10 Tips for the new workplace etiquette

10 Tips for the new workplace etiquette Theres a new workplace etiquette for the new millennium, and, no surprise, its all about transparency and authenticity. The new etiquette is driven by the fact that young people who grew up online dont know how to operate any other way except transparently. The good news is this means they have great social skills; the bad news is they have no idea that theyre breaking all the old rules. Here a list tips to help people who arent used to living an authentic, transparent work life flourish under the new rules. 1. Forget the exit interview. An exit interview wont help you, and itll probably create bad will. If you have people to thank when you leave a job, do it at lunch. If you have ideas for how to improve the company, offer to consult. Of course the company will decline, because they dont care. Otherwise you wouldnt be quitting, right? Stop focusing on the exit interview and focus on how to quit like a pro. When you get a new job, your old boss is part of your new network. Its up to you to make sure that parting ways goes as smoothly as possible so that you can shepherd this person into your network of supporters. 2. Dont ask for time off, just take it. When you need to leave work for a few hours or a few days, you dont need to ask for permission youre an adult, after all. Make sure your work is in good order and send an email to the relevant people letting them know youll be gone. This will seem discourteous to older people, who expect you to ask rather than tell. So be sure to give a reason why youre cutting out. People like to know they matter and where they stand. 3.  Keep your headphones on at work. If you use social media tools, youre probably good at connecting with people and  navigating office politics   good enough that spending all day at work with headphones on wont hinder you. If you dont know what what social media tools are, then youre probably not innately good at making connections and need to take those headphones off before youre crushed by office politics. 4. Say no to video résumés. This is one of the  dumbest recruiting trends  ever. Any human resources person in their right mind would hate video résumés. If theres a stack of 100 paper résumés, the hiring manager will spend 10 seconds on each to decide which ones belong in the garbage. So how annoying is it that it takes 10 seconds just to launch a video résumé? And its not just that theyre totally inefficient. Video résumés open up HR departments to a whole new level of discrimination accusations. Theres a reason why newscasters are all good-looking its because we favor the good-looking on-screen. So if you dont get hit on every time you step into a bar, forget about the video résumé. You probably look better on paper. 5. Invite your CEO to be a friend on Facebook. Thats right, Facebook is for everyone now. And although the youngest members of the workforce are a little worried that having the adults there will ruin things, adults are psyched to be there. No one wants to miss out on all the fun. So theres a good chance that your CEO is registered, and its likely that shell really want to hear from you about what to do on Facebook, since she surely has no clue. 6. Do reconnaissance on your probable boss. This tip comes from 20-something Hannah Seligson, whose book, New Girl on the Job: Advice from the Trenches, gives great  tips on  getting through the first years of work most of which comes down to etiquette. Seligson recommends you find out all the dirt you can about your future employer, because the best gauge of how a company will treat you is how it treated other employees. So asking people directly is fine. Remember that its often the boss who makes the biggest difference in the workplace, so try using  LinkedIn  to search for someone who had the job youre interviewing for. Former employees will always give you the most candid comments. 7. Dont try to improve a coworker. If you work with a jerk, just avoid him. We already know from dozens of studies that thinking you can change someone doesnt really work. Companies know that getting rid of difficult employees isnt worth the cost and headache, too. So if the jerk isnt moving and the company isnt moving, you need to get moving  with your job hunt. 8. Dont blog under a pseudonym. Its enticing to hide your name when you blog, because you dont want to get fired, or harassed, or held accountable at work for the opinions you have at home. But the truth is that the majority of adults who blog are doing it for business reasons. Writing a blog that people can actually find among 77 million blogs is very time-consuming. Its a big commitment to write about what you know on a single topic, but  blogging will help your career a lot. So why bother doing it if youre not going to take credit for it where it matters most  with potential employers who havent met you? 9. Call people on the weekend for work. With the Blackberry going where work has never gone before, its no surprise that the lines between work and not-work are blurring. The people who grew up being super-connected dont differentiate between the workweek and the weekend, so they dont mind working over the weekend on bits and pieces leftover from the week. Of course, this also means that people are going home early all week long at random intervals. The result is that the weekend is fair game for phone calls. If your coworkers dont like being called on the weekend, they can tell you. But remind them that a flexible work schedule lets you put relationships first all the time, and a work schedule that cordons off five days a week for work and two days a week for a personal life means that the personal life takes a backseat every week of the year. The best way to get a life is to stop being so rigid about the distinction between time for work and time for life. 10. Be nice like your job depends on it. In fact,  your job does depend on you being nice. The old days of office politics as a means of backstabbing are dead young people are bringing their team-player, Im-competing-against-my-best-self mentality from their self-esteem-centric homes into the workplace, and theres nothing you can do except be nice back. Anyway, the truth is that the most likable people get promoted, so this is an instance where following the unwritten rules really can save your career.