Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.
10 Great Tips on How Not to Be the Obnoxious Newcomer in Your New Workplace
businessweek.com — You've just joined a new company and are all fired up to change things —stat. While your enthusiasm is commendable, you might want to proceed slowly at first. It's too easy for your helpful (and very possibly dead-on) observations and suggestions to be seen as criticisms and demands. Read on for tips on how not to be the obnoxious newcomer.
zaibatsu- 646 diggs
- digg it
- secretwhistle, on 10/11/2007, -7/+67"Hey, guys! I know I haven't been here long but I think we could use a new comment system!"
- hansonc, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6Where on earth would someone find an example of a good system to copy? Come on it's only 2007 and slashdot has only had a usable comment system since 1997. You don't expect this "web 2.0" thing to work as well as "web 1.0" do you
- DopeWeasel, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1/me wonders what newbie designed this 'refined' comment system.
...people still know IRC commands right? Damn I'm getting old.
- tinker123, on 10/11/2007, -3/+20I think cranky and spiteful old timers are a more frequent occurrence than obnoxious newcomers. I seem to come across one in every new department I work for. They all have several chips ont their shoulders and it shows in the way they talk.......like cranky old men or embittered divorcees talking about their ex-spouse.
Hey guys.......nobody wants to hear it. If you don't like your job........quit- cliffzdude, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4*Every* new department you work for? Are you certain you aren't the obnoxious ass who the article speaks of? Might just be that you experience at least one in every new department you work for because you manage to bring out the negative side in those who are more able and more experienced than you.
- tinker123, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Hey.......you kids, get off of my lawn!!!!!!!!!!
- tinker123, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I found the bitter tone of your reply interesting as we both know nothing about each other and there is no reason in the world for you to take my message in any kind of personal way.
Could it be that you saw a bit of yourself in my comment?
Settle your issues with your job.
- cliffzdude, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4*Every* new department you work for? Are you certain you aren't the obnoxious ass who the article speaks of? Might just be that you experience at least one in every new department you work for because you manage to bring out the negative side in those who are more able and more experienced than you.
- WhoTheWhat, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1I tell you what, I sure love hearing my co-worker fighting with their ex-spouse over who gets the hose (i really do mean hose, not house). Gotta appreciate the old angry people in the office
- Error601, on 10/11/2007, -10/+4If you're a newcomer with less than 10 years experience...just STFU because you don't know what you're doing yet despite your illusions of expertise.
- xtmno3, on 10/11/2007, -0/+15I hope you are speaking in binary there and mean two years and not ten. If the only people who spoke up were the ones who did the same job for over ten years, the only input you would get on things is how to continue doing things the exact same way.
- tinker123, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I appreciate the spirit of your thoughts, but not the letter.
Experience, time spent in a job, doesn't always equal learning or improved judgment. People can and do stop learning, doing the same things over and over again for years.
OTOH your advice might good to the letter as well as the spirit. Such departments and companies are stuck in their ways and a newcomer will not jolt them out. Looking first and speaking last will help a new hire learn if this is the situation sooner rather than later. If that is the case s/he can decide to leave, wasting less of their time if they care about job satisfaction. - Error601, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1No, ten is a minimum. I never said those years were spent doing the same job as that's someone that likely killed off their career right at the start. It takes that long just to see how ideas that work initially and are easy to do end up as an unmaintainable legacy everyone wants to get rid of but costs too much to replace.
- Jo9100, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1/sarc
- Resilient, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Great article! I love how it outlines both points of views — newcomer and old school members of staff.
- DeskFlyer, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6The last one is probably the most underrated tip of them all:
"Ask for feedback"
Very useful for preventing future ass-chewings. :) - Paktu, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3711. Make sure to put the cover sheets on all TPS reports before they go out. Be sure to ask for another copy of that memo.
- roadtripper, on 10/11/2007, -0/+712. Bring food.
- OMGWTFROFLMAOx2, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7you'd be surprised at how far a dozen chocolate covered dunkin donuts every once in a while will take your office rep. I had a manager who used to do this at least once every other weak. She was, to this date, the best manager I've ever had..or at least it seemed like it. Donuts have a tendency to skew one's perspective of another person :)
- Bishoco, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1No doubt. At my last job, I was a young guy working with predominantly older women. I have this great brownie "recipe" (Trader Joe's Chocolate Truffle Brownie Mix) that I would make for potlucks and sometimes just randomly. Those ladies were crazy for those brownies. I got lots of (forgive me) brownie points. Find some specialty or go to Trader Joe's for some brownie mix and your cred at the office goes way up.
