Booze And Sex- The Intern's Minefield
How do I handle office gossip?
Office gossip, and office politics is really bad and you shouldn't be involved in it. You can know about it, you can think about it, you can write this in your little feelings journal when you go home, but really try to stay outside of it. Really try to stay out of it, because it's really ugly and you don't want to be caught up in it, and you never want to be that intern that is gossiping or anything like that. Do your tasks, do it really well and go home every night and write in your feelings journal if you want to but don't participate in office gossip, it's so bad.
What if I gossip about something in my office that comes back to haunt me?
It's best to keep your mouth shut, at all times. And you never know, when you are at a restaurant, and someone says "hey how's the job ?", and you reply - who's that guy sitting next to you? Best to keep your mouth shut, because you never know. The smallest thing could become the biggest thing on page 6.
Is it OK to use my cell phone at work?
You know, you can use your cell phone at work. I'm not going to say that people never do. It's really important not to be like "Hi! You going to the movies tonight? Yeah, I really wato to do it." If you really want to have that conversation, just step outside, especially if you're in a cubicle and a lot of people can hear you. You don't want to be the one talking about your plans for the weekend or anything along those lines. Try to use it sparingly, but you're definitely, you know, going to. Your mom is going to call and need something, so you should definitely pick up the phone. And that's fine. Try to keep your voice low. And if you really need to make weekend plans, try to do it outside.
What are the rules for using IM in the workplace?
Some working environments function off IM. Everyone communicates around the office via IM, so if you're IM is HoneyBunny87928, you probably want to make a new IM just for work that says your first name and last name, and just keep it simple and only have your work people on that list because you don't want an embarrassing screen name that you made in sixth grade. If you are going to use your screenname, put up an away message that says "At work." You don't want to be having eight million conversations with people at work all flashing up, all making noises while you're trying to do work. It's distracting for you, it's distracting for your productivity and you don't want someone to walk by and be like, "Why's everything flashing on his screen." So try not to have that many conversations with people while you're at the office besides with people who are at the office. If you need to, that's fine, but just make sure it doesn't happen all the time.
What are the rules for e-mailing in the workplace?
First of all, internal e-mail-- if they give you an account-- they can read every e-mail that you write, so just be careful about that. Don't write anything bad on e-mail. At the same token, your personal e-mail; don't write any bad e-mail about work. You never know who's going to forward something to someone to somewhere, and all of a sudden at the bottom of this laundry list of e-mails, or this laundry list of conversations, all of a sudden there's something bad, it gets forwarded to someone and bang, you're dead. It's sort of e-mail 101 nowadays, which is just don't write a lot in secret. It's best to use that old fashioned telephone.
What if someone from the office invites me for drinks but I'm underage?
That's fine to say, "Hey, I'm not twenty-one". Does that mean that you can't go out with them? No, what that means is that you should just order a coke or don't order an alcoholic beverage. If you order a coke or a water or something and you think, "Oh, I'm such a loser", then yes, you are a loser. But if you go with the flow and say, "Oh, I'm under twenty-one, I'll just have a coke", just be outgoing and it'll be fine. You don't need to have beer with them.
What if the culture of my office involves drinking nightly?
It's fine to say, "Hey, I have to go home." If that's the culture, I don't think you should participate in it, because you're an intern. You're trying to put on a good face. The best way to get to know someone is when you're sober and when you can do work really well. You don't have to go out every night and get smashed with these people to make a good impression.
What if I get drunk at an office event?
You should not be drunk at any office setting. However, if you still happen to be drunk, I would say leave the party asap. Laugh about it. Hopefully everyone else is drunk with you. There's no point in being like, "Oh my god, I'm so sorry." You can apologize, that's fine, but move on quickly.
What if I hook up with someone from the office?
The point of an internship is to be an intern, and not to be a party animal with the staff afterwards. If you're invited to a party, that's great. Then, you should go. You should absolutely go. But, you have to remember that you're not a staff member yet. You're an intern. What they're going to remember you as is a great worker, with a great work ethic, a great person in the office. What they're probably not going to hire you for is how well you go out and party. I would be aware of that. Go out with them, but know your boundaries.
Is it OK spend time on Facebook or MySpace at work?
Obviously you are going to be bored. You are going to be sitting there at work and you are going to be really tempted to go to MySpace and Facebook. I would say go to Facebook. Don't go to MySpace because a lot of MySpace pages are loud and there are all these things going on and it looks so immature, like "What are you looking at?" So if you really are tempted, if you really need to check someone's profile, go to Facebook, but don't look at their photos. Send a message or something. Make it discreet, but don't spend a lot of time on Facebook and MySpace. That's what you do at home. Everybody has their down moment and everyone is like, "Oh, I kind of just really want to look around and be really lazy." Honestly it happens to everyone. It happens to your boss probably. But just keep it low and don't go to loud sites that make a lot of noise. Don't watch YouTube videos for the most part, especially if you are in a cubicle type setting. Just try to minimize it. You don't want to be that kid that is always surfing the Web and not doing anything. And if you really want to surf, do it on a legitimate website. Go to NYTimes.com, go to something where you can have a little bit more fun. Not that, you know, reading the New York Times every day is fun. Go to a site that is interesting but looks more legitimate than just going to play Pokemon.
Is it OK to friend co-workers on Facebook or MySpace?
I would say no. I think it's great to friend interns. I think that's fantastic. I don't think that your co-workers need your photos, info, and all that stuff. I wouldn't do that. If you want to afterwards, that's ok to friend them, maybe, but then you hide your photos, and you hide your wall. But if a co-worker's are really on Facebook, they'll know, just like you know, that your friend is hiding your photos, and then it becomes awkward, as if "Oh my god, what's he hiding?" It's just better not to, don't get into it with them.
Should I modify my Facebook or MySpace pages when I'm an intern?
I think Facebook in general, it's important that what you now put on the internet can be seen by everybody. Do not put photos on the internet of friends, that you don't want seen of yourself. It is so important to not do that. Great to share photos via email. Great to share photos via a little album. But it's really important that your photos on Facebook, your photos on Myspace, are really appropriate photos because you never know who is going to see it. Make sure, go through your photo album. Make sure that if your mom looks, she'll approve of every picture. If the New York Times looks, and wants to put something on the front page, make sure that you are ok with every single picture. Chances are, I'm an editor for the school newspaper, if we're doing a story on someone, we'll go to Facebook to pull their photo. So your interests, everything, the less you have on Facebook, the more safe you are. Because you never know, even if you have all these private settings and everything, you never know who's friends with who and who's checking up on you.