Are you looking forward to your first day working in your new job? Below are six tips to help you kick things off on the right footing in renewable energy jobs.
Have A Personal Brand
Every time you go for a job interview, it is best to remember that you represent yourself as a personal brand. Uphold the same principle on your first day on the job and throughout your employment. Leverage all interaction opportunities to prove you are professional, diligent, and respectful. Such elements make your colleagues view you as a person they would enjoy spending office hours with.
Whether it is your first department meeting, a seat with the manager, or the company’s happy hour with your workmates, they are a chance to learn and grow as you represent yourself positively.
Trust And Rewards Are Earned
Some employers bombard recruits with job demands on their first day or week of work. They have stringent standards and expectations regarding work schedules and how tasks must be handled. Therefore, it is best to tread lightly. Take time to understand the work culture and strive to prove yourself by arriving on time and giving your best to every job. It is a strategy that helps build trust, and you are bound to enjoy more leniency as you execute your duties.
Set Healthy Boundaries
Setting boundaries can help ensure you do not feel like people are invading your space. It is worth doing early on because it makes known to others what you find acceptable and unacceptable regarding work. For instance, you can clarify how late or for how many hours in a day you are willing to work and the level of “personal’ you are willing to get when interacting with coworkers.
Also, it is best not to shy away from saying “no” but do so when it is appropriate. The objective is to let it be known that you have a life outside of work that you expect your employer or manager to appreciate and respect. Rushing to respond to every email your boss sends can see you do the same over the weekend, which unwittingly might suggest that you are comfortable working even on the weekends.
Mind Your Business
You are likely to make yourself look bad if you try to poke your nose into work matters that do not concern you. Workplaces can be tangled environments where you have people who are genuine friends and those who are pretending to be friends. Office gossip is not uncommon and often among a particular clique of employees. It is best to steer clear of such groups when starting and focus on your work.
Ideally, some situations might require your involvement. However, it would be wise to avoid anything unethical as these are often marred by bullying or harassment and can negatively impact your workplace productivity.
Pick Office Battles Wisely
Disagreements are common in most office settings because people of different backgrounds interact in one place. Hence, brace yourself to deal with numerous concerns, frustrations, and challenges. It will help if you learn to discern between what you can deal with and the issues you can move on from or overlook.
Exercise Time Management Skills From The Start
Your work duties or responsibilities will start piling up after you begin your job and you are coming to terms with various things in the corporate world. On the flip side, you also have personal items and needs you must address. Situations can become overwhelming if you do not have strategies for how to manage your time. It is where your time management skills become essential to help you set priorities, maintain a do-list for daily tasks, and schedule your duties in time blocks to help you complete them in an orderly manner.
Also, leave some room to say no to some things without erasing them from your work schedule, but rather set them aside temporarily. You can opt to share such tasks with your coworkers and develop a completion date. It is a strategy that helps you get work done while managing expectations. Moreover, it helps build a culture where you or your workmates are not afraid of asking for help when setting priorities when work projects start piling up.
In some situations, you might be asked to handle jobs that are not within your skill level or employment scope. You might have to find a way to request your boss to reassign such tasks. It is a polite way of saying “no” to something you know you cannot handle and will keep you from getting stressed or overwhelmed by such job requests. Never allow yourself to be a doormat. In the same spirit, allow yourself to let go of non-essential things. Also, consider finding alternative ways of handling tasks, like hiring someone to clean your house so that you have more time to focus on your office work.