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New Age Office Etiquette Rules ? Follow Them To Avoid Embarrassment

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In the past, office etiquette rules focused on interactions between different employees. A badly dressed employee would obviously standout and would present a poor image of the organization. On the other hand, what the employee deed inside his or her cubicle was considered irrelevant unless the individual was particularly noisy or troublesome.

Today, checking out social networking websites when working in office is considered impolite. When your fellow employees are working hard and trying their best to improve productivity, it is not right for an individual to focus on personal satisfaction alone.

Cell phones have become very common and it is virtually impossible for any individual to stay disconnected for long. Calls from home, family members, relatives or friends can be very irritating for fellow office workers. Nobody is interested in knowing how you had a great time with your family during the last weekend. Nobody is interested in finding out how bad the service was when you last went on a vacation.

It is important to keep such conversions short and precise. To ramble for long durations will not only affect the concentration of other fellow workers but will also make it difficult to get a response from your own important official matters.

Organizations are becoming stricter in dealing with such problematic employees. The best option is to focus on these rules on your own so that you are not hold up in front of others for not respecting the rules and regulations in your office. Log on to the internet and ask questions or even rant about these frustrating rules. However, obey them properly when you are in office.

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Business, Employee Relationships Tagged With: , ,

The Benefits of Extra Training

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When first stepping into a job straight out of school, most workers don’t have too many real world skills. Sure you’ve mastered calculus and how to prepare a thesis, but that doesn’t often correlate to knowledge in the workplace. Most businesses offer opportunities to employees looking to add to their skills by doign extra training.

Higher Salary

An obvious benefit of additional training for your job is a higher salary. As you add skills to your repertoire you are able to handle a myriad of situations. Most companies will compensate eager employees who want to improve their skills and grow in the industry knowledge.

Resume Builder

Possibly you don’t want to stay at your job forever, but getting extra traning while you are there is a great resume builder. By pursuing extra training it shows that you are dedicated and want to do the best job possible. When applying for future jobs this initiative on your part will show potential employers that you are an asset to the workforce and willing to work hard for your job.

Self Esteem Building

Adding to your skills and making a place for yourself in the workplace is also great for your self esteem. You will feel as if you are a more valued employee and that your time is worth a lot to your company. Feeling secure and valued in your job is a priceless commodity.

These are by no means the only benefits for additional job training. As you can see adding to your skills is not only helpful to your company but also helps you build yourself into the person you’ve always known you can be.

 

 

Filed Under: Employee Relationships, Employees, Training Tagged With: , ,

Don’t Kiss and Tell at the Office

Office relationships can make a lot of trouble, even those who aren’t involved in the relationship. Romance at the office – or any workplace – can become public knowledge fast and rumors get started. Surprisingly it can make some people jealous and some even give preferential treatment to their lovers, while putting off people who deserve raises and promotions.
Remember this advice:
  • Find out what the company’s policy is on dating in the office. Many firms have a no fraternizing policy and will fire someone who dates within the office.
  • Don’t tell anyone about the relationship unless it’s solid. Telling others about dating someone just to break up in two months will only start rumors and gossip. If more than one person at the office has been dated, this also will start rumors and give the impression that the person is promiscuous.
  • Dating someone in the direct chain of command. This is just asking for favoritism. If someone dates a boss or manager, they should ask to be moved to a different department or manager so there’s no accusations of favoritism or conflict of interest.
  • Don’t hold hands, kiss, flirt, and especially don’t have sex in the office. Displays of affection can make others uncomfortable and even jealous.
  • Avoid posting about the relationship on social networks. We read all the time about people who got fired because of Facebook posts.
  • Send flowers or gifts to the person’s home, not the office.
  • Keep business and work separate. Don’t talk about the relationship at work and don’t give information about the lover or share fights. Few people can really keep a secret.
  • Don’t use company email to communicate love or sexy messages. Company email can be read by higher-ups and reveal things they shouldn’t know.
Just be professional and don’t create gossip about yourself. If the relationship doesn’t last, keep it quiet and don’t kiss and tell.
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Puff up Your Self Esteem for the Interview

A person’s image of themselves is a big part of their personality. Having low self esteem shows and can stop someone from getting a badly needed job. Low self esteem is seen in how the person stands, in their facial expressions and in their voice, and maybe their hands get shaky.
A good candidate for a job will demonstrate certain qualities, more than just the right training or schooling, because personality can play a big part in whether someone is chosen from a crowd. No employer wants someone who speaks quietly, keeps a very reserved body language going on, or doesn’t know the job. They’d much rather have someone with personality – a real person that can learn and grow with the company.
Demonstrating personality shouldn’t be a show of the person’s most outrageous behavior; in fact, employers usually won’t choose someone who is boisterous. But having an air of confidence in themselves goes a long way toward being chosen. The attitude about past experience should reveal skills they could bring to the current job.
Be Confident in Skills and Sit up Straight

