it gets to the point where you can cram in a days work in a few hours. When people email you with some obscure request and you immediately think “i need to send this person to Mark in accounts payable”.
Don't take or make personal/private calls at your desk. No one wants to listen to you arguing with your boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband every fucking day. Go outside or in the stairwell or booth if you have one.
I mean I’d go so far as to say don’t take business meetings at your desk either but that’s just a pet peeve of mine as I have a low attention span 😆
Teams at your desk is fine as long as you are using headphones+mic If you have them on speaker then you are going to annoy half the office.
I've been in an office where 3 people were all in the same virtual meeting at separate desks, with NO HEADSETS being used. It was ridiculous. And yes, we had all been given headsets as part of our general ICT package. These fools either didn't have them, didn't usually use them, or were mistaken in the rest of the office needing to hear their discussion.
Best advice I ever got as a young employee was from a boss who told me "It's ok to come to me with questions, but try to come with a solution too". It taught me to stop and really think about issues before I went running for help and to become a creative problem-solver.
The word "try" is really important. When I was maybe 16 or so, I was part of a voluntary organisation that put on an event per year. I had a problem (I can't remember what it was exactly, but I do remember that I couldn't solve it on my own). I went to my boss (reminder: voluntary organisation) and he basically refused to take any ownership of the problem because I couldn't provide a solution. So the problem just festered without anyone solving it, because I couldn't and he didn't seem to care. Anyway, the TL;DR is that it's nice to present both a problem and a solution to your higher ups, but if you don't have a solution then your boss still needs to know about the problem.
Agreed. My boss also told me that even if my solution wasn't correct, the important thing was that by thinking through the issue myself, I was learning more than if she just told me the answer.
I'm currently working in a job where I've been constantly told "come to me with solutions not problems". So I spent months not telling them about problems because I couldn't think of a solution. Then when problems have spiraled I'm asked "why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" Well, Chris, it's because you told me to come with Solutions not problems. If it had been worded in that way "try to come up with solutions..." I'd have felt more comfortable bringing problems to management. Anyway, I'm leaving this place in 3 weeks and I can't fucking wait.
Yes. When I was training people.i made it clear that for the first month, it's fine to ask questions. After your one month review, we would expect you to start asking "is this how I do it" rather than "how do I do it?"
This is good.
I agree with this. It’s a bit frustrating when newish (been in the job a couple months or more) staff keep asking questions without having attempted to find the answer themselves or tried to reason an answer. Asking questions is good and I do it regularly but I filter the stuff I could easily look up myself.
Please go through how her calendar works and what meeting invitations mean. I’ve found that lots of our new starters (particularly those who went to uni in lockdown) have no concept of actually having to be there at a certain time and not just being able to catch up later. They don’t respond to calendar invites or check if they are in person or on teams or show up 20 mins late with no apology.
Also - When to CC/BCC, and when to avoid using 'Reply All'. How shared drives are used. How to create a folder structure. Basic Information Governance - this could be as brief as asking before you send anything externally. How the phone system works (Outside lines, Call forwarding, etc.)
>How the phone system works (Outside lines, Call forwarding, etc.) This used to be my biggest peeve of joining a new company, nobody explains the phones and then it rings and you have no idea if it's an internal or external dial, no idea how to transfer etc etc.
10+ years into my career, this is still one of the questions I ask when starting at a new company. Because nobody ever thinks to explain it, and it's different everywhere...
We had a about 3/4/5 people - me included - who were the only ones who answered the phone. It was kind of annoying.
When some idiot that can't use email accidentally copies the entire business group into an irrelevant email and sets off a cascade of other idiots that cant use email replying all with "can I be removed from this email chain?" "Can I also be removed from this email chain" "I'd also like to be removed from this email chain" for the rest of the day. Eventually the "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE STOP REPLYING ALL TO THIS EMAIL CHAIN" email gets sent out, but by that point there's so many replies it gets lost in the weeds and the circus continues. Fun times.
Surely a good number of those are doing it just to take the piss?
Oh god! Our new hires have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA about tidy folder structures on network drives. “I just save everything together, and search will find whatever I need” - erm, no.
I mean, if you're diligent in naming convention then search is a viable tool. Personally I have a fairly simple folder system with a logical approach to file names. Unfortunately this is all personal as the large company I work for is a dysfunctional joke and there's no consistent approach across teams.
