How to work with everyone quickly
October 22, 2015 2:42 PM Subscribe
Hi, please help me to compile a list of questions I should ask myself on how to work with everyone in a new workplace.
This is inspired by a recent workshop when the facilitator mentioned that one should figure out this quickly. In my case, it's in academic setting. The list I have so far:
1) What is his/her preferred communication style? Email, call or face-to-face.
2) What is his/her view on learning, teaching and helping others? Are these views justified by actions?
3) What do my boss and other co-workers think of this colleague?
4) How is his/her relationship with other colleagues?
5) What he/she likes to talk about?
Thanks a lot.
This is inspired by a recent workshop when the facilitator mentioned that one should figure out this quickly. In my case, it's in academic setting. The list I have so far:
1) What is his/her preferred communication style? Email, call or face-to-face.
2) What is his/her view on learning, teaching and helping others? Are these views justified by actions?
3) What do my boss and other co-workers think of this colleague?
4) How is his/her relationship with other colleagues?
5) What he/she likes to talk about?
Thanks a lot.
Does this person like a brief history of the issue in each communication, or just the latest changes?
Does this person like warm and fuzzies like " Thanks ! and :) " within emails, or prefer the straight facts.
Does this person prefer everyone and their mother copied on emails, or just me and them?
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 3:34 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Does this person like warm and fuzzies like " Thanks ! and :) " within emails, or prefer the straight facts.
Does this person prefer everyone and their mother copied on emails, or just me and them?
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 3:34 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
A combination of #4 and #5 is how they talk about and treat their colleagues in conversation, and how are they treated/talked about.
posted by cabingirl at 3:39 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by cabingirl at 3:39 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Which I guess is #3, sorry. But the point I wanted to make was, you can learn a lot in the aggregate. also, what they don't want to talk about or gloss over can be telling.
posted by cabingirl at 3:41 PM on October 22, 2015
posted by cabingirl at 3:41 PM on October 22, 2015
What are his/her work priorities? And if it's possible for you to help them with those priorities, how can you?
posted by watrlily at 3:46 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by watrlily at 3:46 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've been temping lately, and I can tell you that the quickest way to make somebody at a new job like you is to ask them to help you with something. I know that sounds counterintuitive, you'd think the trick would be to do something for them, but nope. Any kind of simple task like "Carol, I think the coffee machine hates me. Could you please show me what I'm doing wrong?" is great.
People get the warm fuzzies from lending a hand to others, and asking for help levels the playing field. Being gracious and appreciative afterwards, even when it's a simple thing, will leave them feeling good about you. It breaks down barriers faster than just about anything else you can do.
At my last temp job I got along with everyone, but the two folks I was closest with were people I needed help from on day one.
posted by phunniemee at 4:20 PM on October 22, 2015 [7 favorites]
People get the warm fuzzies from lending a hand to others, and asking for help levels the playing field. Being gracious and appreciative afterwards, even when it's a simple thing, will leave them feeling good about you. It breaks down barriers faster than just about anything else you can do.
At my last temp job I got along with everyone, but the two folks I was closest with were people I needed help from on day one.
posted by phunniemee at 4:20 PM on October 22, 2015 [7 favorites]
This is part of #1, but some people prefer an acknowledgement that you received an email, even if there is no action required. Some people find the extra "ok" or "thanks" annoying.
I recently chided a coworker for not responding to some proofs I emailed him (I do email marketing). He said "oh, I thought they looked good and didn't have any changes, so I didn't respond."
posted by radioamy at 4:25 PM on October 22, 2015
I recently chided a coworker for not responding to some proofs I emailed him (I do email marketing). He said "oh, I thought they looked good and didn't have any changes, so I didn't respond."
posted by radioamy at 4:25 PM on October 22, 2015
Response by poster: All good suggestions so far. I'm one of those people who doesn't like to reply "noted.thanks". I learned from the same workshop that I can reply by editing the subject title to "noted.thanks.EOM". EOM means end of message. And if I don't expect a response, I should add "no response required" at the end of my email.
posted by liltiger at 4:39 PM on October 22, 2015
posted by liltiger at 4:39 PM on October 22, 2015
I've never heard the EOM thing and would consider it odd. However, I do agree that "no response required" is always a relief when I see it.
posted by samthemander at 6:24 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by samthemander at 6:24 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
How often does this person prefer to interact?
(because if you're at my door every hour, this is gonna go badly)
posted by Dashy at 6:54 PM on October 22, 2015
(because if you're at my door every hour, this is gonna go badly)
posted by Dashy at 6:54 PM on October 22, 2015
I'd be weirded out if email subject lines were changed in replies to something like "noted.thanks" or "noted.thanks.EOM." It would break the threading in Gmail, for one thing, which is what a lot of workplaces use now. And that format with the periods and abbreviations is very strange. I've never seen that and would not recommend it.
