Life At Work - Workplace etiquette: Mind your manners in office! - Monsterindia.com http://content.monsterindia.com/ic1.html?

acid=2740

Home Search Jobs Submit Resume My Monster Career Services Career Center Hi Suryadeepsinh Employers

Keyword Location

Get Monster
Career Center:

Life At Work

Like
Rate this Article

Career Articles - Free Workplace etiquette: Mind your manners in office!

• Interview Center

• Life At Work ACCORDING to an alumnus of a premier business school in the US, during an etiquette class Asian students were advised not
• Resume Center to order salads with iceberg lettuce during business meetings in America or Europe. Order freshly cut fruit or skip the salad
altogether, was the suggestion. The reason being, since this green vegetable is not a staple food in Asian countries, they may
• Salary Center come across as clumsy when attempting to eat it.

• Careers As freshers enter the workplace, they can expect to be catapulted into tricky situations like this one.
• Self Improvement Tips Tapas Majumdar, General Manager, Human Resources, Cox and Kings recounts how they still pull the leg of a young
• New Career Options employee because she referred to all her seniors as Sir. At Cox and Kings, we follow the first name culture and things are
pretty relaxed, so much so that we barge into cubicles sometimes without knocking, says Tapas. Some companies prescribe a
• Expert's Advice code of conduct for its employee and some dont. So, we got professionals to share with us what worked for them in tricky
situations.

Icebreaker at a Meeting
Every now and then important meetings give the 24-year-old Siddhesh Gawde from Mumbai, the jitters. "I tend to freeze and
don't know what to say, especially if I am meeting the CEO. I usually wait for others to speak first," he confesses. He suggests
listening to what is being discussed and asking clarifying questions could help to break the ice. But Balu Pandian, former
corporate director and chairman of Brookfield High School, Bangalore feels that being silent, waiting for things to pan out in a
meeting is not ideal.

Balu's suggestions:

Introduce yourself right away and seek introductions from others. People with initiative are admired.
People who viewed this article also Give a quick overview of your work responsibilities and enquire about others in the meeting. This gives everyone a chance to
viewed: participate and open up.
• Avoid the Top 10 Interview Mis...

1 of 4 10/25/2012 1:57 AM
Life At Work - Workplace etiquette: Mind your manners in office! - Monsterindia.com
• Negotiating When You Have Leve...
• Five Negotiation No-Nos
• The Negotiation Dance
• Dealing with Questions about S...
• Relocation Negotiation
• When Your Salary Makes You Too...
• Interviews: 10 questions that ...
• How to Quit Without Upsetting ...
Ads By Google
Are You a Fresher?
Join Placement Oriented 4 Month IT
Course Designed for Fresh Grads
NIIT.com/IT-Training
Job Vacancies.
Find 1000's of Jobs in your City.
Connect with Employers. Apply Now!
Quikr.com/Jobs
Data Entry Clerks
Find Data Entry At Home Jobs Now!
Get Online. Get Found. Get Jobs.
SkillPages.com/India-Jobs
Fashion You can Live 24
hours! Signature Residences by Jade
Jagger for yoo. Enquire now
www.Lodha-Fiorenza.com
Are you a Graduate?
Join Placement Oriented IT Course.
Enrol Now &Avail 25% Scholarship!
niitpgpit.com
Job Post Office United States
5 open positions left. Apply now!
Job Post Office United States
jobrapido.com
2 of 4
http://content.monsterindia.com/ic1.html?acid=2740
Ask a few questions based on their answers. This indicates that you are eager to learn more about their area of work, and can
open channels of addressing senior colleagues.
Ask people how they would like to be addressed. For example: 'Hi Shilpa, is it okay if I call you that?'
Be confident while you speak to your senior colleagues.
Phone calls
Bibin Verghese, 25, works in the pre-sales department at Mobikon Technologies, a web solutions provider to hospitality
businesses in Pune. He spends more than half of his day interacting with potential customers, most of whom he speaks to for
the first time. The MBA student from Singhad Business School, Pune says, "There was this one instance where I completely
went blank while talking to the CEO of a hotel and had to simply hang up abruptly. I was so nervous and conscious of the fact
that I was talking to a CEO." Lucky for him, the company didnt lose the client.
Tapas advises emphatically, "Do not be casual on the phone, even if the other person is. Maintain some distance, simply
because you don't know the other person at all." Sunder Ramachandran, Managing Partner, WCH Training solutions, a New
Delhi-based training company says a bit of planning before a first phone call can help.
Sunder's suggestions:
Open the call with a standard professional greeting like a Good Morning depending on the time of the day and move on to
introducing yourself.
Ask if it is a good time to talk.
Be as direct as possible and don't beat around the bush; small talk can be an irritant.
Allow the other person plenty of time to respond and use prompt words such as 'I see' and 'really' in a sincere tone.
Don't repeat the name of the person too many time, three times every eight to 10 minutes is good enough.
Keep conversations brief.
Lunch time manners
Lunch time is a good time to find out the interests of your colleagues, says Shipra. People usually tend to their guard in the
cafeteria but there are some dos and donts here as well.
"It is natural to form groups, especially in a cafeteria. But you never know when groups change, so by forming groups don't
form barriers," advises Tapas.
Their suggestions:
Since groups are inevitable, it's a good idea to have lunch with different groups rather than sticking to the same clique,
everyday. You will get to know more people and will not be viewed as "clannish".
When in the presence of one group don't speak ill of a person in another group. In fact, try not to comment on a third person in
his or her absence.
10/25/2012 1:57 AM
Life At Work - Workplace etiquette: Mind your manners in office! - Monsterindia.com http://content.monsterindia.com/ic1.html?acid=2740

