Now, what was your first thought when you read the title of this blog? Be honest. I’m sure more than one of you uttered “WTF” under your breath. Truth of the matter is, Philip is fat. He’s a fat, fictional baby that is depicted on NBC’s The Office, which happens to be one of my favorite television shows.
Flipping through my desk calendar of quotes from The Office, I read the comical interchange to the left. Yes, I may have snorted. Yes, a coworker may have heard me and chuckled. Oh well, I’m new here. Who cares? Right? Wrong.
This interchange reminded me of a few blunders I’ve made in the past when communicating with coworkers and/or friends. I bet we’ve all had more than one “Damn You Auto-Correct” moments thanks to our trusty smart phones.
Why have I chosen to write about this topic? Honestly, I thought it was funny and too good of an opportunity to pass up in reminding people how important first impressions are. See, I just started a new job recently and I have an impression to make. While I am not worried, I do think about assimilating into my new role and employer strategically. I need to be able to quickly gain the trust of my new team and demonstrate why I was hired above all other candidates. I need to do all this while being authentic to myself. The last thing I need to do is set off some red flags and get the wagons circling.
Now, share with us some thoughts. What are some other things someone starting in a new job should not overlook? I’m sure all of us have had some interesting on-boarding experiences. Share the wealth! What happened? What did you learn? Did it change how you handle yourself in any way?
Stephen Harrison is currently the Social Media Director for the HR Florida State Council. He tweets under the handles @hrflorida and @stevemgharrison. Aside from his volunteer role with SHRM, Stephen is a tech-savvy, results-driven people manager with an over eight year track record of delivering a strong human resources agenda in the civil service, education, information technology, benefits administration and energy services sectors, encompassing small private sector companies with 30 employees to large public sector companies with 7,000+ employees.
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