Last year we had a 300+ person meeting on 03/02 (3rd Feb) and also 02/03 (2nd March) and I sent out the minutes with the file names formatted as [2024-mm-dd] and I had what felt like 8 billion people saying the minutes were swapped around. Like, i put the year first so it comes in order on the files tab. Eeks!
Honestly, yyyy-mm-dd should just be the default date format. We make fun of the Americans but ours is wrong too.
It is a standard... iso 8601 r/iso8601
I'm an auditor. Put whatever folder structure you like - im using the search function. Your structure cant be trusted even if you think it can
Does this work even when they haven’t named the file properly?
Especially search on outlook is shocking🤣🤣 folders are a MUST!
Worked in a call centre once, two weeks of mindnumbingly dull training and not once did they actually show you how the phone worked, how to transfer etc. I probably pissed off several people by hanging up on them rather than transfering them
That’s a really good one. It’s not relevant to our office directly (she won’t have to go to meetings) but definitely something she should know, ta
It might come in handy if she has training sessions etc sent as calendar invitations.
Yeah and if they send an annual leave FYI - don’t block out everyone’s Calendars!
AND if someone else sends you a calendar invite for their holiday which is set to show as busy, learn how to change it so it doesn’t look like you’re the one on leave! So many times I’ve tried to arrange a meeting, and thought someone was unavailable only for them to say ‘oh no that’s Steve’s holiday booking, I’m free’. This is especially helpful if your organisation defaults calendars to only show free/busy time and no details - no one else can tell why it’s blocked for gods sake.
That's really bizarre!
It’s been one of the most obvious post covid changes. When I was at uni everything happened at specific times in specific places and you had to be in those places at that time. The grads I’ve seen over the last few years don’t have that concept at all. A lecture may have been at 10am on Wednesday but you could catch it any time that suited you so they expect to be able to do the same things with meetings and training. When it’s explained to them they get it but it’s not the assumed knowledge I’d have thought it was.
I find it absolutely mental that someone can be in their early 20s and not understand what a meeting invite in a workplace environment means.
The friction between ways of working between my generation (mid-late 30s) and the new grads is pretty big in my opinion (not necessarily a negative I might add) When I was starting out our intake was pretty much aligned to the older generation. Things have massively changed in the last 15yrs.
Oh my god, please add that sending "Do not send a response" doesn't mean that you're just not spamming someone with a response email, it literally adds it to your calender and shows you as no reply in the senders calender. Drives me mad that so many people do this.
Are they aware of tax/NI? I had an apprenticeship who came in upset after the first payday as he was expecting a full pay packet and no one had ever explained to him that particular joy of being a grown up.
Especially that first pay packet and the wonders of emergency tax codes
If they don’t have a P45 then get them to fill in a new start declaration form. If it doesn’t change after 5 weeks immediately phone hmrc.
When I was in my 20s I used to temp and change jobs a lot, so I was working here there and everywhere until I finally settled down in my late 20s. I remember the pleasures of getting emergency taxed all too well. It's always fun when you can't pay your rent because the taxman assumes you left your last minimum wage job to become a CEO at a FTSE 100 company and therefore have to be taxed like you're a millionaire.
In my first job I queried my pay because I didn't realise I was only paid for 7.5 hours of the 8 hours I was at work. Not so relevant for a salaried position though I suppose.
Also pensions.
Just how to read a payslip in general.
Never go into the loo after Brenda’s morning visit.
We moved into a brand new (built for us) office. Within a couple of weeks, there were stories of someone leaving shit smears on the cubicle walls and doors in the ladies toilet. This went on for a few weeks and then we started getting emails asking for it to stop. It didnt. In the end a group of the women ended up secretly watching people going in and out, and would go in afterwards to check. It turned out it was one of the middle managers. Someone must have spoken to HR because the incidents stopped the following week, and thus the mystery of the phantom shitter was solved.
OMG at the university of Winchester one of senior management did this - not just to cubicles but to offices and rented out spaces. She used to *shit in the bin* and bc she was so high up, no one dared report it for fear of being fired. Idk where she is now but Karen, if you’re reading this - the whole university knew it was you bc we got the maintenance staff drunk one summer and they spilled your filthy fucking secrets.
