Even though it’s the holidays, there’s no laziness allowed! Miss Manners is here to teach you how to keep your workplace manners in place – and how to deal properly with other people when they slack off.
Etiquette at work is important – for the very good reason that it sets you apart. Want a quick promotion? Follow these tips and tricks, and your boss will start to look at you as a class act.
- Always reply to emails and phone calls promptly and apologise when they aren’t.
- Follow the proper format in correspondence – whether it’s a simple ‘Yours Sincerely’ at the end of a letter, or a courteous greeting at the beginning. Cold requests in emails need to be personal, too. Never forget that, even if it’s just a simple email, it’s being read by a human being, and should have ‘hello’ as appropriate.
- If you can get up and talk to somebody two desks over rather than send an email, do it. You are not chained down. Human interaction shows respect, as long as they’re available to talk.
- Never use SMS abbreviations in any kind of work-related situation.
- Say hi to people in hallways, at water coolers, and on the way to the bathroom – or at the least smile and acknowledge them. You are not a robot charging from one place to the next.
- Try not to get drunk and act up at the office Christmas party. Memories about these events last for an uncomfortably long time.
- Avoid conflict unless it’s really necessary. If somebody’s being annoying – leaving their dirty cups in the sink, or stealing your pens – deal with it immediately, with humour and without aggression (passive or otherwise).
- If you’re the type to run your mouth and make quick-witted jabs, try to keep the tendency to a minimum around clients and co-workers with sensitive feelings.
- Have boundaries, but always be friendly – you can’t always be available 100% of the time, and you have the right to insist on professionalism and your own space. However, this is not Russia, so putting down your own Iron Curtain will not make you any friends.
- Muscling in on somebody else’s project, taking credit where it isn’t due, or undue arrogance are all poor form and deserve disdain.
- Wear the right office attire, and keep potentially annoying habits – chewing gum, rattling pencils, drumming your fingers – to yourself.
- Personal phone calls, texts and emails are all pretty much verboten if they’re disturbing anybody else or cutting sorely into company time.
- Don’t act like you own the place – unless you do, and don’t want anybody to be able to stand working for you.
Yours Sincerely,
Miss Manners
