If you’ve ever been the new person in an office, chances are you’ve done the dreaded introductory lap where your manager drags you from cubicle to cubicle to meet a sea of strangers. In these circumstances, you rarely remember their names or what they actually do, making for awkward conversations in the office kitchen. Here’s a way to make the whole process a little less painful.
A typical workplace introduction exchange usually goes something like this:
[Manager leads new recruit to a cubicle of office workers.]
Manager: “Hey guys, this is Spandas. Spandas, this is Tom, Dick, Harry and Bennifer.”
Tom, Dick, Harry and Bennifer: “Hi.”
[Manager moves to next cubicle with new minion in tow.]
As the new girl at Allure Media, I had to make my presence known via the usual office walk-and-wave. But rather than getting my editor to do the honours, I took a different approach. Instead, I made the introductions myself and asked them what they did in the company, which led to a nice flow of conversation.
This method not only helps you build rapport with your new co-workers, it also helps you put faces to names. At the very least, it ensures you know more about them so the next time you run into them at a communal area you have enough information to start a conversation.
What’s a life hack you’ve used when you started at a new job? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
7 responses to “Introduce Yourself Solo When Starting A New Job For Better Name Retention”
I really like this idea. I work in a large bank and it could be hard as I work with a lot of people on different floors and a lot of the people on my floor don’t relate to my work at all.
In my first ever job I discovered a dozen boxes of Ribena had been stored in my cubical, my manager instructed me to walk around the building giving out free Ribena however I needed to get the name of everyone I gave it to… terrifying for a new staff member but helped get on the right foot with a lot of people!
The first thing that came to my mind when I read this comment was “I wonder if the Ribenas were past their expiry date…” haha. Either way, I like the idea of offering food/drink during an intro!
that Bennifer, such a b i/u tch.
well done on the article though, great tip. im hopeless with names, but am usually really good with faces.
Sounds like a good tip, I’m also hopeless with names and often have trouble remembering the names of people I know reasonably well if I am put on the spot and have to introduce them to someone else.
I actually once temporarily forgot the name of quite a good friend when I went to introduce her to someone and just had to sit there awkwardly and pretend like they already knew each other. I told her later and apologised and we had a laugh about it but yeah… awkward.
There’s probably a name for temporary memory loss of names under pressure, I cant recall it right now though. 😉
I’m terrible with names as well so I try to use word associations… I’ll write an article about it soon 🙂
Also, when I forget someone’s name when introducing them (yes, i can totally relate to you on this), I just go “Oh, maybe you guys know each other already?”. The two people will then just end up introducing themselves to each other. Problem solved!
Hey Spandas that picture was taking from Bridge st?
Same building as I work in 🙂
Keen eye!
How good is the food court below us?!
Its not bad but just cost a little extra there, I normally take a little walk to Wynyard for a better food selection
But the portuguese burger and that korean store are good!