Office Etiquettes- Do’s and Don’ts

Office etiquettes play a very crucial role at the workplace as they are highly required and are vital for the betterment and development of workplace towards good. These are said to be the positive set of habits that initiates and result in positive and productive work environment. All the employees are always expected to behave their best in office whether it is during their work shift or after that. Good office etiquettes are essential to build positive work relationships with colleagues and supervisors, promoting teamwork and maintaining a professional work atmosphere.

Following are some of the do’s and don’ts which are to be taken care of under office etiquettes at the workplace:

DO’s:

• Punctuality: Punctuality is the very basic and foremost office etiquette that everybody at the workplace should possess. All the employees whether any senior or junior, everybody should be on time to start and end their work shifts so as to promote efficiency in their work and also to support a positive work life balance.
• Discipline: Being disciplined towards the work is a must have. Be it following the rules and regulations of the workplace or to be aligned to the personal and company’s goals with a specified vision, one should be at its best in this.
• Adherence to the Office policies: Office policies are drafted and implemented for better workflow at the workplace. So, it is demanded from all the employees to adhere all the policies and procedures and rules, regulations at the office. Adhering and following the policies in the standardized manner would increase the efficiency and effective implementation of rules at workplace. The more standardized polices are, lesser would the conflicts and confusions between the employees and management.
• Maintenance of Office assets: All the hardware provided to the employees by the company whether it is their workstation, other related accessories, furniture or anything, is said to be covered under the office assets, and all the employees are obligated to take care of the same and maintain it in the way it is. Damaging the things, or not taking proper care of the cleanliness of maintenance of the assets will result in depreciation and that will also affect the working and sustainability of office assets.
• Hygiene: Hygiene is also a mandatory thing to be taken care of at the workplace whether it is personal hygiene or workplace hygiene. Under personal hygiene, one should take care that they are always wearing clean and tidy clothing and using the required products so that if anyone has any physical problem like- always smelling nice, well-combed hair etc. then the person next to them should not feel uncomfortable while sitting close to them at the workplace. Secondly, workplace hygiene covers the cleanliness of the workstation or the common usage areas like- Pantry, office canteen or washrooms. Clean after you use any of the common areas so that the person using it next should not feel disgusted or uncomfortable while using it.
• Dress Appropriately: A person’s dressing sense speaks a lot about them. While at workplace, always make sure to follow official dress code like- formals or semi-casuals, howsoever it is. If it semi-casuals, then you are not wearing too casual clothes like- Capris, Hats, Shawls, Rugged jeans or any revealing/short clothes.
• Mobile phone usage: Mobile phone should also be taken care of during the working hours. There should not be any excessive social media usage, extended personal calls, video calls during working hours etc. Moreover, phone should be on silent or vibration mode always during the work shift and also one should use headphones during the calls or if they are watching any video etc. so that the employees sitting next to you should not get disturbed due to that.
• Be a good Listener: Success at workplace is all about collaboration and communication. It is very important to be a good listener. Always allow others to speak so that they can share their view points. Show interest in their views while listening so that one can openly share their ideas. Do not interrupt while the other person is speaking, let them finish and wait for your turn to speak after listening to them carefully and actively.
• Use technology responsibly: Technology provided by the workplace includes all the softwares which we use our system for working efficiently and effectively and yes, more importantly these days is the internet. So, always mind while the technology ate workplace and use them responsibly. Like don’t do any unrequired internet surfing or open/scroll any fraudulent sites which may affect the working of the whole system.
• Team player: – Being a good team player is must have at the workplace for the mutual growth of both individual as well as company’s growth. So, one should do proper co-ordination, work collaboratively by sharing the view point and ideas so as to increase the efficiency of team to grow and achieve the targets and goals of the company.

DON’TS:

• Micromanagement: If you are working on a senior or leadership role, avoid micromanagement of your workforce as it may kill their efficiency. Micromanaging the things would hinder the team to perform well and it would eventually make them negative and feel demotivated towards work. Let them play freely and work in their own way so that they can perform efficiently and achieve the goals.
• Invade personal space: Never invade in anybody’s personal space or indulge in their personal life matters. Because if someone is coming at work religiously even after a lot is happening in their personal life then undoubtedly work matters for them. So, we being their work family should also respect that and not discuss any such thing which should make them uncomfortable at the workplace and restrict them to perform well.
• Engage in office politics: Don’t get engaged in office politics or creating gossips or rumours about colleagues. As it may create a toxic work environment full of negativity. Office politics is said to be the biggest hindrance in creation of a positive workplace so it should highly avoided.
• Neglect Hygiene: Take care of hygiene at the workplace same as we do for our home. All the common usage areas like pantry, work stations etc. should be kept clean and clutter free. Leave the washrooms clean and tidy behind so that person using it next should use it comfortably. If anywhere you feel that any cleanliness is required then inform the office staff so that they can clean the same to maintain the cleanliness of the workplace.
• Disrespect peers: Avoid disrespecting your peers at the workplace even if they are your subordinates, superiors or someone on a similar position as you. Always use formal language while communicating at workplace and take care that no wrong words, any slang, abusive language etc. is being used which should offend the other person. Moreover, always mind your body language as well because sometimes it can also be disrespectful to others.                                                                  
• Use offensive humour: Using offensive language or humour with the colleagues should be avoided. Always respect other’s space and avoid such jokes or humour with which one is not comfortable. Any unprofessional or wrong words should not be used during office meetings or any other casual conversations also.
• Create unnecessary noise or disturbance: Avoid causing noise or disturbance for the fellow team members. Taking personal calls at your workstation, loud music, open office meetings, any personal discussions during working hours, extended discussions etc. can be source of noise for your fellow team members. So always try to keep the noise level down and maintain it.
• Don’t complain excessively: If sometime one has any complaint with the fellow team members or with any of the office management thing then rather than complaining about the same excessively, one should always try to share your feedback or viewpoint on the things in a positive approach, as excessive complaints can be draining for colleagues.

To conclude, this can be said that Office etiquettes are must have for the creation of a positive work environment. However, these may vary from workplace to workplace so there can be different do’s and don’ts for different organisations as requirements or work atmosphere can be different.