Work Etiquette and Making a Good Impression

The guy in the cubicle on one side of you insists on sharpening his pencil every five minutes (or so you are convinced). In the meantime, the woman who sits in the cubicle on the other side of you is equally as strange. You've stolen glances at her on occasion and caught her pulling pieces of tape from the scotch tape dispenser and...eating it! Suddenly, you're beginning to wonder whether or not you work in an office anymore or in a special office building where everyone around you has obsessive compulsive disorder.

While some people may simply have weird habits, there seems to be an extremely fine line between what is considered weird, normal and downright rude. All of this ties into something called work etiquette. I (quite foolishly, I might add) used to think that what would seem like common knowledge to me would be common knowledge to the next person. For instance, when you know that you are going to a job interview at a company, don't you think that you would want to put your best foot forward and work a little hard to make a good impression? From the time you write your resume and cover letter and send it off to the moment you walk through the door for a job interview, you always want to present your best self to show potential employers the kind of person that they want to hire.

What I have since discovered is that there are an alarmingly large number of people floating around out there who don't even have the first clue about work etiquette. I remember reading through resumes for job positions that others had applied for within my company and being appalled at the grammatical errors, inability to follow directions and improper formatting all around. Needless to say, these people were NOT called in for a job interview.

When I was in college, I remember going to several job fairs as well as a career class that was geared towards helping us understand the interview process as well as what most employers were looking for from applicants for various positions. We learned how to write a resume in the proper format as well as how to meet and greet job prospects. I'm not saying that every person should have to go through this type of training, but it would certainly help them in the long run where work etiquette is concerned. All of that aside, if you work in an environment where there are other people, always make sure that you shower; but be careful not to shower yourself down with too much perfume or cologne because as nice as you think it may smell, you may secretly be drowning out your co-workers. Also, depending on the time of year, it may be considered especially inconsiderate to those who suffer from allergies. Keep phone calls to a minimum, and if you are in the middle of doing work, ignore the phone call until you finish your work and can give a quick call. It may also help to let others know that when you are working, you may not get to their phone call immediately but will call them back as soon as you can.