Anyway, I didn't find Crystal super helpful, but it does have a number of dimensions you might consider when getting to know coworkers. Things to think about are how best you should respond when speaking to someone, when emailing someone, and when working with them, as well as what does and doesn't come naturally to them. Even though this isn't always super accurate, it might be useful to look through profiles of some people you know on Crystal to see what the types of recommendations tend to be. It's a good starting point for thinking about your work relationships.
posted by limeonaire at 7:01 PM on October 22, 2015 [4 favorites]
Anyway, I didn't find Crystal super helpful, but it does have a number of dimensions you might consider when getting to know coworkers. Things to think about are how best you should respond when speaking to someone, when emailing someone, and when working with them, as well as what does and doesn't come naturally to them. Even though this isn't always super accurate, it might be useful to look through profiles of some people you know on Crystal to see what the types of recommendations tend to be. It's a good starting point for thinking about your work relationships.
posted by limeonaire at 7:01 PM on October 22, 2015 [4 favorites]
Also, this actually is something Myers-Briggs is useful for—if you have a sense of your preferred way of interacting, via taking a test like this, it can help you understand ways you might best connect with or clash with your coworkers.
posted by limeonaire at 7:08 PM on October 22, 2015
posted by limeonaire at 7:08 PM on October 22, 2015
EOM/NRN is old-school email.
posted by rhizome at 9:16 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 9:16 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I started a new job this week at a high school, and I'm pretty surprised about how many of my colleagues bcc others on emails. I asked about it and was told by the people who do it that it's a way to keep the entire department in a conversation, but the others in the department flat out said not to bcc anyone because on top of the 10 million things we need to do, now we need to track what information we're not supposed to know. And it comes off as sneaky and the antithesis of open communication.
I was also surprised at how open colleagues were at telling me who to avoid because they aren't trustworthy.
I thanked people for the information but it also gave me a sense that it's a divided team and everyone was trying to recruit me for their side. I'm not super happy about that so my advice is if you get whiff of similar shenanigans, stay out of it.
posted by kinetic at 2:38 AM on October 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
I was also surprised at how open colleagues were at telling me who to avoid because they aren't trustworthy.
I thanked people for the information but it also gave me a sense that it's a divided team and everyone was trying to recruit me for their side. I'm not super happy about that so my advice is if you get whiff of similar shenanigans, stay out of it.
posted by kinetic at 2:38 AM on October 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
1) What is his/her preferred communication style? Email, call or face-to-face.
Hi/low interruption rates. Is it ok to ask them a question casually or do they prefer a structured approach?
2) What is his/her view on learning, teaching and helping others? Are these views justified by actions?
Don't know how you'd do this other than long-term observation and some note-taking. What people say and do are often at odds.
3) What do my boss and other co-workers think of this colleague?
Again tricky. You don't want to get caught putting stars besides people's names either.
4) How is his/her relationship with other colleagues?
5) What he/she likes to talk about?
Long-term observation is the only way to do this.
My reaction is that this is starting to verge on stalkery. You want to be careful how you set this down and who has access to it. Many of your colleagues would find this creepy and inappropriate.
It's ok to have a list of contact info (eg. a phone/email/IM list) and perhaps a preferred communication indication on it. But I'd be very, very careful about keeping files on my co-workers, and think long and hard about the ethical implications of that.
posted by bonehead at 8:19 AM on October 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Hi/low interruption rates. Is it ok to ask them a question casually or do they prefer a structured approach?
2) What is his/her view on learning, teaching and helping others? Are these views justified by actions?
Don't know how you'd do this other than long-term observation and some note-taking. What people say and do are often at odds.
3) What do my boss and other co-workers think of this colleague?
Again tricky. You don't want to get caught putting stars besides people's names either.
4) How is his/her relationship with other colleagues?
5) What he/she likes to talk about?
Long-term observation is the only way to do this.
My reaction is that this is starting to verge on stalkery. You want to be careful how you set this down and who has access to it. Many of your colleagues would find this creepy and inappropriate.
It's ok to have a list of contact info (eg. a phone/email/IM list) and perhaps a preferred communication indication on it. But I'd be very, very careful about keeping files on my co-workers, and think long and hard about the ethical implications of that.
posted by bonehead at 8:19 AM on October 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm one of those people who doesn't like to reply "noted.thanks".
Electrons are not a precious resource. English is most people's first language, not a business code. It's far better to say what you mean in plain English, succinctly.
"No reply necessary" is fine.
Settle on and use a standardized, but personal and friendly response to people. A "thanks" reply to an info request is almost always helpful unless explicitly told otherwise--it acknowledges receipt if nothing else.
posted by bonehead at 8:24 AM on October 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Electrons are not a precious resource. English is most people's first language, not a business code. It's far better to say what you mean in plain English, succinctly.
"No reply necessary" is fine.
Settle on and use a standardized, but personal and friendly response to people. A "thanks" reply to an info request is almost always helpful unless explicitly told otherwise--it acknowledges receipt if nothing else.
posted by bonehead at 8:24 AM on October 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by larrybob at 2:51 PM on October 22, 2015