Working in a small workplace

August 30, 2022 8:54 PM

I am starting a new job next week. There are only 10 people working there. How will this be different for me than the bigger workplaces I am used to?

The longer version: I work for a large government bureaucracy. In the past five years, I have been reassigned annually due to my low seniority, so I have had a variety of workplace experiences. At some of them, everyone ate in the lunch room, people socialized after work etc. At other ones, they didn’t, but I usually made at least one friend and had a good experience each time.

I was just moved from a location where there were 20-25 people on staff and I was one of several in a team to a much smaller site with only ten staff. I went there for a visit in June, and the few people I met had already been briefed about my arrival, knew my name, had a T-shirt for me etc. It was nice, but I am a bit on the awkward/shy spectrum and I am a little horrified to think that if I don’t show up in the lunch room one day, they are all going to be asking where I am and wondering what happened to me. It feels like if there are Christmas parties, staff socials and things like this and I don’t go, it might actually be harmful to my job.

It’s possible I am overthinking this. But if you have experience in a small work place like this, what did you find where the best survival strategies for fitting in?

posted by ficbot to Work & Money (4 answers total)

I have no idea what to tell you because every office and every crowd is different. Some offices, everyone eats separately (mine does because we all have to do shift work) and nobody goes to drink (because everyone else lives in different towns). Others, people do hang out. All you can do is watch, observe what they do, and decide if you want to do that as well or not.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:13 PM on August 30, 2022

I feeeel your awkw. I'm an Old, my entire career was on short-term [6 weeks - 3 years] contracts. For a couple of years I had lunch quietly every day with the same bloke. In another place we all ate round the same noisy round table. Several places I shunned the staff coffee room, especially if it seemed super cliquey and/or had rigid timings. Last job, I shared an office with 2.5 people and we all lunched asynchronously at our desks. Years ago, I decided that I could go to the Christmas party and Not do the Kris Kringle. Reserve the right to [not] do stuff, nobody has to buy the whole packet.

Strategy?: try turning up to lunch a few times, it may be okay; they seem like kind folks. I've learned that other people are much less interested in me than I am: if you eat out in the sunshine some days folks will assume you've gone shopping or to an appointment.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:19 PM on August 30, 2022 [6 favorites]

One benefit of Covid is that is has allowed me to completely ditch the crowded break room! I made it known pretty much from the get-go when we came back to the office (hybrid) that I'm very Covid cautious (still wear a mask indoors, for example), so no one expects me to be super social. It's quite nice. People are still kind to me and we make small talk (and I've developed solid relationships with others, the ones I want relationships with) and I don't feel like I've harmed my job at all.
posted by cooker girl at 7:56 AM on August 31, 2022 [1 favorite]

RE outside-of-work socializing: if they're all getting together super frequently, like once a week, go to all of them for your first month. After that you can cut back to once a month. If they're getting together once per month or less, join them every 2-3 months at least.

RE lunch: you'll see what the culture is like in your first week; at my small workplace we don't eat together. But even if they often do, they won't care if you aren't there sometimes. But in that case join them at least once a week so they don't think you're actively snubbing them.
posted by metasarah at 8:03 AM on August 31, 2022