Try not to carry on any conversations from the café to the workplace but discussing work while at lunch is not a bad idea.

Finally Shipra adds, A little caution and thought in the manner in which you interact at work will definitely benefit you
professionally.

Top Jobs

» Asst Manager-Project required for Intern... » Opening for B.E. Electrical Engineer at ...

» Hiring Manager Distribution for a leadin... » Civil Engineering

» Electrical Engineering » Mechanical Engineering

» HEAD-DESIGN & ENGINEERING » JET (Junior Engineer Trainee)

» Lead Civil & Structural Engineer » Product Manager

» Laboratory chemist » General Manager (GM) - Taxation

» Asst Manager / Manager Projects for ES... » Permanent Openings - SAP ABAP Technical ...

» Shift incharge manager Position Multiple... » electrical engineer

Career Services more seeker services »

Resume Highlighter - Resume Highlighter gives you the edge you need to get noticed by employers.
Know more »

Ads by Google

3 of 4 10/25/2012 1:57 AM
Life At Work - Workplace etiquette: Mind your manners in office! - Monsterindia.com http://content.monsterindia.com/ic1.html?acid=2740

For Jobs Seekers Jobs By Functions Jobs By Location About Our Site

Banking Jobs in India

Home Jobs in Bangalore Contact Us
Sales Jobs in India
Search Jobs Jobs in Chandigarh About Monster
IT Jobs in India
View All Jobs Jobs in Chennai Privacy Commitment
Software Jobs in India
Monster Jobs Jobs in Delhi Be Safe
Finance Jobs in India
Resume at Monster Jobs in Gurgaon Terms of Use
Engineering Jobs in India
Monster On Mobile Jobs in Hyderabad Report a Bug/Abuse
Pharmacy Jobs in India
Get Jobs in Email Jobs in Noida Complaint
BPO Jobs in India
Know About Companies Jobs in Mumbai Add Job Search Box to Your Site
Placement Consultants
My Monster Jobs in Pune Sitemap
Government Jobs
Career Center Jobs in Ahmedabad Fraud/Security
Jobs by Industry
Help International Jobs Customer Speaks
RSS Feed

© 2012 Monster - All Rights Reserved - U.S. Patent No. 5,832,497 - NYSE: MWW

Toll free : 1-800-4196666, +91-40-66116611 or info@monsterindia.com

4 of 4 10/25/2012 1:57 AM