Good Business Etiquette is Fast and Easy
You may not impress everyone you meet, hit every deadline, and consistently knock it out of the park. Bad days and breakdowns happen. But there are a few business etiquette practices you can consistently do to make you easy to work with and to present yourself in a professional and credible way.
Business Etiquette tip #1: Listen to your cell and work voicemail greetings. Have you recorded a personal greeting that assures callers they’ve reached your phone? If the message says, “You’ve reached 303-863-0948, callers may wonder if they’ve called the right number and are likely to hang up and call back. And make sure the greeting doesn’t sound as if you recorded it while you were outside waiting for a bus, or standing in line at the grocery store, or under water. You get the point.
Business Etiquette tip #2: Make it easy to contact you. Include all of your contact information at the bottom of your outgoing and reply emails, in a clickable format (versus a non-clickable image). Don’t make people search for your contact information. Oh, and spell check your salutation. I’m amazed at how many spelling errors and typos I see in people’s contact information.
Business Etiquette tip #3: Turn off your out-of-office voicemail and email messages when you return from a trip. Telling people that you’ll be back on January 3rd, in March, makes you appear checked out.
Business Etiquette tip #4: Don’t wear perfume or cologne to work. It likely bothers someone but s/he won’t tell you about it.
Business Etiquette tip #5: Want to avoid people asking you, “Did you get my email?” or sending you yet another email? Reply to all emails, letting people know you received their message and letting them know when you’ll respond. That could read something like, “I received your message. I’ll reply with an answer by Friday.”
I could go on – eating smelly food in a cubicle, taking phone calls via a speaker phone from a cubicle, stealing other people’s lunches out of the refrigerator, taking up two parking spots, almost finishing the coffee, but not making more, borrowing someone’s chair and returning it at a different height, leaving conference rooms a mess, ending meetings late so a posse of people wait outside to use the conference room, flushing the toilet while participating in a remote conference call, but this is a good start. I’m looking forward to listening to your personal yet succinct voicemail greeting soon!
Leave a comment and tell us your easily fixed, work-related pet peeve!
About Shari Harley
Shari Harley is the founder and President of Candid Culture, a Denver-based training firm that is bringing candor back to the workplace, making it easier to give feedback at work. Shari is the author of the business communication book How to Say Anything to Anyone: A Guide to Building Business Relationships that Really Work. She is a keynote speaker at conferences and does training throughout the U.S. Learn more about Shari Harley and Candid Culture’s training programs at www.candidculture.com.
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Tags: business etiquette, business etiquette tips, business voicemail greeting, business voicemail greetings, corporate etiquette, easy to work with, professional etiquette, professional image, professional reputation, workplace etiquette
I often find myself booked in back-to-back meetings. I’ve learned to protect my calendar by scheduling work time and bio breaks. But one of the best “courtesy tips” I’ve learned is to make meetings for 45 min. instead of 60. This allows transition time and no one fills in the missing 15 min. with another meeting. My co-workers seem to appreciate the consideration and possible break to catch their breath or clear their minds before the next meeting. Meeting for 45 minutes instead of 60 makes people get down to business faster without reducing productivity. I hope it catches on.
Great tip, Lucinda! I think everyone could (and should!) get on-board with this!
A big pet peeve of mine is leaving the microwave and refrigerator a mess. How hard is it to clean up after yourself ? It’s not the receptionist’s job to be your personal maid (I’m not the receptionist, by the way). I always have to wonder if people leave spilled food in their microwaves and refrigerators at home.. if so – YUCK! If not, please show some respect and clean up your messes!
I’m too scared to know what their refrigerators & microwaves look like at home! I couldn’t agree more!