How to Be Professional in the Workplace (Communication Diva's Guide To:) (2 page)

All of these reasons are good ones for not using your desk as a personal pantry.

And speaking of desks ...

Did you know that your “stuff” is also a form of communication?

How much stuff we have (you’ve heard of hoarding, I’m sure) and what kind of stuff, and what we do with it all speaks volumes.

If you have a passion for a particular hobby or design, this may translate into the things you keep in your workspace.
This can work for or against you
, depending on where you work, and what kind of message you want to send.

I have a friend who loves shoes. She has all sorts of office equipment (staplers, business card holders, pen and pencil holders) in a variety of shapes of shoes. She’s easy to buy for, because she LOVES all that stuff, and anyone approaching her desk will soon know what she loves. She is working in an environment where her friendliness and approachability is key, and sharing her passion with the world likely makes people smile and feel they can talk to her, even before they meet her.

My kids had a teacher who adored apples. Everything on her desk, from her clock to her  Mac computer, had to do with apples. Again, a form of communication. (The fact that in the past 11 years, she hasn’t changed a thing on her desk or in her curriculum also speaks volumes, but that’s another story!)

It’s good to be aware of how the things you keep around you speak to others, and what messages you are sending. If you are trying to send a message about efficiency, professionalism and reliability, you might think carefully about what messages your “stuff” is sending, and choose it wisely. (Cutesy stuffed toys may not exhibit an air of professionalism. Take them home or just throw them out!)

Family photos, artifacts that represent hobbies you enjoy, all of these are great as long as you want those around you to know what it is you value. These things on your desk can actually be a great way to communicate with your peers, clients or superiors.

I recently was at a physician’s office where the walls were adorned with beautiful photographs of interesting places around the world, all taken by the physician himself. This form of communication spoke of a person who was well-traveled, adventurous and talented in more ways that just in “doctoring”. I found it far more interesting and classy than some of the more usual office waiting room decor, and it gave me a new perspective on the guy in the white coat.

Be sure to consider your environment, what kind of business you work for, and what your position is or what position you are aspiring to ... and
dress your desk
with things that will send the message you want.

*You might even ask a colleague to give an objective opinion about what message they get about you when they first come upon your desk. Ask them to look at it and tell you what they can guess about you without “knowing” you. You might learn a lot about first impressions!

How Stuff is Kept

H
ow messy is your desk? In order to appear to be more professional, it would be a very good idea to keep a tidy, orderly desk. This isn’t always possible, but there are ways to improve how the mess
looks
(organizers, in and out boxes, boxes with lids that keep things looking more neat, even if they aren’t) which will help with the messages you are inadvertently sending.

Piles of files and records and “stuff” may communicate that you:

—
are disorganized

—
have trouble with time management

—
have more work than you can handle

—
don’t care or are not committed to your job

None of this may be true, of course, but these are some of the messages people may be getting simply by walking past your desk.

What is on Your Computer Screen?

This is also a form of communication.

Screensavers

Your screensaver says something about you. Make sure it fits with the image you wish to project. You probably want to change it from the default (boring) one that comes with the computer, but you also may want to take care in choosing something else to replace it with. Think about the tone of the space you work in, and go with something that will fit.

Social Media

This is a very large and very controversial topic in office circles. Some companies turn a blind eye and go with the theory that a few minutes of a “social media brain break” makes for a more productive employee in the long run.

Some companies monitor exactly what employees look at on their computers at work and act as “social media police”.

Either way, this can be a good or bad thing, depending on what you do.

It may be wise to find out what the rules/policies around this are in the first place. Then you know where exactly you sit. If you are unable to find this out, here are a few tips:

1. Wait for Coffee or Lunch Break
—
If you take care to only check your Facebook or other social media sites on your breaks, there may be little issue. If, however, you spend time looking at these sites while you are supposed to be doing other paid work, you may run into trouble.

2. Be REALLY Careful what it is You Are Looking At
—
Often, what you look at and
how long
you look at it is recorded, and this information is kept for future reference. I don’t know of any organization that would tolerate employees looking at pornographic or hate-based sites ... and you are taking enormous risks if you engage in this behaviour on the job.

3. It May Come Back to Haunt You
—
Whether you are climbing any corporate ladders, looking for job references, moving to a new position, or are heading into an employee performance review, the history of your internet access is part of your employee record. It may be funny to share questionable joke videos with your co-workers at the time, but you may regret it down the road.

My advice, if trying to improve your professionalism,  would be to limit social media activity to break times ... perhaps using your own mobile device rather than the company server, or better yet, save it until you are away from the workplace.

It’s always best to keep your name off any “lists/logs” your employer might be maintaining.

