Now you've found a job at
a company with a culture and a week before you start, the company's door opens
to a large number of employees waiting to welcome you into a new work
environment. The employees extend their hands and as you shake them, in the corner
of your eye you see a lady you both went to the university together moving
towards you smiling. You're excited! A quick decision is required. Do you just
shake her hand? Do you kiss her? Do you hug her?
You decide to damn the
confusion and you end up throwing yourself into her arms, kissing her on the
cheeks and spending the rest of the day wondering if you have done the right
thing and what impact your form of greeting has on her. Sound familiar?
Greeting properly in the
workplace is a vital part of courtesy and good business manners.
The first point about
business greetings is to know how it should be done. It's important to say
"hello," “good morning,” “good afternoon,” “bye,” and “enjoy the rest
of the day,” to everyone even when you don't work closely with them.
Every greeting is an
opportunity to demonstrate respect for others and to create a favourable
impression of yourself in the workplace.
When you greet someone in
the workplace, you should avoid the following:
❌Don’t
pat a colleague on the butt. This is wrong unless you have an intimate
relationship with the person. If you're in a romantic relationship with a
colleague, be professional about it. Keep the details of your love life and
interests out of the workplace and maintain decorum.
❌Don’t
pat someone on the backside in the work environment unless you want to tell
them that, they have done well and deserve to be praised for a project or a
task well executed. This form of greeting can be considered disrespectful
especially if you don’t have a close working relationship with the person.
❌Don’t
use social hugs as grounds for sexual harassment.
❌Don’t
put your arm around someone.
❌Don’t
air kiss. Is a poor form of greeting in the business environment.
❌Don’t
hand-kiss in the working environment. Even though this greeting gesture
indicates courtesy, politeness, respect admiration or even devotion by one
person toward another, this is not the right setting to use it.
❌Don’t
social kiss. Longstanding or not, don't assume you have a good working
relationship with a colleague and kiss them. If you know from experience that a
colleague or business contact would welcome a kiss on the cheek then kiss them
on the cheek without the expression of sexual attentiveness. If you are unsure
don’t, keep the greetings professional.
When greeting men and
women in the working environment, do so without violating their dignity or
creating an intimidating, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for
them.
Enrol for DRS Etiquette
& Image Consulting online or one-on-one Business Etiquette course TODAY and
learn more about don’ts and do’s of business greetings, proper greetings and
introductions and get the most out of it. For course details, contact info@drsetiquetteconsulting.com.
2 comments:
This is a nice read, keep the good work.
Cheers.
Thanks for your feedback. Much appreciated.
Cheers.
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