They Don't Teach Corporate in College (11 page)

Next, it's time to get some office supplies, so make your way over to the admin's desk. Proceed with caution. No matter what your level in the company, do not assume that it is the admin's responsibility to order your supplies. Ask her how you can order them, and see what she says. Pouting if you have to do it yourself is not a good idea. Look at it this way: at least now you can get those nifty dry erase markers you like!

Hooray, now it's time to decorate! Just keep in mind that, although your cube or office is the space you work in, it belongs to the company. It's fine to place a few framed photographs on your desk and/or pictures on the walls, but don't overdo it. Put all other personal items, including personal paperwork, in a single desk drawer that you can lock at night. You never know when your boss will need something from you after hours, and will take it upon himself to come looking for it. Also, be careful how much food you keep in your cube or office. Laugh if you want, but you don't want to be the one blamed for the mouse that sends 30 colleagues screaming into the hallway.

Plan strategically how you want to organize your desk. I know a lot of people who believe that having a cyclone of a desk makes them look as though they are so busy that they just can't keep up with the work raining down on them. That may be true, but it also makes them look terribly disorganized. Being neat and efficient is part of your professional persona, so even if you're the brilliant “absentminded professor” type, you might want to modify your habits. Create practical online and offline filing systems that allow easy access to regular materials and can be used readily should a coworker need to take over a project. Remove documents from your mailbox and email inbox as soon as you are finished with them, and write notes using the old-school dry-erase board or the new-school Evernote (
evernote.com
) to avoid a sticky-pad explosion. I think you'll find that keeping order is easy if you start at the beginning, before documents start flooding in.

Whether you're thrown headfirst into a project or left alone to stare at the walls of your cubicle, the most important thing you can do at the beginning of a new job is to pay attention. You don't have to be a CIA operative to harness the power of smart observation. Simply keep your eyes and ears open, and you will become an expert at mastering the organizational culture of which you are now a part. I know you're eager to let the company know who you are and what you're all about, but keep in mind that the most successful employees are the ones who effectively assimilate into their company's culture.

Do your best to lay low in the beginning. Take the time to study every aspect of your new organization, including how people present themselves, how they work together, and how they interact with executives, managers, and clients. What are the written and unwritten rules of engagement? It's particularly useful to watch how employees conduct non-company business during the workday so that you can get a sense of how personal breaks, email, and phone calls will be tolerated. As you learn, begin to adapt your behavior and work style to suit the work environment.

Examine your company's Website, annual report, and recruiting materials for clues about its mission, goals, image, and values. Is your company more focused on forging ahead in the market or delivering superior customer service? Is the culture guided by competition or cooperation? Is it more important for employees to be solely focused on hardcore business realities or to be well-rounded in their professional and personal lives? If these things are difficult to
determine through written materials, you may need to scope out your work area. On my first day at a Fortune 500 company, for example, I noticed a book of photographs on my boss's desk. The book, which my company had produced, featured pictures of children in the on-site daycare center. The following week, area schools were closed. I was not surprised to see my colleagues bringing their children into work for a company-sponsored holiday camp. In no time at all, I had become aware of the importance of family in that culture.

Remember that although the professional world is the same in many ways, cultures vary dramatically from organization to organization. Just because it was perfectly acceptable to order snacks for an afternoon brainstorming session at your old place of business doesn't mean that your new boss will consider this to be a legitimate expense. Developing a good understanding of your new company's culture will unquestionably serve you well as you look for ways to make a contribution.

The first time I had to fill out a W-2 form, I had no idea what I was doing. I was too embarrassed to ask about it at orientation, so I just fudged it. Unfortunately, come tax time, I owed the government a whole lot of money because I had mistakenly put down that I had a dependent. I wasn't planning on this expense at all and I ended up having to borrow money from my parents.

Brian, 22, Louisiana

When you're grooming your professional persona for a multitude of new colleagues and spying on the company culture, doing right by the human resources department may seem like the least of your challenges. If you're tempted to think about it this way, just remember that HR hired you, and they also have the power to make trouble for you, if so inclined. Learning the ropes early in your career with a company won't take much time, but it will inevitably save you major headaches later on.

On your first day, you will probably be asked to fill out a “Hello, My Name Is” sticker and show up to an orientation for new hires. This event will typically feature overly enthusiastic guest speakers, generic orientation videos, and a tedious page-by-page review of a mountain of paperwork. You will leave
the building at the end of the day, head spinning, with an information packet. Your first instinct might be to toss it in the dumpster on the way to your car. But, instead, you must take the folder home and re-read every word. If your organization is tree-friendly and all of its new hire information is online, you are not excused. Pop open that browser and get to it.

