Getting a new job and joining a new team is always a bit exciting. You never know what to expect or how to behave properly. In addition, almost every second person at a job interview claims that a cohesive and supportive team is very important to him. Yes, this is understandable – in addition to the fact that you need to do your chosen job, you will have to spend 40 hours a week side by side with colleagues. If there is no mutual understanding between people, then in the end you will experience severe discomfort.
Let’s share with you five tips on how to find a common language with colleagues in a new workplace as quickly as possible and at the same time feel comfortable.
Get ready
Your relationship with the company and the team will not begin at all on the first working day, when you enter the company’s doors with a cake for newly minted colleagues, but as soon as you think about it and decide to apply for this vacancy. Today, it is completely normal in the labor market and even to some extent necessary to conduct preparatory work about the company that you are interested in as an employer. If you are the winner in the fight for this position, then you should not rest on your laurels. Start preparing for a meeting with the team: check the contact list on the home page and find out if there is anyone you know among them. It would be great to see familiar faces or names from the very beginning. Try to understand what colleagues like to do after work, maybe there are common topics for discussion. For example, you can go to the company’s social media page and view photos taken at various events.
Communicate with new colleagues and be open
Joining a new team, of course, you would like, as if by magic, to know how and with whom to communicate and who likes what. It would be cool if, on your first day at work, someone handed you a notebook or e-mailed you a document with characteristics for all your colleagues. But since such dreams are utopian (although the idea is great!), then you will have to learn to get to know each other and cooperate – just like in any other relationship. Do not forget that you will initially be a dark horse for your colleagues, and they may also feel a little embarrassed in your presence.
In order for mutual communication to start “on the wrong foot,” be ready to talk about yourself and at the same time observe from the outside how other colleagues communicate with each other and how they react to different things.
Be conscientious and don’t be afraid to take responsibility
There is no need to rush headlong and try to prove to everyone that you are the best – you have already been hired, expecting that you will cope with the tasks assigned to you. It is much more important to show your superiors and colleagues that they can rely on you – if you have promised, then you will certainly do it.
Ask for help and help yourself
It is perfectly normal, when starting work in a new place, not to know something – you are learning, and this is an integral part of the business. You will have to have the courage to ask for help so that you do not get into a puddle and do not get stuck in one place.
Moreover, to join a new team, you need to be ready to help others. Try to use every free minute to ask your colleagues how you can help them. Who knows, maybe someone needs an interlocutor with whom they can discuss a solution to the problem, or someone cannot formulate a response to the client’s request in any way. Be ready to help, do the job flawlessly and soon win the favor of your colleagues.
Have lunch with your colleagues
They say that eating together brings people closer together. Lunch is the best way to exchange thoughts, emotions and talk about yourself, not about work. To get used to a new place as quickly as possible, find out how the employees of your department are used to spending lunch time, and offer to keep them company.
