By KCY

Have you ever started a new job and felt like you are drowning? Like you can’t do it? Most people have felt this way. You aren’t alone. Here are some tips on how to survive your first thirty days in a new job.

1.     Allow yourself to be inefficient. Most of us want to be the best at our job, but we want to do it in the most efficient way possible. A new job brings a new system, new people, new ways of doing things. You will have to learn all of this. But it takes time. It takes time to master tasks, to learn the system, to figure out the most efficient way to do your job. You’ll be inefficient in the beginning, and that’s okay. Be patient with yourself. Give yourself time. Allow yourself some grace.

2.     Get to know your colleagues. I know, I know, you don’t have time. But, you have to make time. Grab a cup of coffee with your colleague in the cubicle next to you, even if it’s day-old stale coffee in chipped mugs in the break room. Don’t just talk about work. Ask questions about their personal lives. Get to know the people they are outside of work. This is an extremely important step. After all, for most of us, work is our second home. So, your colleagues are your second family.

3.     Exercise. During those early days in a new job, we neglect this aspect of our lives. We tell ourselves we are too busy. Yeah, you’re busy, but make time. Even if it is for a ten-minute walk out in the sunshine during lunch. Moving your body resuscitates your mind.

4.     Decorate your office. Put up some pictures of your family or that piece of art that inspires you. Put an overstuffed, comfy sofa or chair in your office. If you aren’t lucky enough to have your own office, decorate your cubicle with pictures of family and friends. Place objects on your desk which make your space your own. Look like you’ve moved in, not that you have never moved in!

5.     Focus on day to day accomplishments. That report that took you four hours yesterday, only took you two hours today. You found your way to the lunchroom by yourself and managed to use that complicated microwave. Yes, the little things, but the little things help boost your morale up.

6.     Work hard, but not too hard. Stay an extra hour or two after, but don’t stay four hours after, or up all night. Too many extra hours leads straight to burn out. And, you just started a new job. Burnout is the first thing you want to avoid.

7.     Know that this too shall past. Yes, a big cliché, but it’s true. Right now, you are the new kid on the block. But you know what? Next year, you’ll be training the next new kid.