HR has probably asked you to immediately sign a few legal documents. One will be a tax form that the company needs in order to pay you, a second might be a non-compete agreement (stating that if you leave the company you won't go to work for a competitor for a set period of time), and a third could be a confidentiality agreement (stating that you won't share the company's proprietary information). It's important to understand what these documents say, so ask someone to help you if you have to. Getting these documents back to HR the next day will serve several purposes: You won't lose or forget about them, your assimilation into the community will be hassle-free, you will look like a responsible and efficient employee to the “Job Gods” in HR, and you will erase any chance of anyone going to your boss in order to collect your delinquent paperwork.

The new hire folder often includes an employee handbook that outlines company policies, such as initial performance review periods, compensation, dress code, smoking and drugs, sexual harassment, and company benefits. Treat this book as though it's your new best friend for a few days. Don't leave it on the train, and avoid the urge to stuff it in a desk drawer without reading it. Again, if it's online, you should still peruse it in detail.

True story: My friend Zach, who worked for a Fortune 500 telecommunications company, was fired after an HR representative caught him smoking on company grounds. Zach was outside the building at the time, but his company had a zero-tolerance smoking policy, which was covered in the employee handbook. Although his company's reaction was extreme, Zach was dismissed legally and couldn't do anything about it. The best way to steer clear of these situations is to know where you stand from the get-go.

Fewer aspects of your job are as important as the number of days you get to spend away from it, so you should read and understand your vacation policy up front. Many companies give a standard two weeks per year for new
employees, but policies on personal days, paid holidays, sick and bereavement leave, and short-term and long-term disability leave vary. Some businesses also limit the amount of vacation time you can take during your first few months of employment. I accepted my first job six weeks before my college graduation, and, lo and behold, two days before I was scheduled to take off for the ceremony, I ran into a snag with HR because I hadn't cleared unauthorized vacation days ahead of time. By the way, unless you do not have any other choice, don't plan any vacations during your first three months with a company. Remember your professional persona and consider how jetting off to the Caribbean within weeks of your start date will look to company veterans who haven't taken a vacation in two years.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that about a quarter of employed Americans work from home some hours each week. In a recent study by the Families and Work Institute, 63 percent of employers said they allowed employees to work remotely, up from 34 percent in 2005. Even Marissa Mayer, the new Yahoo! CEO who banished telecommuting from company policy last year, can't stop this train.

Flextime arrangements might include part-time or compressed schedules (for example, the employee works 40 hours from Monday to Thursday and takes Friday off) and job sharing, in which a full-time position is split between two people. Teleworking or telecommuting, of course, means that, for at least part of the business week, an employee works from a remote location, often the home.

Talk with HR and/or read your orientation materials to understand how your organization's flextime procedure works. Note that even if the company doesn't have an official policy in place, if there are other people in your department who are already working flexible schedules, it shouldn't be unreasonable for you to hop on the bandwagon—provided you can honestly say you have the self-discipline to work productively without supervision. This last point is a critical one. You must know yourself and your job well enough to be able to accurately judge if telecommuting is a viable alternative.

In making an argument for flex time, always put the company first. For example, if you want to work from home one day per week, tell your boss that you plan to get more work done in less time due to the minimization of distractions and not having to commute. Ask for a trial of the new arrangement,
and prove the cost savings by working much more efficiently on that home day than you do during your in-office days. Make sure that you are always accessible via email and smartphone during the business day, and report project status often so it's easy for your boss to keep tabs on you.

In our 20s, we're accustomed to abusing our bodies and getting away with it. Given that we never get sick and think we're going to live forever, it's easy to take health benefits for granted. However, because group insurance plans and flexible spending accounts (which allow you to deposit part of your salary, pretax, into a special account for medical expenses) are notoriously complicated, it's in your best interests to scope out the lay of the land in case you urgently need a health service. Familiarize yourself with the benefits you are entitled to and make sure you review your coverage in depth before heading to the doctor's or dentist's office. Trust me, it's well worth your time, because once you make a claim the insurance people decline to cover, squabbling with them quickly becomes a frustrating and time-consuming process. Also, playing tug-of-war with an HMO during office hours or inviting your HR benefits administrator to referee are not optimal strategies for minding your professional reputation.

Are there ways your company will contribute to your care and feeding beyond the bi-monthly paycheck? Yes, indeed. Most companies offer a 401(k), which allows employees to contribute a portion of tax-free income to a savings account. The company will also match a percentage of your contribution, which you get to keep if you stay there an allotted period of time. I could devote an entire book to a discussion about 401(k) plans, but instead I'll share a few tips for leaving your financial future in the hands of your new company:

Pay close attention to the instructions for rolling over your retirement funds from one company's 401(k) plan to the next. Because you will likely have several jobs throughout the course of your career, you want your hard-earned savings to transition smoothly.

Most plans offer a variety of fund-distribution options, so you should avoid placing 100 percent of your savings in your company's stock. In these uncertain times, your financial future should not depend on your company's stability.