The Happy Employee: New Job: Before The First Day

Lets imagine the following situation: you will start a new job next week and begin to realize what a big step this is for you. Maybe you feel like panicking: don't!

Here are a few tips that will help make your first day a success (and will keep you busy so you don't have time to worry).

1. Clothes

Maybe the dress code at your old company was more casual and you have only one business dress (which you were already wearing to both interviews). If your "nice" clothes were sitting in a closet for a couple of years:

check them for holes. Maybe you had hungry little guests.
do the chair test with your trousers. Maybe you put on a little weight? Put them on and sit down. If it doesn't hurt and the fabric doesn't tear, you passed.
are you sure you remember how to knot a tie? Want to find out Monday morning when you're nervous and already running late?

Don't wait until Sunday evening to realize that you should buy new clothes when all stores are closed.

2. Location

Of course you remember where the company is located. But when you went there for the interviews it was probably during the day, so no rush hour.

print a map with directions, it can't hurt.

3. Phone numbers

I work in HR, so I'm always in worst scenario mode. What if you have the hail storm of the century or a truck transporting weapons-grade plutonium has an accident and the road is closed for 5 hours? You shouldn't be late on your first day (or ever), but if push comes to shove, be ready to call ahead.

store the phone numbers of your boss and of the switchboard on your mobile phone

4. Ponctuality

Relax, there shouldn't be any hail and the dangerous trucks usually travel during the night. So you won't be late, period! The farther away you live from your place of work, the more you should arrive ahead of time (the farther away, the more possibilities to be held up).