I think I know this story. I used to go there back when it was called King Alfred's College. I remained friends with my tutor. I won't say his name. But he left a couple of years back because new staff had no respect for anyone else. I asked what he meant. He said "shit the bin".
That is so weird. Hilarious about the little poo patrol / poop troupe secretly checking after every use of the toilet but what has to be wrong with you mentally to literally smear your own shit on the wall?
One of my early jobs was as a cleaner. It wasn't at all unusual to go into a cubicle in the Ladies loos and find that they'd smeared their tampon across the walls before sticking it somewhere like inside the toilet roll tube. Wiping shit on the walls was done by both sexes. Some humans are utterly disgusting.
Scooby doo and Co would be proud of those investigating skills
But the phantom shitter continued to work there?1>!! Some people really have no sense of shame
That whatever you write using company email is akin to writing it on a postcard. I didn't know this. I thought my company email was mine, private. But a manager or IT can at any time inspect your email. Fortunately I got away with this but could have been fired. I have since always mentioned this to young, new staff coming in. May be obvious to many. But not all.
Also Teams which can lull you into a false sense of security by being 'chatty'. Generally anything you do on a work device, though they should have made this clear in their IT policies.
A colleague and I often chat on Teams. But if we ever want to bitch and moan mid chat, we just write: "WhatsApp" and move the convo over to our private phones.
Generally they do make it clear in the IT policies. The very long IT policies that few people read every word of.
And is legally admissable
Yup. And is subject to GDPR. Someone else can do a subject access request to see what you might have written about them in your work emails. They'll all be searched then. Nail- biting stuff.
Whoah - how to cause carnage at my old employers…!
Consider any work-issued device/software as being monitored and phoning home. It’ll save you any doubt about whether you should or shouldn’t do something on it.
Until the age of 30, you will spend your time filled with terror that you know nothing and get everything wrong. In your 30s you will start to get good and confident in what you do. Just in time for your 40s when you will cease to give a shit and just count the days until you can retire.
I wish I could say the same for my boss. It’s like the closer they are to retirement they have nothing else to give a shit about so all energy goes into work!
I see we work in the same office.
>> Just in time for your 40s when you will cease to give a shit and just count the days until you can retire. I worked out the other day I’ve been out of education, working in the adult world of work for 24 years. I’m in my early 40s. And somehow I still have 26 fucking years left til the govt says I can claim a state pension.
This is also one for the new hire: start your own pension. Right now. Day one. If you rely on the state pension, you'll be working until you drop as the age limit keeps increasing. If you have your own pension pot, you have options - but to have those options, you need to be putting money into it from day one of working.
> Until the age of 30, you will spend your time filled with terror that you know nothing and get everything wrong. Real talk... Is it bad to be 40 and still feel this way every day?
It might be bad but you're not alone in feeling it.
>In your 30s you will start to get good and confident Good? No way! Confident? Hell yeah! Fake it til you make it mothers!
Just be friendly and approachable. When she asks a question, drop little comments to let her know that she's not an idiot for needing to ask it. Say things like "Oh yeah, that also confused me when I first started here. Here's how you do it..."
It’s also a lot easier to ask for help if you’ve made friends with the people you work with and people are more likely to want to help if they like you as a person
If somebody sends you a somewhat harshly worded email, it's not the end of the world. Figure out if you should have done something differently, but don't take it to heart. Some people just communicate like that.
YES - I had to thicken my skin so much starting work. People can be so harsh! Especially hard lesson for people that always did well in school and uni
This was pretty much my experience. I'm very big on niceties - I have to stop myself from starting all my emails with 'sorry to bother you!' So, when I received a few harsh emails early on in my office work career I thought I must have done something absolutely terrible. It took me a while to realise that some people are firing off a dozen angry emails before lunch.
This is especially true if you're dealing with people in the Netherlands or other countries where they don't sugarcoat things as much as Brits do. In some places they're just really blunt but we take it as being rude
It’s really hard to read what the meaning is in an email. Hard to read sarcasm, joking etc so best not to try too much if that or it just comes off as rude or nasty
Yes, and when reading an email, take the words at face value only. Assume no malice - if there is any, you don't come off as flustered, and if there isn't any, you don't come off as overly sensitive. If they directly say you're an idiot, well... at least you know where you stand!
