Guide to Working in an Office for the First Time: What You Need to Know
Recent years have seen remote working more and more popular. It’s easy to see why, as it offers more than a few benefits for employees. That doesn’t mean working in an office doesn’t offer its benefits too. It could offer more than a few, especially for workers just entering the job market. Working in an office could end up helping them excel in their careers later on and grow as people. It’s easy to see why it could be tempting, especially in certain professions.
If you’re starting to work in an office for the first time, it’s natural to feel a little anxious about it. You could worry about making first impressions and doing well long-term. Thankfully, this doesn’t need to be as complicated as you could think. You’ll just need to know what you’re doing.
Focusing on a few factors when you’re starting off could be more than enough to help with this. They’ll end up helping you get settled and excel in your career.
Benefits of Working in an Office
Before diving in, it’s worth looking at why working in an office is worth it. After all, working from home can seem much more appealing. You wouldn’t need to worry about the commute and other factors. However, that doesn’t mean an office job isn’t worth considering, though.
In fact, it offers more than a few benefits, with some of the more notable of these being:
- More opportunities to earn a promotion and upskill yourself.
- Making connections with coworkers who could help further your career.
- Being able to socialize more than working at home.
- Letting you spend time out of the house.
Working in an Office: 5 Factors to Focus On
1. How You Should Dress
One of the more notable areas to focus on when you work in an office is how you should dress. You’ll need to look professional while avoiding being overly formal with your outfits. This can be a tricky balancing act for more than a few people, so it’s natural to struggle at the start.
Following a smart casual dress code could be more than enough to help with this. While it could take a little time to perfect, it’ll be more than worth it. You’ll even end up looking better than you would’ve thought every day.
2. Importance of Friends
You’ll spend countless hours at work every year. That usually means interacting with the same people every day. It’s always worth being on friendly terms with as many of them as possible. It’ll help you be more sociable when you’re working, which is always a welcome benefit.
Having friends at work lets you enjoy your job much more and get through the day relatively easily. Take advantage of opportunities to socialize whenever you can, especially with work events. Your work friends could even end up helping you with your career later on in life, making the effort even more recommended.
3. Unspoken Email Rules
Depending on the size of the company you work for, you could end up needing to send quite a few emails. That doesn’t mean just typing something out and hitting ‘send.’ There are a few dos and don’ts you should follow when you’re sending any work emails at your job.
Checking for mistakes before sending is one of the more notable of these. It’s also worth making sure you reply to emails relatively quickly, making sure the email is properly formatted, and more. While all this takes a little time to perfect, it’s more than worth the time and effort.
4. Building a Professional Brand
One of the main benefits of an office job is you’ll get to interact with countless people. As mentioned above, having friendly relationships with these people can be great. At the same time, it’s worth putting some effort into building a professional brand in your office job. This helps your career more than you’d think.
It’s just a matter of putting some effort into it. Actually, being professional and excelling in your career are some of the more notable parts of this. The more time and effort you put into it, the better it’ll end up helping your career later on.
5. Keeping Active
As beneficial as working in an office is, it also comes with its drawbacks. One of the more notable is you’ll usually be sitting at a desk for most of the day. While that means you can get your work done, it also means you wouldn’t be too physically active for most of the day.
It’s worth going out of your way to get a little active whenever you can. This doesn’t always have to mean going to the gym or exercising too hard. Instead, going for a short walk during your break could be more than worth putting some effort into.
Wrapping Up
While more and more people are working from home, it doesn’t mean working in an office doesn’t have a time and place. It could be worth it for more than a few reasons, especially when you’re starting off in your career. Being able to work in an office offers many benefits, after all.
If you are doing it for the first time, it’s natural to feel a little anxious about it. You’ll need to make a great first impression, and coworkers will be people you’ll see constantly for years. By focusing on the factors mentioned above, you shouldn’t have a problem with this.