We’re hiring quite a lot of new people at GDS, and that’s brilliant because there are so many new brains and new skills and new faces to get to know.
It’s also difficult. It’s difficult for those newcomers to know what to expect, and what’s expected of them.
Of course they get told all the official stuff – how they get paid, how to use the printer, who their line manager is.
But it’s harder to communicate the unofficial stuff. The stuff that’s good to know, but that it’s no-one’s job to tell you. The stuff you’ll probably find out during your first few months, but most likely by accident, because someone casually mentions something in passing and you say “Wait, what? Is that a thing?”
Stuff that’s good to know on day 1
The team I work with has been hiring too. We welcomed one newcomer two weeks ago, and two more just this week.And it occurred to me: maybe it would be helpful to spell out this unofficial stuff up front, on day 1. Maybe we just need to say what’s ok. To be explicit about the things that those of us who have been here a few years take for granted.
So our team wrote a list of things it’s ok to do at GDS.