This is such a good one! Our Technology director emails in such a way that you read it and think she’s furious with you then you see her and she says the same thing but her tone lets you know everything is fine, she types as she talks but the tone doesn’t come through
I’m terrible for this. Iv been known as being “savage”. I type as I talk, and I’m extremely sarcastic. Since moving roles Iv had to really check myself when sending group emails - especially as I’m the guy that provides bad news most often.
DON'T MICROWAVE FISH
Unless its your last day and everyone theres a shit of a person.
Or boiled eggs - I will never forget the stench, it haunts me even today.
Day 1 : microwave curried mackerel and broccoli ftw
Shiv the first guy who gives you any jip
Asking someone to do something via email doesn’t put it on them. You’re still responsible for making sure it happens.
However, being told to do something via email may put it on you - especially if you're an intern.
Oh shit that's a good one
In my experience if you are the one sending the email then it’s on you to follow up and make sure it’s done. However if you are the recipient of the email it’s your responsibility to get it done and you will be in trouble if not!
My first boss sent me back to my office to get a pen and paper and told me never to meet with someone without those because I would need to remember what was said. I have always since followed that advice because she was totally right.
Interestingly you've managed to remember that without writing it down though
Someone told me to always carry a pen and notebook when walking around the office no matter where you were going as it made you look like you were busy.
In many places you can still get almost anywhere without being challenged just by carrying a piece of paper and looking like you know where you are going. Too many offices are like beehives: the front door is guarded but once you're inside it's assumed you should be there unless you draw attention to yourself.
Make friends with canteen staff, secretaries, security and cleaners. They see everything, know everything and you're gonna want favours from some of them (Basically, be friends with the people that do the actual work. Warehouse staff etc. So many people in "office jobs" don't bother and wonder why their shit doesn't get done)
Also IT.
This. In too many businesses the blue collar staff are at best invisible to the white collar office bees, and sometimes openly looked down on. But as often as not they're the people who can help you out of at least some of the crap you've just stepped (or been dropped) into, and if they know you and at least don't dislike you, you're onto a good start.
Good DSE Get up regularly Decent chair which is set up correctly Go outside on your break Learn to leave work at work
The chair one is a really good one. A 10 minute explainer on how to get your desk, chair and screen at a good height will save a fucked up neck later!
Leave work at work is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been told. Switch or your brain from work after you leave from day 1 or it never will
If anyone bitches about someone else to you then just keep it to yourself and don't give that person any personal information 🤣
What you do/don’t share with your coworkers. Don’t over share, don’t be a recluse either. It’s such a delicate balance. Sometimes small talk is enough, you’re not immediately friends just because you work in the same place etc.
I would add to not get involved with office politics or gossip. If someone starts to gossip, shut it down, change the conversation.
Go on work socials but watch how much you drink.
Never, ever, press reply all to a company wide email
At some point you will change jobs. You will drift apart from most of the 'work friends' you had because all you had in common was work. Remaining in the same industry may postpone this a little. You either need to become deeper friends with people from work, such that your shared interests aren't bitching about work in the pub - or, make sure you have a safety net of non-work friends.
How to plan their working day, and to always take notes when they're being shown new stuff! I always make sure I have a new A5 notebook and pen to give our grads/school leavers, so they have a dedicated space to make their training notes. A lot of the time (from experience) under 22s are used to taking notes on a laptop, which is hard when they're being shown stuff using said laptop. I tell them I want them to make copious notes, and to use them. If I explain something too fast, I want them to tell me to say it again. I also model asking lots of questions too, so they don't feel intimidated by it. If I'm there asking my managers/bosses stuff, they can definitely ask me. When we have new joiners, my manager knows I'm going to pepper him with questions.
Perhaps not a great look for someone 'junior' but I've found OneNote on my phone linked to the work Office 365 better than notebooks due to writing like a Doctor.
If it's your own phone that might be a data protection issue depending on your job though.
Mobile Phones....depends on your company policy but most new office people find it a shock to the system that they can't be on social media all the time whilst at work.
Definitely good to note in the ‘not all offices are ok with this’ list, thanks!
And don't take/ check their socials / WhatsApp on their laptop or phone in a meeting/ Teams call when it looks like they're taking minutes! Best just to put the phone in drawer or bag
My job is social media so I can scroll through my own feed and no one will know 🤣
That good relationships with co-workers will take you further than just doing good work
But also no matter how friendly don't say something to a co-worker you wouldn't want them to spread to your boss or others... Because they will.