Some people just aren’t made for some jobs, that’s true. A shy, introverted person barely musters up the volume for the interview, so applying for a job as a tour guide wouldn’t work. But, this shy person can have confidence in their skills and respond in kind to questions in a job they’re well suited for.
Body language can take a shy person to the top by sitting and standing in an attentive, confident manner.  Usually potential employers want to sit while they interview a person, so the applicant should sit straight, look the interviewer in the eye and lean forward just a bit to look more interested. Any speaker will respond to a good listener.
Try to appear confident, even if the insides are shaking.
Filed Under: Employee Relationships, Employees Tagged With: , , , , ,

Should the Boss be Friends With Staff?

Any relationship can be a struggle, but having a good rapport with a boss is important. Nobody wants to work for someone that acts like they don’t like them, but can they be friends? The old saying can be true, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”
Being friends with a coworker can strain the workplace, but being friends with a boss can be ruinous for the worker. Bosses shouldn’t know everything about their employees personally; it isn’t good practice because they can know too much and take it to work. Even though they can be a friend, bosses are better left out of the party.
A Certain Amount of Dignity is Expected

What if the worker does something the boss is offended by? Like, what if they drink a lot? The boss is going to think every time the person misses work that they’ve drunk too much and are hung-over. And likewise, the worker might expect the boss to cut them extra slack because they are friends. Neither situation works. And if it’s the boss who drinks too much, the employee will lose respect for them and it’ll show on the job. Not to mention others finding out about it and all of them losing respect for the boss, too.
If a boss is too indifferent, the employees will be left to interpret the silence themselves, and they won’t feel liked or appreciated for their work. They may feel disliked and work performance would then suffer from it, and gossip may well be started, too. So a boss shouldn’t be too distant, he should be able to get along with every person there.
The boss can’t get too close, but they shouldn’t stay at a distance, either. The right place is in the middle, where the boss can talk and joke with all the employees, being as human as they are, without overstepping boundaries of either extreme or learning too much about the people that work for them.
Filed Under: Employee Relationships, Employees Tagged With: , , ,

Some Things Should Never be Talked About at Work

At work everyone is expected to be professional, whether it’s for Goldman Sachs or Taco Bell. Certain things are not welcome in the workplace no matter how innocent the conversation might be. Sharing with a boss or coworkers can get someone into trouble, and possibly fired.
Here are a few things that never should be mentioned at work:
  • “Check out this rash.” Employees should never discuss personal medical maladies while at work. It could offend someone or frighten them into thinking everyone can catch it.
  • “If a woman calls, tell her I’ve left for the day.” Telling others to help avoid someone is offensive on two levels. They may wonder if it’s ever been done to them when they’ve called, and it alerts others to the fact of lying.
  • “Have you talked to the new guy? He’s a freekin moron!” Even if the others in the workplace feel the say way about the new guy, don’t let it be you who gets caught talking about him. And refrain from swearing or using words like “freekin;” maintain an air of professionalism.
  • “I have such a bad hangover…” People at work don’t need to know all the bad habits someone may have. Drinking to the point of being ill the next day is irresponsible. Plus, if it happens very often coworkers will think the person is possibly an alcoholic.
  • Don’t discuss pay! Work is no place to let people in on your financial fiascos. It looks bad on the person and most places have policies against this behavior. Nobody else needs to know what others make or how high their bills are. Divulging such information can lower a coworker’s opinion of the person doing the telling.
  • “Hey, I sent you a friend request on Facebook.” Unless the person leads a pristine life, having coworkers or bosses as friends on Facebook can be fatal for the job. We hear about it all the time; someone loses a job because of a Facebook post. People at work just might be getting too much information.
Filed Under: Employee Relationships, Employees Tagged With: , , , ,

Should You Allow Your Employees to Use the Internet?

The debate is raging in many offices regarding the use of the internet. We are in an age where it is almost impossible to function without access to the internet for a variety of purposes such as shipping, banking, ordering, and other functions vital to a business. So what happens when employees use the internet for purposes other than these required functions? Is it helpful or harmful to a business? It depends on how it is being used. In some situations it may be very helpful to employees.  For instance if an employee forgets that they needed to pay the electric bill or they were going to be disconnected they may spend their entire day stressed and make many errors because their mind is not on their duties. If they are able to simply get on the internet, pay their bill, and continue with their daily duties without fear of a reprimand it helps with employee morale. Yet, it is not so beneficial if the employee is simply getting on Facebook to update their status about how miserable they are or what they did for the weekend.

