Earlier today, I was in a big, expensive poker tournament. No, I didn't pay to get in. I won an entry into it a
couple of months ago, and the first day was today. There were 175 people who showed up, and the first 20 places were
going to be in the money.
I love playing poker, but this was something kind of different for me. I played in another tournament, but there were
only 45 people, and it was in a comfortable environment. In that one, I finished 12th, missing the money by 5 spots;
today, I finished in 109th place, but played for almost six hours.
Throughout the entire time, I was uncomfortable. Even though I kept telling myself to relax, I just couldn't do it.
This was unlike normally when I go to play poker, when I'm not worried about losing the money I go with. Usually, I
go and have a good time bantering with people at the table, listening to and telling stories, and I enjoy the hours
as they pass.
Today, even though I didn't pay for it, the time spent was alien to me. We were in a different environment, the rules
were different, and many of the people were different. The dealers were familiar, but that was it. I had expected it
to be like what I see on TV, with all the activity and life that seems to be in the poker room on TV, but there was
little of that. This was really serious, and the pressure to perform was more than I was ready for. Well, maybe not;
I did last six hours, and outlasted 65 other people.
Whenever you're doing something new, there are two emotions you could have. One could be that of excitement, enthusiasm,
ready to get moving. The other is fear, pressure, and hesitation, wondering if you're up to the challenge of something
new, whether it's something your familiar with or not. We all have experienced it in some fashion at some point in our
lives. We all know how uncomfortable that feeling is.
It's worse in the workplace. When you start a new job, and you're management, it's a little bit easier. Even if there
are great expectations on you, the reality is that you wouldn't have gotten the job if someone didn't feel you were up
to the challenge. There are things managers can get away with for awhile, because their peers are few and far in
between. There may be other managers, but every manager does a different job, and most other managers may not have
any real idea what it is you do.
With employees, it's much different. Sometimes they have experience in doing the work you've hired them for, sometimes
not. But what they will have, for the most part, are other people who do what they do, who will be judging them on
more than just how competent they end up being on the job. Whenever a new employee comes into the workplace, they not
only have to deal with you, the manager and leader, they have to deal with everyone else. And they have to deal with
trying to learn something new, if it's their first time doing that kind of work, or trying to learn how your office does
things, which sometimes can be as traumatic.
It's up to management to always try to make the workplace comfortable for every employee, new or existing. Someone
who's not comfortable will have problems learning, and they will make many more mistakes than someone who's comfortable.
If their problems end up being because of you, well, that's one thing you need to deal with. If it's not you, then
here are some things you might want to try to help them merge smoothly into your office operations:
- Set the person up with a buddy. Yeah, it may sound like elementary school, but having someone who knows the
ropes be a go to person for at least the first few days can help ease a person in. It always helps having someone to
talk to if they don't already know anyone, and it also relieves the manager of having to do it, since there should be
some separation between the two as far as getting to know each other too well too early.
- Start the person out with a little bit of reading material. I've handled new people two ways, and found this one
works best. The other way is to bring them in and start immediately trying to teach them how to do things. Trust me,
many times new employees aren't ready to fully understand what you're trying to say to them. Giving them something to
read, maybe something that helps define terms used in the department, some history, a mission statement, or things like
that, will allow them to calm down so real teaching can occur later on. Not a lot of reading material, though, nothing
longer than an hour.
- Don't start off talking about departmental rules. Sure, you want people to know what's expected of them, but
hopefully you covered that during the interview. This isn't the army, and they didn't enlist. Instead, dig right into
the positives of why your department does what it does, then get into teaching.
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- Slow down. One problem many managers and trainers have is they know the material so well that they forget
others might not pick it up as easy as they did. Give them paper and something to write with, then let them go at
their own pace, at least early on.
- Be open and kind. Or at least try not to be mean, if the other way isn't quite your style. Any tension you
cause will cause them to not do the job well. And you can try to blame it on them, but it will be your fault.
Using these steps will help new employees feel as though they're welcome into your organization. If you have other
ways to make employees comfortable, by all means do them. No one needs to deal with pressure not of their own making.