Minding Your Manners at Work
Don’t do anything to embarrass your mother! The work environment requires good manners. In the hospitality industry, courteous and respectful behavior is a job requirement. The following guidelines apply in all professional situations:
Never wipe your hands on your clothes when eating, burp, put your elbows on table, talk with your mouth full, or overindulge in food or alcohol.
Welcome people appropriately. Greet every person in a group. Offer a firm handshake to everyone. Introduce everyone who is with you.
During a meeting or presentation, listen. Do not whisper to someone when another person is speaking. Do not send text messages via cell phone to the person across the table during a meeting. Do not read a book, get out your PDA to check email, doodle, or gaze into space during a meeting or presentation. Never ask a question whose answer was given while you were not listening!
Answer the phone politely, identifying both yourself and your company. Always offer to take a message for someone else or put the caller through to voice mail or someone else. Repeat any message to make sure it is correct. Ask for the spelling of the callers name to ensure you write it down correctly. Thank the caller at the end of the call.
Don’t leave your stuff allover the staff room or let it spill out of your office or cubicle into the aisles. Don’t hang art work on the wall of a shared office without asking your desk mate if it is OK. Don’t crank up your music until the guy in the next office can hear it.
Be considerate of other people’s time. Arrive at the appointed hour for all meetings. Be brief when it is necessary to interrupt a co-worker to ask a question. Turn off your cell phone in meetings and ignore it if it rings or vibrates while you are chatting with someone in the hall.
Always pay your fair share of a group meal, a cab fare, or a round of drinks. Never borrow money or anything else from co-workers unless it is a real emergency, and pay them back or return the borrowed item as quickly as possible.
Never snoop. Keep your hands in your pocket while sitting in someone’s office waiting.
