After achieving any goal, a person is accompanied by a conditional emptiness.
The same thing happens when you join a new team.
Yes, you are full of energy and even have a plan for professional growth and communication for new professional acquaintances, but you also feel uncomfortable due to the uncertainty in the new team.
Conditional stress, discomfort in the first hours and days in a new team is a common phenomenon. Negative emotions cannot always be avoided, but they can be prepared for and even initiated, - says psychologist Andrey Kashkarov .
One of the bright and generally important creative solutions for a new employee is his proposals for the management and the team. This is the very case when initiative does not harm the business, but helps, and an experienced manager will not ostracize it.
It is clear that first it is necessary to study the situation in the new location or at least collect as much information about the company (history, successes, traditions) in advance.
And then a thoughtful and reasonable initiative will be your "plus" and will show a direct interest in the work. Everyone will like it. Measuredly and tactfully offer to improve office life with the following arguments.
Suggestions to colleagues
Having met and, if necessary, having given a presentation, watch people carefully, identify leaders and "followers". It is extremely important to enlist the support of the former. But it is important not to frighten them with your zeal, so as not to create the illusion of competition in their thinking about you.
Act gradually and tactfully: having established informal contact with one or two leaders, tell them about your positive and proven experience – for the possible transfer of it to the new team.
Offer employees wellness activities and practices, explaining their importance. For example, when creating comfortable conditions for the team, it is advisable to move away from the standard concept of premises with endless rows of tables, and instead arrange areas for rest and sleep, up to showers, if possible.
Suggestions to management
A manager of any rank is not exactly a “little boss who is scarier than the devil”; he solves complex problems, interacts with senior management, and loves attention.
And vice versa, he is "tormented with anger" when an employee who has not subjectively reached his level of competence violates subordination. It is advisable for a new employee to act in the manner of P.I. Chichikov (Dead Souls, N.V. Gogol), introducing himself first to the "governor", and then to all important persons who have professional weight of influence.
It is important to do this even if you understand that you have long been inquired about at the highest level and have information. A courtesy visit to express respect and admiration is never excessive.
It is good form to ask the management’s opinion at first, until the criteria and conditions of direct subordination are determined.
This will elevate you in the eyes of your boss, but you need to do it subtly and skillfully. The overall success and relationships between employees in the team depend on the manager's ability to support and motivate the staff. That is, the success of teamwork with a focus on results.
This is your reasonable argumentation in a conversation with the management. The argument: "if the office organizes the work and rest schedule of employees competently, and with the involvement of relevant specialists, everyone will benefit from this. And the business too." Next, we will consider several practical areas and initiatives.
Why Relaxation in the Workplace Is Important
The best modern office is a complex of “separate offices” rather than an open space, which, however, is easier for the manager to control, and here’s why.
Extraneous noise – colleagues talking on the phone and even personal cell phones regularly “signaling with sound” when receiving messages from messengers complicate an already restless atmosphere, and in fact worsen the mood and even lead to a weakening of the immune system.
One of the critically perceived factors is irrelevant (extraneous, background) speech. Indirectly, separate offices are also better because employees can arrange them in their own way - from the feng shui zone, color scheme and hanger placement to the air conditioner settings.
Lessons from the coronavirus pandemic
You can motivate employees not only with bonuses and certificates, in particular, there are other creative ideas. The main thing is to set up and maintain emotional stability in the team.
The pandemic has taught us a lot, in particular, the possibilities of long-term and paid remote work have been tested. Having a comfortable workspace, a hybrid format or a fully remote work mode can become not only an opportunity, but also a bonus for an employee.
In some positions (for yourself) it is appropriate to offer a remote work format now, even if it is not suitable for everyone. And this idea, having been preliminarily substantiated and provided with statistical calculations, can also be brought up for discussion.
Relaxation and self-help techniques
A full-time psychologist, or as they are sometimes called "happiness manager", will also help the team. Such an employee is approached with almost any question on the competence, even if the consultation is not directly related to work.
Here everything is based on authority and trust. Another thing is that it is not possible to maintain it everywhere, therefore such a "staff unit" is kept on a "part-time basis" or the specialist visits the office on an outsourced basis, that is, on a schedule.
Goal setting and concentration
A goal gives energy and a clear direction in life, and sometimes even helps to focus and define oneself. When you like something in the external environment, it forms a dependence on the environment.
Unexpected joys, which make you feel good, inevitably become expected needs over time, without which it is bad. Psychoanalysts know that an employee invariably comes to either partial dissatisfaction or an escalation of his own desires.
For motivation
A temporary loss of motivation at work is often associated with the Post-PhD slump syndrome (blues or post-dissertation syndrome).
It is well known to employees who have completed a complex report, writers with their common expression “before I put myself in new book hell…” and others who are involved in a responsible task from which they are not distracted for several weeks and a deadline.
When the task is finally completed, the report is checked and accepted, such people feel like a "squeezed lemon", uncertainty, apathy and lethargy set in, they need rest. Do not immediately load them with a new task.
And recreation can be organized even at the workplace. Organization of sports competitions between departments of the organization is also an element of team building and health development.
Relax room
Rest rooms, psychological relief rooms and kitchen areas are no longer an innovation in the office. Fish, animals, rabbits and large animals and birds are also not.
The office cat is even called the “staff psychologist” and regular meals are planned for him, just like for a staff specialist.
You can "reboot" with the help of sports both in the office and by discussing a separate time during or at the end of the working day. Any games, preferably active ones, such as darts, table hockey, tennis and others are suitable in the office.
A relaxation room can be equipped with a platform for punching a punching bag and an inversion bench, where you can hang upside down or hang a belt from a ceiling hook – hang by clinging to its end with your teeth; there can be many options, and they are limited only by the imagination of the employees and the manager.
Unlike the training area, office greening does not require significant investment. And if cacti on tables and windows are an anachronism of the era, then palm trees and lemon trees, and even a natural lawn on the windowsill help reduce the level of excitement and stress. The main thing is that this view is constantly before your eyes.
Having studied a specific team and work organization for a short period of time, you can make reasonable proposals to improve its work. This will subsequently become your business card and an element of authority.
Previously, it was reported what divorced women regret.
Expert: Andrey Kashkarov
