Starting your first ‘real’ job out of college? Below are bSmart’s 3 essential guidelines for office etiquette as an employee:

 1. Use “bottom line” communication
Urgent items should be addressed in the morning. Non-Urgent items addressed in the afternoon. Bosses have too much on their minds to be bothered with your extraneous and non-urgent thoughts. Many items probably pop into your mind all day long. This doesn’t mean you should bombard your boss with them – gather your reminders and communicate them deliberately, quickly, and all at one time.

 2. Talk less and say more
An employee should listen more than he/she speaks. Listen to what your boss has to say and provide one-sentence bottom lines and questions. Women probably say 3,000 more words in a day than we need to when communicating with our bosses. Keep your words to a minimum so they have a more meaningful impact.

 3. Know everything you can possibly know
Be organized and have a system for every open or pending item. This might require electronic reminders or a 30-minute review at the beginning or end of your workday. When your boss asks you a question, your response should be one of the following:

  • A one-sentence, bottom-line answer.
  • “I will look into that / research that and get back to you.”
  • Be aware of what your boss needs to do to be successful and to avoid embarrassment.
  • Open projects
  • Unreturned emails
  • Calls he/she needs to return
  • If you don’t know the answer and don’t know where to find the answer, tell your boss and ask where you he/she would find the answer.
Congratulations on landing your first job!

Article Originally Posted on Levo League