Everyday
conversations, greetings, excuses and assertion in formal and informal routines
is what we do every day as part of our day to day activities, ranging from
office and back home, from the white collars employees to the blue collar
workers on the work floor, and not omitting those people that are neither white
nor blue collar workers, in fact from every sphere of life we encounter and
engage in interpersonal conversations either in the formal or informal
contexts. I can wholly say and everyone knows it that most of the conversations
we have every day as a typical Nigerian living in a city like Lagos or the prestigious
Abuja or other ethno generic cities in Nigeria are informal conversations. At
times we do forget that we are in formal settings and we still gesture the
informal words; although it is mostly unnoticed, as in this part of the world
we don’t really care about what you say or how you say it, as far as it is
helpful. That is why I compile this list of 10 things behaviors, gestures and
assertions that is often done wrongly in an official platform
1. Colloquial words
A typical citizen will send a mailed
message or even start a conversation with laid back or colloquial words such as
“hey you guys”, “yo” or “hi”, this combinations of colloquialisms are informal
in nature. A simple “hello” is enough to send across the attention you so seek.
2. Introductions
In a situation whereby you are entrenched
with the responsibility of making the introduction and announcement of a
visitor or even a slight introduction of a higher ranked personnel to a lower
ranked employee; who knows, people often do the introduction the wrong way, if
not done well you might have offended someone even without you knowing. In
introducing people to each other its just ethical to present the person of the
lower rank to the person of higher rank
3. Greetings
In a formal setting some people like to be
strictly be addressed the formal way and even if that business associate, elder
or other acquaintance are to be
addressed by you, my advice is to stick to the formal greeting ethic, unless
you are instructed to do the greetings the informal way which I think cannot
even happen. It send a great message to the person whom you are addressing,
that you are serious and respectable and strict when it comes to business.
4. Helping hands
Helping people and being helped is what we
engage in, in our everyday routines either in the official hours of the day
when we are at the office or the informal hours after work. While you could
easily be offended when you offer to help someone in an informal context, which
is just about normal; in a formal frame it is not polite to be offended when
your offer to help is turned down. If he or she rejects your help feel
munificent to say”please feel free to inform me if you have a change of
thoughts”.
5. Speech politeness
Informal ambiance such as home and hookups
with friends and family are just about places where you can make use of code
mixing techniques, filler words, slangs and informal registers, but “let give
ceaser what’s ceaser’s” is what the old adage says, in an official situation
feel obliged to speak politely, keep the
tempo of your voice as down as could politely be and make sure to avoid gossips
and false conversations during the hours of work; it will only command respect
and good manners in the workplace.
6. Workplace drama
You could actually be the most finial and
discreet person at you workplace, the work floor drama is kind of inevitable to
the tune that if you decide to not annoy people, you do not know who might feel
bad and gross about you and as well as you will want to keep your self-worth
high to avoid been took for granted. To reply a direct jibe from a co worker,
the best way to confront him or her is by email; why? It is actually because
the email will allow you to pour out your mind on anything you might not feel
good about and also avoid any face to face faceoff that could be gross.
Secondly emails allow the other person to have a copy of your thoughts in his
or her archives.
7. Interruption management
People do value conversation in a high manner
especially in an official workplace, and urgency has been around for as long as
can be, sometimes we get so entwined with urgency that we forgot our etiquette
and that could become ugly when we interrupt a valuable conversation. So to
avoid that, I recommend that no matter the urgency of the news you might want
to deliver a managed and polite form of interruption to a conversation, i.e.
“excuse” is as valuable as gem at that moment.
8. Privacy
People do enjoy their piece of privacy
being strictly respected and some people might be pissed off if their privacy
is being infringed on. So in an official setting using a cell phone, maintain a
privacy range as people are not interested in your conversation and if you are
to be beside someone having a telephone conversation keep and maintain a
reasonable distance, it shows you are respectable and if you are in a
conference, make sure your phone is kept at bay to abate interruptions.
9. Intrusion
Looking into someone else’s computer or
mobile phone in a workplace or a formal office could as well be one of the most
demeaning offences a co worker. Keep your distance , make sure to inform him or
her before barging into his or her privacy. Not doing so could make the respect
being given to you crash or demean and you could afterwards be tagged awkward.
10. Eatables
Considering a snack after a long day of work
or briefly taking a coffee after a stressful work trend is always inevitable
and it is just normal when done appropriately. But some people do go great
lengths to chew and pop gums at the workplace which is totally contrary to the
workplace etiquette.
posted by MW
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