About Breaks

You may not think anyone is paying any attention ... but believe me, they are. If your break is supposed to be 30 minutes, and you regularly take 40-45 minutes, this will come back to bite you sometime when it counts most ... as in when asking for a job reference, or when in line for a promotion. People pay attention to these things.

You may not think it makes a difference, and it may not immediately, but being professional includes wise time management, and taking extra-long breaks can be seen to be “against the company”, “ripping off the company” or just as irresponsible.

Not taking any breaks also speaks volumes. This is NOT a good idea. While you may think you are being productive, not taking breaks can be seen in these ways:

—
you can’t get the work done that you have to do in a day so you are either inefficient or don’t manage your time well, so need to work through your breaks

—
you are bucking for a promotion and are trying impress your boss and to do more than your colleagues by working while they take their breaks

—
you are a workaholic

—
you have no life

While none of the above may be true ... perception is 90% reality, and what people perceive may be the wrong message.

There are all sorts of other reasons why you should take your breaks, including:

—
labor law

—
union regulations

—
someone negotiated long and hard for you to be able to take a break

—
studies have shown people to be much more productive if they take breaks between work sessions

—
as mentioned previously, leaving the workspace entirely for even a short while can give you a new perspective and ability to come back to a task or problem you have been working on with renewed determination.

***There are likely more ... and if you have any, please feel free to email them to me at
[email protected]
and if I get enough of these, I will include them in the next updated edition of this book.

Time Management

This could be the subject of a whole new book, but how you manage time (chronemics) is a form of communication. Take, for instance, punctuality. If you always arrive for work a few minutes early, put away your coat and bags, pop your lunch into the refrigerator, and fire up your computer all before your shift begins, you will be starting to work right at your start time.

This is very professional.

If, however, you wander in around ten after, and
then
start to put your things away, then stop by the coffee pot or the water cooler for a cuppa and a chinwag ... you will not be starting to be productive until likely a good 25-30 minutes into your day.

Not professional.

Punctuality is both noticed and expected in someone wanting to exhibit the signs of being a professional. Being consistently late communicates that you don’t care, (even if you do), and this will eventually come back to bite you.

On leaving early: if you start packing up your desk, shutting off your computer, going to get your things and to rinse out your coffee mug about 20 minutes before you are off shift, you are also communicating that you are in a big hurry to get out of there. Again, this will get noticed. Doing this a few moments before the end of your shift is acceptable, but starting the whole leaving process while still “on the clock” is not going to be looked upon favorably.

Prioritizing

An entire book could be written on this topic alone, and so I will be brief. There are numerous tools to help you prioritize your tasks, and some are better than others. I prefer the old-fashioned list. Taking a few moments at the start of your shift to write down all of the tasks/responsibilities/goals you have for your day, can save you time and keep you on-track. If you want to get fancy, you can even assign a timeframe to each task, although you may well get interrupted at times. The point is,
having some kind of plan
(this is true of life as well ... not just your workday) can be an extremely simple and effective way to improve productivity, keep you organized, give you a sense of accomplishment, and make you appear to be professional in your approach to your daily duties.

Office Gossip

A quick way to kill any sense of professionalism anyone might have of you is to participate in office gossip. Socializing and catching up with others is appropriate and will build community, but talking about other co-workers in their absence is the fastest way to being disrespected and distrusted yourself.

Ask yourself this question: am I sharing this information to be helpful or hurtful to the person in question?

(Note: Gossip is rarely helpful and almost always hurtful. It’s an ugly way to feed your own ego, and to make yourself feel better, which it might ... but that will be short-lived.)

If you end up in a group of people who start to talk about a co-worker, excuse yourself and get busy doing something else, or, if you are assertive enough, introduce a new topic and change the direction of the conversation. If you do that consistently, people will get the message you are not going to play that game, and you will be seen to be more professional for it.

I remember working in a hospital where one of the
Nursing Unit Clerks
got sent home one day to change her clothes. Her unit manager was apparently fed up with this woman showing up looking like she was going to a club, rather than to work in a professional hospital setting. Leather mini-skirt, high-heels, men’s dress shirt-open low, mane of hair wild and down and lots of makeup and perfume. She was gorgeous…and it was just a little “out there” in an environment where everyone else was wearing scrubs (those pajama-like comfy yet shapeless uniforms) and lab coats.

I remember showing up to a high-school reunion that had been billed as “casual dress”, to find several of the women in floor-length, sequined evening gowns. I started looking for the red carpet!

I have walked into office settings where people are dressed in business suits and conservative dresses, and the receptionist is in jeans and an off-the-shoulder sweatshirt thingie…(think Flashdance). I wondered how she got the job in the first place.