Starting a new job is a scary prospect regardless of how much experience you have and how well you know the people you will be joining. You might not be the only one who is nervous about your first day though. The hiring manager who gave the green light to get you on board is worried to see how you will work out – It might be only your first day but people are not afraid to make snap decisions. Your new colleagues might be worried how you will fit into the office culture – Will you take offense to the types of jokes people have been telling each other of the personal habits you might bring that they could find annoying. Everybody in the office has personal habits and quirks and when you spend a significant portion of your day with these people it is natural to find some of them annoying eventually and a new starter means new quirks to get used to!!
From the new starters prospective everything is worrying them – will they do something the annoy one of their new found colleagues, will they cost the business money because they do something wrong or simple make the hiring manager think they hired the wrong person and tell them thanks but no thanks! The author found this out for them self’s when they started their first ever full time job, promptly called several Senior Manager’s by the wrong name, turned away an important delivery that then didn’t arrive for another week and knocked over a pile of papers that had been carefully organised over several hours!! Not the best first impression, but it is only a first impression. You will be surprised how much more comfortable you feel after just a few days or even a week especially if you find out off office hobbies that you have in common with you new colleagues – even if is a visit to the pub!!
A new manager or someone in a position of authority is always an unsettling time, even scary for people who have never gone through the process before. In retail this is a regular occurrence and you can get used the situation very quickly but in other industries and fields this doesn’t happen very often and people do not know what to expect. Will the person who joining and taking control and change the way things are done will they change the dress code or even decide that some people are not up to the job and get rid of them!? All of these fears can be overridden by the assurances of other senior members of the team and a week of working with the new manager.
It has been know, on the rarest occasion, of someone not starting a new job that they had been interviewed for, offered and accepted because they are simple to nervous to start with the new company and return to their old job as they know what to do and the people they work with. From a hiring managers point of view you can reduce everybody’s fears by keeping them informed of the situation and even inviting the new employee to your next staff social so they can mingle with their new colleagues before they officially start the job. How much less stressful would it be reduced by starting a first day and joining a team who you have already met and spent a couple of hour chatting to in the pub?
