First day on the job! It’s a big deal! Especially when jobs are hard to find. But good market or bad, the first day on the job is both exciting, and a little intimidating.
To begin with, the employee wants to make a good impression. Wants to seem glad to be there, and eager to take on new and, hopefully, interesting responsibilities. Then there’s the unknown. When you interviewed everyone seemed nice, and everything seemed to be well organized and efficient. But what if you find out that everyone was lying? Your boss is really not nice! She’s really a workaholic and an insensitive bully who makes too many demands on herself and her entire staff. Your office mates and fellow employees are really incredibly inefficient and lazy, and what they’re hoping for is that you come in and straighten out the entire operation!!
From the employer’s point of view, she’s hoping that she’s really hired the person she interviewed for the job. In the interview, the prospective candidate seemed charming, personable, intelligent and efficient. What if, she worries, the candidate is really deceiving her? What if this person is a poseur, a fake, a fraud? What happens if she undermines the morale and the efficiency of the office? What happens if all of this causes profits to dip? Will she get fired just because she hired her?
Calm down! Hold your horses! You’re way ahead of yourself! On the first day for both employer and employee, everybody is a little nervous! But there’s no need to panic. At least, not yet. Stay calm, take a deep breath and try to act normally. Developing a work relationship like developing a friendship takes time. So give it time, and time will tell.