Anisa Jibrell – Special to the Southern News
Having a job lined up for you after college can be an exhilarating feeling. While your fellow colleagues are jumping through rings of fire to land an interview, you’re in bed browsing the internet for trendy suits.
But often times a student will forget that there’s still some cleaning and tweaking that needs to be done. Here’s a list of good habits to develop and ways to get workplace-ready to avoid embarrassing yourself in front of your future co-workers and employers.
1.) Get rid of the cutesy email address that you’ve had since seventh grade if you haven’t already
Letting go of this piece of your past can be a difficult, but no one is going to take you seriously if your email address is pokemongurl763@aol.com. Keep it simple and try to include your first and last name if you can. You want to be memorable, but not in that kind of way.
2.) Avoid dishing out private details about your life on social media
Having a social media footprint is important, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be an open book. No good can come from your coworkers or supervisors finding out about the dirty little details of your life, and Oprah isn’t going to give you a book deal for being honest and transparent. It’s a lose lose situation. Keep the meaningless banter to a minimum, or just put your profile on private or lock your tweets.
3.) Be friendly
Being friendly to people is imperative and it adds a positive element to relationships, but more importantly generates positivity around you. If you are unfriendly at work, people will dislike you and distrust you. Since you’re going to be at work most of the time, it’s basically your second home, and being friendly promotes a healthier environment. If you are unfriendly to your co-workers, you’ll suck the life out of them and you’ll forever be known as the dark cloud and no one will want to be around you. Work is already stressful enough so don’t add fuel to the fire with negative comments.
4.) Don’t mix business with pleasure
That goes without saying in any work environment, whether it’s your part-time job or career. Dating in the workplace is a recipe for disaster. Even if there is a chance it might work out and both of you will live happily ever after, it’s not worth it. If it doesn’t work out, one of you will be hurt and it’ll create an uncomfortable atmosphere for both of you and you’ll regret going down that path. There are 7.125 billion people on this planet, is dating your co-worker really worth it?
5.) Punctuality is key
Make it a habit to show up 20 minutes before your regular in-time. Some employers don’t care what you have to bring to the table, if can’t even be there on time. In the 2011 National Association of Manufacturers survey, 40 percent of employers cited, “inadequate basic employability skills” as a reason for why they can’t hire and keep workers. Bottom line, punctuality shows bad character. So be on time and don’t give your co-workers a reason to bad-mouth you, and be fabulous.
6.) Turn off your phone at work
As much as you may think you’re confident in your multitasking skills, perusing social media at work is not a good look. Twitter isn’t going to disappear while you’re at work, it’ll be there when you get home. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get to tweet your friend back; he or she will understand. Give your work your full, undivided attention.
Photo Credit: Phil Whitehouse
