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Office Newbies

Jub

09:46 / 25.02.04

I've forgotten what it's like to be the new kid at work, as I've been here sometime. A new lad has started today, another will be next Monday and yet another the month after. I want to make them as relaxed as possible, without being too fussy.

From either side, advice welcome: new employee being welcomed and old employee welcoming...
Can anyone remember nice things people have done to help them settle in? Any tips - above and beyond just being nice?

Bear

09:49 / 25.02.04

I'm terrible when I start a new job (although I haven't done it much thankfully) - Getting drink with the new team always seems to help me, I can relax so much more with someone after I've been drunk with them. Not suggesting you buy them a bottle of vodka but maybe a works night out, if you do that sort of thing?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:56 / 25.02.04

Kinda with bear on this one- guess it depends on your work environment, but if you tend to go out drinking with your workmates- even if it's not until the end of the week- make sure he/she is invited. Personally. Just an assumption that they're coming along as part of the work team doesn't count- actually ask them in person. A personal invitation usually does the trick. Even a refusal can lead to a conversation about stuff other than work, which lets them know you aren't just thinking of them as a drone. Which works wonders towards making people feel more comfortable in their place of work.

If that's not the case, I have no advice, cos I've only ever had jobs where it was.

Olulabelle

10:09 / 25.02.04

Show them somewhere good to go for lunch, because lunchtimes are always horrid in new places when you don't know anyone. And don't gossip. Not that I imagine for a minute you do, but nothing makes you feel more uncomfortable than hearing office gossip when you are new.

The Puck

10:11 / 25.02.04

just be approachable, the worse thing is having a problem and not knowing who to ask without pissing off to much.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:27 / 25.02.04

olulabelle's right, too. Lunch is important. (I forget that now I work nights.)

Squirmelia

10:29 / 25.02.04

Show them around: where the toilets are, where the shower is, where to get coffee, what the options are for lunch, what their email address is and how to set it up, where the chill-out room is, where to smoke, how to work the phone or where the nearest phone is, what mailing lists to join and how, what to do if they have a letter they want to post, where to get stationary from, who exactly they should be reporting to, where the meeting rooms are.. I would have liked it if people at my company had done these things. After a few years, I still seem to be finding some of them out, because no-one told me!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:29 / 25.02.04

Puck's also right... though it's difficult to let people know you're approachable until they've actually had a conversation with you.

(For what it's worth... one of my best friends now is someone who was the first person who talked to me without actually HAVING TO as part of his job at my first full-time job...)

HCE

14:57 / 25.02.04

Not to be a wet blanket, but perhaps scope them out first. What if you go out of your way to be friendly to somebody who ends up being a prick you can't get rid of? If they seem nice though, they might appreciate being given a breakdown of which pitfalls to avoid (for example, don't talk to Boss X before she's got a staff meeting, she's always in a wretched mood). How I wish somebody had told me those things.

gingerbop

00:01 / 26.02.04

My last job, my supervisor introduced me to the girl I shared the department with (though I already knew her): "This is emily, she'll show you the ropes" and she did tell me pretty much all of the afforementioned things that squirmelia and fred said.

But because one of us needed to be there all the time, she never showed me the staff-canteen, and although I knew where it was, it was too daunting to go up into it myself. So the first time I went in there was about 2 months after I began.
Take them in there- have lunch with them.

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