Part One: How to Navigate the Probation Period
Ah, the probation period. It can be a very vulnerable time for an eager to please new employee. It’s a time where your focus should be on understanding the role, getting to know your work family and finding out if you can comfortably work in the role you’ve taken on. Basically, it’s a chance for both you and your employer to determine whether it’s going to be a good relationship or a risky one.
Want to sail through it? Read our two-part blog on what to do and what not to do during the probation period.
- 1. Look after yourself
Lots of people let their guard down once they commence a new position, but this is a poor move. Your health is the biggest deciding factor in whether you’ll be able to make it into work, so ‘celebrating’ your new role right up to the day before you start is a bad idea- especially if it involves late nights, a few too many champagnes or anything that leaves you exhausted. Aim to be well rested, eat well and prepare yourself to ace the challenges that are sure to appear on your plate in the next few days.
- 2. Know thy team
You might be distracted by a whole bunch of new and brain-breaking challenges, but the probation period is not the time to put yourself in a bubble. A good employer will want to see how you conduct yourself when faced with unfamiliarity and potential stress. Don’t wait to learn your colleague’s names or get to know the people you’ll be seeing every day for the unforeseeable future. Friendliness and a little bit of social nouse go a LONG way in the probation period. HINT: Balance is the key here, of course.
- 3. Stay off your phone
We mean it. The inability to disengage from your phone reads poorly to the majority of employing bodies- socially, it’s more acceptable than ever to have your phone permanently within your reach, but the probation period is not the time to drop some cutting-edge content on your social media pages if you need to check in every 30 seconds to count likes. A hearty clap has to go out to the girl who made a public service announcement to her Facebook friend group when she started her new job: “Hi guys, I’m deactivating my account for the next couple of weeks until I’ve got my head around the new job I’ve just scored. I’ll be back soon!”
Stay tuned to our blog reel for a continuation of the probation period commandments. In our next post, Part Two of How to Navigate the Probation Period, we’ll talk about workplace neutrality, why the rulebook is your friend, and why The Boss doesn’t need to know about why you hate the music station your peers love.
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