Professionalism is a key element of career advancement, as it influences how your supervisors and coworkers perceive you. Accordingly, here are some tips that will help you maintain a professional conduct:
- Be sure to practice your netiquette; i.e., check your email for grammatical errors and typos, start your emails with a proper salutation and end them with an appropriate send-off, and reply to correspondence in a timely manner.
- Inquire about the institution’s dress code and respect it.
- In any communication, make sure to keep proper eye contact and posture. How you carry yourself and interact with your coworkers and/or supervisors plays a crucial role in maintaining a good reputation. In the same vein, keep all conversations with your coworkers polite and civil.
- Respect the working hours, i.e., always arrive in a timely manner and restrict early leaves for emergencies only.
- Keep your phone on silent at all times, and if you need to reply to an urgent phone call, do so in a private area.
- Make sure to notify your supervisor(s) ahead of time in case of absences, such as paid time-off, scheduled sick leave, maternity/paternity leave, etc.
- Get every formal correspondence in writing. Keeping a record of professional business communication will help you avoid misunderstandings.
- Do not overpromise on deadlines, as it will only hinder the progress of the overall project/task.
- Ask for assistance when you have a question or need guidance on a specific task; taking it on your own is likely to create unnecessary roadblocks in the long run.
- With that said, before contacting a coworker for help, make sure you utilize all available resources to see if the assistance you need has a simple or accessible solution in order to avoid prolonging a task. Keep a record of these solutions to refer to them when needed.
- Maintain the cleanliness of common areas, such as kitchenettes, meeting rooms, shared office spaces, etc. Furthermore, be careful when handling shared items and/or common areas and avoid damaging any property.
- Maintain social decorum, e.g., cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough, use your indoor voice, chew with your mouth closed, etc.
- Practice time-management, i.e., always organize your day so that it is conducive to your work being done and does not hinder the progress of the project/task at hand, especially when working in a group setting.
- Organize your folders and files in such a way that they are easily accessible and do not get misplaced. It may be suitable to also have your folders and files synced to a cloud service, such as OneDrive.
- If you are put in charge of a team, exercise good leadership skills and consider all of your team members’ point of view.