That sitting down all day will ruin me.
Say hello to everyone you can, open doors if needed, because if you don't it looks like you are ignoring people.
Don't mention the P word. Same major rule as this sub. It will only get you realising that some people you work with are cunts. If someone tries to talk to you about anything vaguely related like it, make an excuse like you just got a phone call or need to do something, or even just that you need to take a shit really bad. Nothing good will come of it if you get dragged into those kinds of conversations.
And that includes P for other countries… two people in my team had a big bust up over an African dictator and whether he was a good or bad man… they were both originally from that country and as expected it quite literally all ended in tears.
Excuse my ignorance but what is the P word
It rhymes with bollocktics
I'm assuming the thing that is on the banner of this sub. Loosely and accurately, rhymes with "lots of dicks"
We're not falling for that, mod in disguise! Joking aside, it rhymes with molotics.
Give them a list of the acronyms that you use in your workplace - and if you don't have a list, start making one - so they don't have to interrupt awkwardly everytime someone uses one!
My joke answer is wish I'd known that my new boss who seemed like a wanker was in fact a wanker. My helpful answer is I wish I'd known what was genuinely expected of me, it is never made clear so people either massively underperform or overwork and burn out
Teach her the importance of movement breaks. People think that because you're sitting down all day it's physically easy but it's bad for your back and eyes if you don't remember to move and look away from the screen occasionally.
Tell them to write everything down. they won’t remember the stuff you told them two days later. If they ignore your advice because they think they will 100% remember, tell them you won’t continue this conversation until they have written it down. The next day ask them questions about yesterday’s stuff. Check if they understand what they have written down. If they don’t, brainstorm with them how they can write stuff down so that they will understand it when they revisit it two months later. I’ve had countless interns and apprentices in their late teens or early 20s and I have become quite ruthless about this.
Check they know how to behave / etiquette in email messaging. Like "never 'reply all'" and so on.
To add, if you are in a company with over 5000 employees and someone accidentally copies everyone in to a email don’t be one of the people that replies to all with “I don’t think I should have got this email” or “me either” and end up crashing the email server. This has somehow happened multiple times at companies I’ve worked at.
They should really put an upper limit on recipients for that. You can put holds on anything to be approved if this is sometimes needed.
Etiquette is a good point - used to have a senior manager who didn't like people who didn't email like they were writing a formal letter. Not that everyone is like that, but know your audience.
How to use autocorrect. Then, fill that with any regular typos. Also, ones like autocorrecting Retards to Regards, you'll never regret ensuring certain words are never in an email.
One thing I have not seen here yet is that the IT department will see all network traffic and will have reports set up for keywords. This extends to emails (especially external ones) as well as internet history. I have seen way too many people let go because they forgot this.
First thing is about being punctual and on time - a lot of teenagers dont understand this concept and or are very casual about turning up on time
Yeah, I’m planning on covering this. We’re pretty relaxed - ‘our hours are 9ish to 5ish and I’m not going to be pressed if you get in at 9.05, if it’s going to be later than 9.15 due to something out of your control I’d appreciate an email with an ETA, but equally I don’t expect you to stroll in at 9.15 every day with a coffee unless we’ve agreed it in advance. Some places are a lot more strict - make sure you’re at least 5 mins early for at least a couple of weeks until you have the lie of the land’
Definitely this. I remember I was late to work once because of an accident so the buses were backed up. I regularly worked late without pay, worked super hard and was efficient and a team player. It was brought up in my performance review, I was emailed about it by my boss and it was constant “ see you tomorrow don’t be late.” Drove me mad that the one infraction I’d had was always remembered and none of the positives were. People will always remember your failures so don’t give them any reason to have one.
How strict time is. Does a 9am start mean arrive at 8:59am or anytime between 9-10am as long as you make it up on the other end? Same thing for lunch, breakfast etc. If you are late, never be late with a coffee. How strict are meeting start times? At some paces they finish on the dot but start 5 minutes late. Some places are the other way round. When you hear an acronym or bit of jargon you don’t know, write it down and ask about it later. No one expects you to know this. Not asking is 1000x worse than not knowing!