How does an employer find the balance between helpful and harmful? First expectations about the internet should be provided to employees in their employee handbook or guidelines. In today’s world it is very easy to determine where employees are going on the internet. Employers can determine whether the employee is simply trying to manage something in their life or simply goofing off. The United States Department of Labor did a survey in 2003 on internet usage at work and found that approximately 77 million individuals used the internet at work. By this point in time it is most certain that number has increased. The internet is not going to go away; therefore, it is up to employers to determine how it can be beneficial to their employees and manage misuse.

Filed Under: Business, Employee Relationships Tagged With: ,

Pet Peeves in the Office…Learning Some Manners for Office Gossip

In every office there is always either one person or a group of people who provide the daily scoop of office gossip. Although everyone at one time or another has participated in this grapevine of office politics, it can be very dangerous ground. When information is being spread from one corner of an office to another usually by the end it is stripped of almost all truth. In the process, damage can be done to not only the person of whom the gossip is about, but also to others who may get caught in the crossfire. When rumors are abound what can be done to reduce the collateral damage?

If the gossip is damaging to another person and it seems to be out of control it may be necessary to address the source of the gossip. If it is so widespread no one person can be determined as the source, management should decide on a method to best address the issue without causing further damage to the gossip’s subjects. There is no specific remedy for alleviating office gossip as the topics range from who is sleeping around to what business decisions are being made by management that are supposed to be confidential. Some situations may require simple consultations while others could even result in an employee’s termination if they are leaking confidential information.

As an employee who walks into the middle of a situation where gossip is being spread some courses of action can be taken.  The simplest solution is to simply walk away. If you just stay away from the gossip you will reduce your chances of getting caught in the tangled web of office rumors. If you cannot get out of the situation try not to take sides and keep in mind the information may not be correct. Management or your human resources department should be alerted to any harmful gossip circulating so they can try to protect the individuals involved.

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Help Your Employees Love Their Work

An important aspect of any work environment is the happiness of the workforce.  If the employee morale is low in an organization there is likely to have a high turnover rate.  With turnover there are many consequences that are detrimental to a business. First, when an individual leaves an organization it is often necessary to hire another person to fill the position. This requires the expense of the interviewing and hiring processes, the time and man hours of other employees to train a new individual, and the possibility that the new individual will not perform to the same standards.

So when you have a talented and productive group of individuals it is important to do your best as a company to ensure employee satisfaction.  This duty in larger organization is often the role of the human resources department, but in some organizations this is a duty of the managers. In an article by John R. Ryan in Bloomberg Businessweek he states that managers who show concern for the well being of their employees help in retention of these valuable resources. For a business, employees are usually the most valuable resource of the company.  Many companies are finding that in order to maintain this resource it is necessary to provide some sort of reward. This reward can come in a variety of forms. Whether the incentives for work are bonuses, time off or various perks from work, employees need to feel as if their company knows they are alive and cares about the work they do and lives they live.

Therefore, employers need to find methods to connect with their employees and determine how the work environment can be improved. Often companies will issue employee satisfaction surveys. These surveys can allow employees to voice their opinions on how to make the company a better place to work and often offer suggestions that can increase productivity. Whatever the method getting your employees involved can be very beneficial.

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Survival in the Office

The working environment of an organization can provide many obstacles to overcome and issues to handle. Between the demands of the workload and the variety of personalities to deal with in an office it can feel like walking through a field of landmines. How can an employer push employees to peak performance while balancing a healthy and positive work environment?  Many corporations are beginning to learn the importance of a good work environment.  For example, Forbes released a list of the best companies to work for and the number one company for 2010 is Facebook. Facebook received a 96% approval rating of its employees in a survey done on a survey of “work/life balance, career opportunities, communication, compensation and benefits, fairness and respect, employee morale, recognition and feedback, and senior leadership.” The company offers many benefits to their employees, but also offers a more laid back and open environment to the individuals who work for the company.

The old school way of doing business in Armani suits and pushing stuffy corporate procedures is gradually going the way of the dinosaur. Newer companies and even some of the older established companies are changing their way of thinking and becoming more flexible in the workplace to accommodate their employees. In this day and age it is difficult for many workers to manage work and life. Therefore, many companies are starting to offer perks such as flexible schedules, being able to work from home, daycare, better leave programs for new parents, and many other ways to help their employees manage their lives. If employees are constantly stressed about how they can get things accomplished in their personal life because of their work schedule it can reflect in their work.  So keep in mind that employees will produce better work with fewer mistakes if they aren’t stressed about how they are going to pick up little Johnny from daycare because you want them to work late.

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