“Your manners are always under examination, and by committees little suspected, awarding or denying you very high prizes when you least think of it."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Well, the least suspected committee may well turn out to be your next employer and the prize, your ideal job! You just never know. So, if you happen to travel a lot, hobnob with clients and visit other offices as part of your work schedule, ensure that your manners are impeccable and your visiting etiquette, intact.
So, how good is your visitor etiquette? Evaluate yourself by going through these simple but effective rules.
• Be punctual. If you are 5 minutes early, even better. This indicates that you respect other people’s time.
• Don't stroll into a place as if it’s your own.
• Be polite to everyone you meet irrespective if it’s the receptionist or the CEO.
• If the office that you are visiting needs you to sign in, and take a visitor card, comply with the protocol. You could supply the receptionist with your visiting card.
• While waiting, don't try to chat up the receptionist, in case your feeling bored!
• While waiting in someone's office, don't touch anything on his desk or around his room. Similarly, his reading material is his own, and is not there for you to kill time with.
• Carry your own pens and note pads; it looks very unprofessional when you ask to borrow these.
• Get your work done and leave. This is not a social visit so don’t grab every opportunity to chitchat.
• On your way out, remember to thank the receptionist!
