A beginner is one who just has started his working life. It is obvious that the office environment is totally new for a beginner. A person generally spends a long time, like eight hours or sometimes more than that, in the workplace. A beginner should never forget that the first impression is the last impression, so some basic office etiquette for beginners that they must keep in mind are listed below:
Contents:
- Friendliness with other employees
- Proper body language
- Be on time
- Office Etiquette for Dressing
- Minimising of using jargon
- Staying at home in case of sickness
- Respect for co-workers
- Knock before entering
- Change in habit
- Attentive while in meetings
- Respect everyone’s space
- Respect other’s allergies
- Appropriate use of social media
- Telephonic conversation should be taken at private space
- Important meetings should be done in the meeting room, not on a desk
- Meeting should be ended on time
- Office etiquette for sending emails
Friendliness with other employees:
There is a saying that the first impression is the last impression, on the very first day, the employee should be friendly with the other employees of the organization. An organization always runs with many employees who are working in different functional areas, so being a new employee it is the duty of the beginner to become friendly with all other employees so that they can help him or her to get accustomed to the office environment as well as with the working culture of the organization.
Proper body language:
Body language is always an important key factor that helps an individual to be at ease in any situation. A positive and good body language always helps us to be friendly with others. As a beginner, it is needed to greet the elders or seniors of the organization, as well as to the juniors. Not only that, he or she should wait for the right time when the other co-workers will help him/her to understand the job profile and describe his or her workstation. There, any kind of anxiety or hurriedness will be noted as negative body language.
Be on time:
Time management is also a crucial part of office etiquette. Being a beginner, an employee should be on or before the time at his work. When an employee becomes late at his work on the very first day, it will be noted as a casualness for the employee towards his job. So, the beginner should be prepared in such a manner, so that he or she will be present at the office on time not only on the very first day but also regularly.
Office etiquette for dressing:
The dressing sense of an individual always depicts his or her character, behavior, and obviously his or her choice. Every organization has its own dressing manners. If it is not the case, an employee should carry the formal dressing etiquette at their workplace. The dress should be cleaned, appropriately ironed, a proper haircut should be maintained, should be clean shaved, and shoes and belts should be polished.
Minimising of using jargon:
Some of the colloquial language we use at our home, within our friend circle, or at our close circle, but these types of languages are not acceptable at our office. Jargons are a kind of language that is not at all acceptable at workplaces. So employees should minimize the use of jargon at their workplace.
Staying at home in case of sickness:
It is a normal phenomenon that an individual may be sick at any time. If an employee thinks that he is not physically fit, he or she should avoid going to the office on that particular day because they will not work properly. Also, many diseases are infectious and can be spread easily, so they should avoid going to the office to not spread to any other employee. But, they must inform about their health condition to reporting person/boss. This is also one of the important office etiquettes for beginners to follow.
Respect for co-workers:
Being a new employee to an organization, the person should always show proper respect to his or her juniors, co-workers, and seniors. It may happen that other employees are less educated or experienced than the new employee but the new employee should always be polite to the other because he or she is new to the organization and the organization is totally unknown to him or her. Also, everyone should keep in mind that they will also not be respected if they can not respect others.
Knock before entering:
When an employee is entering the cabin of others, he or she should always knock on the door before entering the room as a good gesture. The other employee may be busy inside the cabin with some work, so they may feel bad if an employee enters without knocking on the door and may consider it as bad etiquette.
Change in habit:
Every individual has some of the behavior which becomes their habit. Like someone may like to listen to music which may bring his or her concentration on work more and more but it may happen that other employees may do not like it at all, they may feel very much disturbed, in that situation he or she should lower the sound of the music so that his or her concentration will be on work at the same time the other employees also not get disturbed.
Attentive while in meetings:
Every employee, whether he or she is new or old, should always be attentive in meetings. All the meetings are not so important for all the employees but if the individual is asked to be present at a meeting, then he or she should understand that the organization is thinking he or she is a part of the meeting, so he or she should be attentive in that meeting.
Respect everyone's space:
Everyone loves to work freely in their own space. So as a beginner he or she should know the etiquette of not creating any disturbance to other employees’ working environment.
Respect other’s allergies:
Sometimes, various kinds of employees exist at the same organization. Many people have allergies to many things which may be a habit or preference to others. For example, an employee may like to use strong fragrances, but the other employees do not like such strong fragrances. In that situation, the first employee should not use such strong perfume, instead he or she can choose a mild one so that it does not create any problem for the others.
Appropriate use of social media:
Nowadays we all are very much accustomed to handling social media. An office place is not a place to use our time in handling personal social media pages. If an employee needs to use social media, he or she should use it accordingly. Like work related to digital marketing needs of handling social media, so an employee should restrict the use of social media as per the organisational need.
Telephonic conversation should be taken at private space:
It may happen during our working hours, we have to attain many telephones. If the calls are for official jobs it can be taken at the employees’ own desk and his or her voice should be low so that others do not feel uncomfortable at the same time. However, if the calls are personal, he or she should be out of the workspace and should attain the call in a private space only if the calls are important and needed to be attained.
Important meetings should be done in the meeting room, not on a desk:
There are lots of times when an employee has to call a meeting with other departmental employees. It is observed that when there is a short discussion, some employees complete the meeting at their own desk which may look awkward to any visitors of the office. So it is advisable that whether a meeting is less important or not, whether it takes less time or not, it should be conducted within a meeting room.
Meeting should be ended on time:
During an office meeting generally every employee is given the same importance to establish their views in front of everyone. Employees should always know the proper time management so that everyone can get the chance to establish their views, and the meeting can be ended within the stipulated time so that the other scheduled works do not get hampered.
Office etiquette for sending emails:
It is a vital role of every employee to know the proper email etiquette. Every employee has to attain emails for doing their regular activities properly. Everyone should know the proper etiquette to reply to a mail promptly and understand the importance of the mail that he or she is receiving. While giving the reply, one should avoid the option of “reply all” because it may not always be necessary for all the mentioned people to get the reply of the same mail. So, before sending a mail, always do a cross-check of all the recipients, the subjects, the body, and the signature.
Thus we can say these are some of the vital office etiquettes which an employee as a beginner should always keep in mind. Apart from these, there is some basic etiquette like:
- Wishing good morning/ good evening/ good night to the co-workers.
- Start the day by maintaining a proper diary.
- Start the day with a fresh smile. Take tea/coffee in break time to deal with stress at work.
- Avoid wearing too many bright or catchy colors of cloth at the office.
- Avoid eating chewing gum, smoking at office places.
- Should give proper respect to the female co-workers.
- There is no end to learning, so always be keen to learn new things from others.
- Try to keep the office place clean and tidy.
- Try to keep a peaceful environment inside the office.
- Always end a day’s work with a victorious smile to make the rest of the day as fresh as the start.
- Maintain good mannerism with all the employees.
Thus etiquette plays a great role in every employee’s life at work as it helps maintain the proper working environment of an organization.
