{The infamous Adbusters bathroom. Out of the five years I worked there, I was pretty scared to use this throne for the first 2 years.}
I am starting a new job today! I am gutted to leave my current job, but a wonderful opportunity has come my way and I have to take it (although they know I will eternally love them and continue to send them emails full of funny dog videos).
The LAST first day of work I had at a new company, I didn’t eat, drink, or go to the bathroom for the entire 10 hour day. I literally did not MOVE from my chair. I actually didn’t realize for the whole first week that our office had a kitchen!
So this time around, I’ve written three short rules to make sure I don’t starve or embarrass myself right off the bat:
1. Figure out how to use the PHONE, EMAIL, and the location of the BATHROOM first and foremost. These are office basics, and won’t make you feel like such a nob for knowing nothing. Everything else can slowly be learned over time.
2. Don’t be shy to ask directly, “what is the lunch culture here?” It seems like kind of a silly question, but you need to know if people all bring lunch, or go out. If they eat at their desks or some communal table. Lunch is the key to making friends, and not starving during the work day.
3. Last but not least, don’t worry if you are not your witty-self or displaying your normal level of hilarious banter. It’s really hard to be funny when you are nervous and meeting lots of new people, so just know that once you get more comfortable all your bang-on jokes will come flooding back.
I hope I can take my own advice!