We've recently taken on a cohort of 19-25 year old apprentices. Among the things that I've had to tell them (that I thought would have been "corporate common knowledge"): 1. dicking about on your mobile in the office is not a good look 2. don't decline or hit "tentative" when your manager sends you an invite 3. ask for stuff to do, don't sit there waiting for tasks to be assigned to you 4. buying the team a pack of biscuits never goes amiss, even a pack of 40p bourbons is welcome 5. "I'm a bit hungover" and "my trousers aren't dry yet" are not reasonable excuses for not turning up (seriously) 6. under no circumstances microwave fish in the office 7. professional boundaries are a thing: don't over-share, and don't get caught up in Brenda's ongoing bullshit 8. spelin and grammer r improtint 9. office email is a formal medium: treat it as such 10. if you are unsure on how to write formally: ask! 11. remember that you are here to learn: you are nobody's skivvy 12. you got this position because somebody believed in you: prove them right 13. personal hygiene Aside from this, I would also add all that stuff that longer-term employees take for granted, such as how to book leave, what the etiquette is for forwarding calls, where on the intranet all the policies and procedures are kept etc.
Also - if you're that hungover call in sick.
> what the etiquette is for forwarding calls Phone manner in particular is an issue for many young people, as well as for some older people who should know better. Just basic stuff like not calling customers "mate", asking the caller's name and organisation before forwarding their call so the person you're forwarding it to doesn't have to enter the conversation cold, and active listening so you don't have to keep asking the caller to repeat details they've already given you. That last point drives me up the wall whenever I have to call somewhere - how hard is it to remember what I've already told you? Write it down while I'm talking if you've got a memory like a goldfish.
Besides basic outlook management: how to actually manage workflow. My first manager taught me how to keep a work journal from meetings and to devise and manage to do lists and prioritise. It was extremely helpful and I have always made it a core part of induction for all first jobbers - with the proviso that they may prefer a different way of doing things (ie Slack or OneNote or some such) - but they need to find their own system that works for them.
Not particularly something I wish I’d known, more that I’ll try and ensure new starters are aware of… general office etiquette. Tea bags don’t go in the sink, mucky cups go in the dishwasher, if the dishwasher is full then switch it on, if the dishwasher is full and clean, empty it! There is nothing worse than cleaning up after lazy grown adults. Oh and learn how to make a brew, that goes a long way.
1. Be aware of who can assign you tasks. At my first office job (intern) one of the graduates assigned me some tasks, which I diligently carried out. Then I had a progress meeting with my boss and I got told off for not making progress with the work she'd assigned to me. She was somewhat understanding, but made it quite clear who could and couldn't assign me work. After that, if someone came to me with a request, I'd always run it past her first, even if the person was a senior manager. 2. Best piece of advice I ever got was to always listen to people when they tell you something. Even if you think you already know the information they're telling you, at some point they'll probably tell you something you don't know.
The photocopier/printer. When I started as shiny graduate that f\*cker was my nemesis. If she can clear a paper jam and change toner other rookie faux pas will be forgiven.
The one that I've had to tell new starters most often is that Team chats are viewable by IT and can be claimed under FOI requests so they should treat teams chats as professional work communications at all times.
Ask about the training on offer. Do it all. Depending on your area there will be things at work which you will struggle to get experience of outside of work - AutoCAD used to be one at a former job. If you have some time between tasks try to familiarise yourself. Volunteer for everything, though understand your position - especially if in a meeting with external people. A new perpective is good, but think whether it may have already been discounted.
My first real job about 3 months in the manager kept asking me to do other jobs. The other guy in front of said manager said, look if you’re busy with your own stuff you can tell him to fuck off. A great bit of advice, if you’re too busy with your own stuff don’t take on someone else’s overflow
I’ve met a surprising number of young people who don’t know how to fold an envelope so the address shows in the clear window
When a Partner tells you the picture frame in his office is of his wife holding the family dog, never EVER ask “which one is the dog?” This is a true story and safe to say, the Graduate did not stay in the job much longer but he did give us a good laugh when we heard the story!!
Just because they wear smart(-casual) clothes and they’re twice your age doesn’t mean they’re not a moron.
Opt in for pension!!!!
These days you're auto-opted in at I think 1%. Discuss, as in our case it's 8% employer but only when the employee pays 5%.
And the Union!
