Be friends with support staff: S’pore netizens share ‘unconventional tips for newbies at work’

What is an unconventional tip for newbies at work? Singapore netizens share tips for work life

Everyone begins from somewhere, but in a competitive society, the bar for beginners can be quite high.

On Tuesday (1 Sept), a netizen went on Reddit to seek “unconventional tips for newbies at work”.

In an exclusive with MS News, the Original Poster (OP), referred to as Boey Da Han, shared that the question came to them after seeing a Business Times post.

Question inspired by a post seen online

The Gen Z Singaporean, in their early 20s, came across a post by Thrive by The Business Times, which asked nine young adults for unconventional tips for their first day at a new job.

According to the answers in the post, the survey respondents suggested:

• Copying a colleague’s lunch order as it never hurts to acknowledge their taste in food
• Have a collection of “dad jokes” ready
• Don’t dress too wear on the first day as you will set a precedent you cannot match for the rest of your career
• Be a fly on the wall to get a sense of team dynamics

New environments can be intimidating

Boey went on to share their own personal concerns in the Reddit post.

They said that a former schoolmate of theirs is joining the company and department and, according to Boey, the two did not get along.

Speaking to MS News, Boey said that some of their biggest fears are “not surviving busy periods” and “hate” from colleagues.

They also added that new people and new environments can be intimidating, saying: “I did internships before where everyone treats you as a kid.”

They said: “I asked my senior at work what’s the difference between an intern and a fresh grad entry-level job.”

“She said that the latter has more responsibilities and higher expectations.”

School is very different from work

Furthermore, Boey believes that a reason for the anxiety could be due to the system in Singapore.

They said: “For many young adults, majority of their life is spent in school is spent in school.”

Boey went on to add that many are even “institutionalised” by the school system and struggle once they enter the working world.

Apart from managing work life, Boey stated that they do not want to end up being overworked.

I don’t want to spend my adult life looking ‘chopped’ because of stress and cortisol levels.

Netizens offer their own unconventional tips for newbies

In the comments section, netizens provided a variety of advice.

Some Reddit users advise Boey not to fully rely on Human Resources (HR) for help.

Others reminded that tardiness is important in the workplace.

A few told Boey to learn how to manage themselves first, either by communicating or writing well.

One netizen offered a helpful tip of befriending the support staff.

Speaking to MS News, Boey said: “I believe internships are a way to acclimate into the workplace, which works for some people as they extend their contracts there.”

Also read: Redditor asks if AI degree is ‘worth taking’, sparks debate over ‘useless’ degrees in S’pore

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Featured image adapted from Negative Space and Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.