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New jobs proverbs
Your first few days:
- Understand completely what your company does for a living. Be preparing to provide a thirty-second overview to anyone who asks, from your friends to your grandma to your next-door neighbor.
- Understand your function in contributing to the bottom line of the company. Conserve your eyes (and your career) centered on the big picture rather than on your own little cube.
- Take a copy of your company’s most recent annual report and read it cover to cover (if you haven’t already). Read all of it. Then read it again.
- Use a conservative clothing or above the conservative median within the company. You should always speak louder than your clothes.
- Keep in your mind the names of those to whom you are introduced. In your first few days on the job, jot down names until you remember them. They only have to remember one new name, while you will have multiples.
- Take the time to understand your company benefits plan. Don’t wait until you need to use one of the benefits to understand it.
- Individualize your work area, but not too personal. Frame your degree and hang it on the wall. Put a small figure on your desk. Get a nameplate so everyone will know who you are.
- If your employer offers the option, have your paycheck set up for direct deposit. It will save you the time and hassle of depositing each paycheck and will give you quicker access to your money.
The daily routine:
- Review what you require to execute that day during your morning commute.
- If you can take public transportation to the office, do it. It not only conserves energy, but also obtains you time to read. Always have beneficial work-related and professional development reading materials with you. And no, the daily paper does not qualify.
- If you drive to work, get in the habit of “reading” books on CD or iPod. It's amazing how much reading you can accomplish over the course of a year.
- Always have a notepad or pocket organizer with you. If you drive to work, acquire a windshield-attached notepad. Get in the habit of writing down both your brilliant thoughts and daily reminders as they occur to you. Otherwise, you may lose them forever.
- Be a morning person. You should always be on time.
- Plan your day. Ten to twenty minutes in the morning will equal an extra hour or more of productivity throughout the day.
- Created a routine only where it augments personal productivity; don't get into the rut of doing something only as part of a standard routine. Make sure everything you do have a value add.
- Be the first person to say “Hello” to others in the morning. And say it with a smile.
- Never leave a half cup of coffee in the coffee maker for the next person. Always make a fresh pot.
- Have a toothbrush and breathe mints in your desk for bad breath emergencies. And remember, just because you can't smell your breath doesn't mean it's sweet and clean.
- Keep an additional shirt or blouse, pressed and boxed, in your car or tucked away in your workspace. Also estimate having an extra tie or an extra pair of nylons available at the ready. You will need them; it's just a matter of time.
- Always look your aspect in the mirror before leaving the washroom. If it's windy or raining on your way in, stop at the washroom on the way to your workspace.
- Arrive at meetings on time. Have extra work so that you can pass the time with while you are waiting for others.
- Don't doodle or daydream at meetings. If topics being covered are outside of your area, take out your pocket planner and review what you need to accomplish that day.
- Eat lunch in. You will save both time and money. Even just $8 per lunch eating out (and it can easily be quite a bit more) adds up to $4,000 per year. Plus it's healthier to bring your own. Use a resealable lunch container and bring last night's leftovers or soup or pasta. And as a by-product, you will often be viewed as a hard worker for consistently staying in when others are going out.
- If you do go out for lunch, make it work related. Take others in your company out to lunch to learn more about their jobs and their departments. Let them do the talking. You do the listening.
- Go for a brisk walk each day. Park at the far end of the lot in the morning. Or stretch your legs during lunch. It will clear your mind and make you more productive for the remainder of the day.
Work ethics:
- Establish a solid ethical line and never cross it. Particularly when others are encouraging you to do so.
- Integrity sold cannot be repurchased. Do not permit yours to go on the trading block, for there will always be a ready buyer.
- Integrity means doing what is right, even if it is unpopular, unfashionable, and unprofitable. Certainly, particularly when it is unpopular, unfashionable, and unprofitable.
- Develop a reputation for honesty and integrity. If you have failed in these areas in the past, your new job is an opportunity to start fresh. It is a reputation you must earn over time. And live up to that reputation at all times, at work and everywhere else.
- Don't use profanity, even when others do.
- Never tell dirty jokes, racist jokes, or sexist jokes. And simply walk away from those who attempt to share them with you.
- Don't lie, cheat, or steal, even when the temptation is great, stand for honesty and integrity in all you do, and you will be amazed how far it sets you above your peers.
- Make good on your promises. If you are not sure you can deliver, don’t promise.
- If you are not sure, don’t do it. That’s your conscience talking. Listen closely.
- Always seek the good in others, and they will be more likely to find it in you.
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