- OMGWTFROFLMAOx2, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7you'd be surprised at how far a dozen chocolate covered dunkin donuts every once in a while will take your office rep. I had a manager who used to do this at least once every other weak. She was, to this date, the best manager I've ever had..or at least it seemed like it. Donuts have a tendency to skew one's perspective of another person :)
- Pingspikette, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8I suggest giving everyone pet names.. You know.. Girl with Big Butt... Or Smelly Guy
- hebleb, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Big Tuna
- NachoBusiness, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Ehhh I suspect some of the people in this thread saying obnoxious newcomers aren't a real problem are in fact, obnoxious newcomers themselves.
Like it or not it helps to make a good impression. Workplaces form cliques and it's easy for an "annoying" newcomer to run afoul of them. The most important thing is to just not be arrogant or try to impress people... just find out what you're supposed to do, and do it. That seems to be the message of the article... but some people will never get that. - mattxb, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Just relax and do your job wherever you work. Unless you are in management, getting involved in office politics and policies outside of your authority is just taking on extra work that you're not getting paid for.
- Error601, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I suppose if you never want to advance that's okay. First establish yourself as being able to get a job done with extremely high quality, and then get involved in the decision making process. High quality means you sweat every detail and not slop something together that just makes requirements.
- mattxb, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I'm sure its different everywhere you work, but at places I've been the people who just follow orders, don't complain, and (perhaps most importantly) are friendly with the higher ups seem to get promoted. I guess its a thin line between getting involved in the decision making process and complaining about the way things are done, because your higher ups won't appreciate it if you bring up ideas in a way that stresses them out. I know what you mean though, and my advice is for people like me who are looking for a job and not a career.
- Error601, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I suppose if you never want to advance that's okay. First establish yourself as being able to get a job done with extremely high quality, and then get involved in the decision making process. High quality means you sweat every detail and not slop something together that just makes requirements.
- ArthurSucks, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I just wish my new boss would have read this.
- Happy_Phantom, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Print it and leave it on boss' desk when boss isn't looking.
- TangibleInsight, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0I really enjoyed this article, very insightful. I'll be remembering this information for the day I graduate college :).
- thredden, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12i just started a new job today...
man did i ***** that up - ronaldinho, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I think this article just deals with the most extreme of the newcomers......as long as you are willing to be a team player, you will be fine. Companies never intend to hire robots, you will make an impact eventually once you fit in and if you got the brains
- samuelcotterall, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2My best piece of advice would be not to voice your opinions about your new colleagues until you know them, they know you and you have proved yourself.
I've seen it so many times, and not just in employment, where one guy might be very confident and assume that those he gets on with rate him higher than someone else:
"That John guy is completely incompetent!"
"Er, actually, he's our most qualified programmer and always gets the first round in on a Friday". - cronian, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2What is wrong with being obnoxious? What if you don't want to be well-liked at work?
- Mikecol, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1In that case, just ignore the advice in the article.
- ghaltmann, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1I disagree with this article.
Yes you should get to know your co-workers. No, you shouldn't imply they're doing everything wrong. But you know what? Why did they hire you? To maintain the status quo? I just started a new position in an IT dept. Yes everyone's helpful and I've learned a ton from the others around me. Do I think they have workable systems? NO. There are so many things wrong with what's being done I HAVE to constantly push for improvement. Many times, I bring a point up to a co-worker "hey you know what, this XXXX blows we should change it." and they agree, but they just never did anything about it.
What ever happened to the fast moving corporate ladder? I guess some people just don't want to be noticed.- celkin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"this XXXX blows"
Stop looking at p0rn and get back to work!
- celkin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"this XXXX blows"
- magamiako, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0Simple answer to all of this:
Go in business for yourself. No, really.
I'm the type of guy that examines how things work and then prefers to offer fixes and improvements. I've been above my ex boss' heads quite a few times when it comes to working on projects and getting things done that need to get done. Putting things on the plate, getting fixes out there. Things I didn't get paid for but were so broken that if they weren't fixed would stress my job and my colleagues' in my department's jobs 1000x harder for absolutely no reason when there was a simple technological fix to the entirety of the situation.
Overall, my fix would have improved customer service, reduced customer frustration, improved customer satisfaction, improved worker satisfaction, and decrease the costs of the company.
Then I realized when I got out of there: It's very clear that I'm not the type of person to work within the "corporate culture" idea. So clearly when it comes to what I do, a job where I get to make most of the decisions will clearly be a better fit. - gui3, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1there should be a caveat to this story - if you're in a place for a while, you often notice that people hold on to inefficient habits just because that's how they've always done it, and are very resistant to change. then it's worth raising your voice - in the right way
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by