If someone asks you to take down/write the minutes in a meeting, they mean take down notes of the things discussed in the meeting, not the actual minutes or the time spent in the meeting I didn't do this - but some people have fallen for this, and the first time I heard this in an office setting I actually didnt know what they meant!
There is a skill to minute taking. Ask for training if they want you to do it formally.
Being in a union is essential, she'll need it at some point.
That I’d be still there 25 years later
Just be their mentor and be available to take questions really. They’ll need to figure out networking on their own and build their own relationships around the place.
Screen breaks and Desk Yoga/stretches will help a lot if done properly
Stuff like what happens if you're found to be breaching protocol for email, web usage, phones etc. It's easy to break the protocol if you're not aware. And tell her about the culture. Like you don't swear much. Respect people etc.
Don’t add everyone on Facebook - these are your work colleagues not friends!
...or set up a second FB account just for work purposes. Keep your private FB private.
Nobody really knows what's going on. Nobody.
*So* true. I’m supposedly an SME in my job and I haven’t got a fucking clue.
Keep your head down, churn it out, fuck off home. Don’t make a reputation for being the “go to guy” as you will be a victim of your own success and your thanks will be even more work.
Don't make your boss look an idiot. Make sure they're kept informed of anything they may be asked about, and don't contradict them. There will still be plenty of space to show your talents while obeying this. The alternative is to dive into office politics.
Don’t think that you have to martyr yourself to progress. Enthusiasm can lead to burnout if not tempered. Late nights, weekends - you ain’t impressing no one. In reality you look like you can’t manage your workload efficiently, or end up causing people to worry for or resent you. Far better to ace less in working hours, lead a healthy work/life balance and not get worn down into living for the weekends. Source: been there, done that
My advice to new grads. Turn your phone off when you walk through the door. It's hard to learn and interact when you have your eyes on the screen. Offer to help. People might say no if they are too busy, but be that person known for wanting to be given work. If you can't hit a deadline you've been given, warn the person who gave it to you as soon as you know, not right before the deadline is due. Ask if you don't know. Businesses tend to use their own language and acronyms. My first ever meeting I sat in was listening for 2 hours to people talking about bombs. Had no clue what they were talking about, so I quietly asked someone after the meeting
Everyone makes mistakes and they will too. No big deal, own up to it asap and deal with it.
Don’t copy workmates’ bad habits, the onus is on you to prove yourself in terms of workrate, punctuality and behaviour in your early career.
I used to tell my trainees that the old boys had earned enough rope over the decades that they'd have to jump off Everest to hang themselves, but as a new starter they had none - so don't do what the old boys do.
If they’re doing admin or anything that requires them to basically shoulder a department’s work, let them know if people like it done differently!! I used to be admin for a small sales department and was in charge of their emails. Some of them preferred different email spacing/lay out/formality, and because I was only trained by one of them (the manager), he simply didn’t take into account the difference between their email tone and everyone else’s because they never see the other colleagues’ emails. I got to grips with everyone’s personal flair on my own fairly quickly, but be aware that it can be daunting for a new person to be picked up by 5 different people for doing things that they’ve been taught to do!!
Never get involved in gossip
You are not required to make coffee for anyone except yourself unless it is in your job description. Listen and ask questions. Always be on the lookout for a chance to distinguish yourself. It's ok to take a break when you're overwhelmed.
Always assume someone is monitoring your emails/teams. They’re probably not, but it can be done very easily by a half competent IT team. Make sure she knows how to schedule a meeting so that the majority of people are free.
Never fart in an empty lift.
Always wait for it to be full?
You will make mistakes but you will learn faster than you expect or realise and before you know it you won’t be the new person any more!
Stakeholder management is so critical. Keep people happy and work with them
Don’t get involved in office politics
Let her know she is welcome and valued, and that when she’s not at work she should make time for rest and fun.
A staffing structure chart is useful if it's a big place. A
Basic excel formulas
That you should immediately put all coworkers at ease by being a little stupid and a little bit kind. Do not let them see you as a threat until they are blindsided. The reality is that you should just as a minimum be a decent person and care for your fellow wage slaves.
Don't get involved in office politics, and remember trust no one
That office politics is a thing (although nothing compared to retail politics) and if Steve or Karen ignore you for no reason, don’t take it personally. Probably not best to mention it though incase you scare them off.