How to Win the Office Popularity Contest

When working in an office with other people you have to learn to get along, no one wants to be the odd person in the office. Here are some tips that will help you get along with your fellow co workers, and keep you on the boss's good side.

Disturbing your co-workers: Being a disturbance to the rest of the office is one of the most commonly reported complaints about a worker. It is not good to be known as the noisy one in the office because what will happen is one day the boss will ask someone why the report or whatever they were working on was not done in time and to cove their butts they will blame you for distracting them from their work.

Office Rumors: Every day people loose their jobs for talking about other people they work with and spreading rumors. When you work in an office anything you tell someone will eventually come back to you, and if you say something bad about another co worker they will eventually find out that you are the one who said it and if they complain it is called creating a hostile workplace and not only can you get fired but you and the company can get sued for it, even if what you said was the truth. If you hear something, keep it to yourself and you will not have any problems.

Personal Calls and E-Mails: Most supervisors and managers understand that outside the office employees have a life, and they know you are going to send and receive emails from your friends and family, but it is important to keep it to a minimum. It is also important to remember to make sue that your friends do not use any inappropriate language in the emails. Many companies have software that will spot the language and report it to your manager. Phone calls should be kept to your break times. It is not fair to your employer or your co-workers if you take extra time off during the day to talk on the phone keep personal calls to your own time except for emergencies, and making plans for Friday night is not an emergency.

Sit at you desk: It is not uncommon to walk around the office to have a chat with another co-worker, very often you may have to talk to someone about some work this is perfectly acceptable, and to share pleasantries is expected but to spend 10 minutes talking about non work related subjects is a bit much. The more time you spend away from your desk on non business related things the more your boss may start to think how necessary you are to the company.

Food: When I used to work in an office I often had to work thru my lunch and eat at my desk to get things done on time. As much as I hated to have to do it what was I going to do things have to get done on time. When this happens to you make sure the food you bring into the office is overly aromatic. The last thing you want is for someone to make a complaint to human resources, because you had some food in the office that bothered someone. This may seem silly, but trust me I have seen this happen.

Cologne and Perfume: Work is not a night club. Many of the people you share your office space with may be fine with the smell of your perfume or cologne, but some people do not like the smell and depending how strong the smell is, it can give some people headaches, so whenever possible please do not wear any strong scents to the office.

Cubicle Decorations: Our cubicle is not your own personal space it is a place of business. There is no reason to fill your cubicle with little knick knacks to make it more like home. Here is a little secret your boss does not want you to feel at home he wants you to feel like you are at work. When you feel more relaxed most people are less productive, and when people visit the office it does not look professional.

Before you do anything in the office always ask yourself if it could in any way bother a fellow worker if the answer is yes then do not so it. No one wants to lose their job over something stupid.

About the Author

After Online Casino and games like Video Poker were outlawed Lee Alderon went to work in a large company in their human resources department.