The First 60 Days of Your New Job Are Critical
The first weeks of a new psychology job can be tough.
From new faces to unfamiliar technology, the amount of potential pitfalls is daunting at best and utterly terrifying at worst. While most new employees take the ‘focus and forget it’ approach, a growing number are opting to spend their first days talking with their new employers, networking with their colleagues, and rapidly adapting to speed the transition.
It’s behavior that, in many ways, can significantly speed up the process of adapting to a new office environment. The stoic silent approach may lead to a seamless integration, but it has the potential to leave important information on workplace culture untouched and ignored.
Over time, those missed tips grow into major annoyances, increasing the transition time for new hires and transferred staff.
Keep these four tactics in mind as you move into your new job and you’ll see an instant change in the way staff adapt to your presence. From communications clear-ups to suggestions for your own on-the-job education, these four tips, tricks, and tactics can help you slip seamlessly into a new job and produce results from your first day in the office.
Clear up communications faux pas and email pitfalls.
Every office has a different email policy. Some prefer to keep all business communications to the email inbox, while others are more liberal with organizing projects over the phone. Before you go head first into your next major project, consult your bosses and coworkers on how best to keep in touch during the day. Be sure to take note of any special communication or organizational quirks.
Establish your major goals in advance.
It’s important to establish your major on-the-job goals in advance, particularly during your learning period as a new hire. Speak with your boss and work out which goals should be pushed to the front of your schedule and which can wait until later. It’s best to focus on relatively few goals in the first few months, as you’ll be adapting to a new workplace and learning to work with new colleagues.
Tell your colleagues and bosses how you like to work.
While it’s important not to come off as selfish or difficult to work with, it’s equally important that you explain any special requirements to your colleagues and bosses in your early days. If you like to work independently on certain tasks, explain so to your coworkers to ensure that projects don’t end up compromised in two months.
A quick one-off chat can save hours of discussion in the future.
Ask stupid questions.
Got a stupid question about your software? Ask it now, before it becomes an embarrassing question further down the line.
While you may feel like a fool asking for help preparing a fax or printing to a remote machine, getting basic questions out of the way in your first few days saves you ever hiding them from your coworkers. Enjoy your period of relative free questions, for it doesn’t always last.
