10 Tips For New Employees In Two Minutes
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Oct 7, 2012
Keeping with my two minutes theme, I know I normally write about leadership here. This time I'm writing directly to employees, new employees in fact. These tips are good for any employee, but new employees really need to check this out because going into a new situation with the proper mindset could help things go better in one way or another; trust me on this one. Let's get right into it.
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1. Smile. Smiling not only gets things going in the right direction, but it encourages others to greet you and help you.
2. Listen. Unless asked, no one is interested in knowing what you know if it's not related to the job; at least not yet.
3. Verify information. If you don't understand something your early days are the best time to ask and get it right. Pretending you know and having them find out weeks later you don't know will only make people mad.
4. Don't look weak. Take time to get the lay of the land, but don't appear to be weak or unsure of yourself. Unfortunately, someone will be looking to take advantage of you at the first sign of weakness.
5. Don't be aloof. When you're a new employee, if invited to lunch to go lunch; if invited to break go to break. You'll learn a lot more about your working environment by doing this initially. Later, if they irritate you, then do your own thing.
6. Be your own person. Don't like or hate someone based on what someone else says. Evaluate how people treat you and make your own decisions.
7. Put in all of your time. This should be consistent, but never look to be the first person out of the office, especially when you're new. It looks like you don't want to be there and that request can be easily granted.
8. Learn everything you can. Of course you need to learn everything you can to do the job but learn as much as you can about everything because you might need it elsewhere.
9. Dress properly. I know, you like your comfortable clothes and like to push limits but until you've established yourself, proper decorum is always the way to go. For that matter even later try to dress properly.
10. Do your best. If you don't think anyone will notice you're not pulling your weight you're kidding yourself. If everyone else has learned the job they expect you can too. If you can be better than them do it; those that do progress and succeed.
Being a new employee is already a few years behind me but I remember being friendly and showing interest by verifying information helped me a great deal.
Thanks Erika. Truthfully, it’s not a bad list for employees in general, but new employees will probably get further quicker if they do these things from the beginning.
It is difficult to add anything else, Mitch. Probably just an advice for fresh graduates “don’t panic” and don’t be shy to show your skills.
Those are good things to add Carl; thanks for that.
A friend of mine remind me about this, few days ago. He mentioned that he have been lost after graduation and even after start practicing most of the thing appear completely different that what he have learned in university.
Carl, nothing in real life is like how it was in university, even if you’re a teacher. lol
That is good advice Mitch especially looking weak. Co-worker will eat you alive if they discover you are a push over.
You should try to disclose as little about you as possible until you make real friends.
Do not mistake kindness for friendship because there are a lot of wolves out there.
I made the mistake of telling more than I wanted to and it bite me in the tail.
Thanks Michael. Also, don’t mistake co-workers as being friends. Take your time to make sure you trust these people. Friends are people you’d trust with your life; everyone else is just an acquaintance.
Good advice posted. For the employee to cope up with new environment is something hard. But if he follow the above instructions then he will get a positive results abut new job.
Thanks Prem. There are lots of things that change all the time but these things never go out of style.
Hi Mitch,
That’s a great list and I hope to be applying it very soon 😉
I struggle with #4 sometimes because I’m too darned honest and rush to admit my shortcomings, probably because I don’t want to pretend to be anything other than human – but your post highlighted this tendency and truthfully, of your list, this is the only one I need to work on.
What have you observed with people being guilty of #4?
Roz
Roz, I’ve seen a few things happen. One, that person looks wishy washy because they’re afraid to admit what they don’t know. Two, that person ends up with a lot of other people’s work because they allow others to take advantage of them without saying anything. Or three, they’re generally unhappy because they allow themselves to be upset internally because of what’s going on, fearful that anything they do or say will harm them more than help them.
That never does much good. Some people are constant complainers and no one wants to listen to them all the time. But those who want to work & do the best job possible need to be adult about things, ask questions when needed, and stand up for themselves when the need arises.
Hi Mitch, thanks for elaborating – I’ve seen a little of all of those. Happy Halloween 🙂
Roz