Five things you should know about how to behave at work!

Five things you should know about how to behave at work!

You’ve been a student for at least twelve years of your life, more if you’ve studied further after matric. Now it’s time to join the business world.

You will need to make some adjustments to fit into the business world. Depending on where you’re going to be working and how non-conformed you are, these could be big changes.

Here are some of the adjustments you may need to make for the world of business:

1. Your appearance: You will need to look neat. Unless you’re a repairman in a steamy basement, you will be dealing with customers and other important stakeholders. Find out what the dress code for the company is and be sure to conform to it. Even if it’s pretty laid back, always pay attention to neatness.
2. Punctuality: Now, you get paid by the hour, even if you earn a lump sum monthly salary. Be on time for meetings and definitely be on time for work. Don’t abuse company time on personal calls or chores. Unless social media is a part of your job, don’t access it while at work. Always meet your deadlines. When absolutely unavoidable, communicate with your boss if you know you won’t be able to meet a deadline, way in advance, and negotiate a new deadline.
3. Attitude to work: You rolled your eyes up when your parents asked you to clean up your room, you dismissed your lecturers when they told you to work hard and pay attention, you passed by the skin of your teeth and you generally try not to take on too much. That’s got to change! Now, you need a ‘can do’ attitude. It’s not about letting someone abuse your goodwill, it’s about proving you’re worth keeping around.
4. Attitude to learning: You’ve done the basics, you’ve qualified to enter the working world. Now, you need to earn your stripes. This means you need keep learning and getting better and better at what you do. If you stop learning, you will soon become redundant.
5. Skip the politics: Don’t get involved in the skinnering and the backstabbing. Just do your work, get on with everyone and always speak to and treat people professionally, regardless of whether they’re the CEO or the cleaner. Remember, at work your colleagues are just that, they’re not buddies. Keep the weekend talk for the weekend and interact with them the same way you interact with other colleagues.

Professionalism is the opposite of amateurism. This implies that you need to work at refining your behaviour, based on good examples at work, until you’re happy that you’re portraying the image you want others to associate with you.