Lifestyle

The Workplace Laws Everyone Must Follow

by Ally Batista

Most of our readers are getting their first adult, full-time jobs and beginning their professional careers. Congratulations, you’re on the way to becoming Elite.

However; in order to for you to see understand the value of the Elite code of ethics, you must follow some of these rules essential to your success in the workplace.

Do not date someone in the office

This should be self-explanatory, yet I feel the need to repeatedly stress why it's not beneficial to become involved with a co-worker because people still cannot grasp the error of other people's ways. It seems like a great idea at first, doesn’t it?  This is such a convenient place to meet someone. You spend the majority of your time throughout the day in the office, so you why waste your time and money trying to find someone else when all these great options have been presented to you? Trust me, do not go there.

You begin to date someone and then all of a sudden it goes sour, like every romantic fling does these days. Now you hate each other, are creeped out by the idea of just being in the same room as this person, and the worst part is: you have to see him or her from 9-5 every single day.

How awful is that? It's as if an amount of awkwardness meant to slowly be dissolved over three or four months is constantly thrown in your face as soon as you walk in the door.  Your work is most likely going to suffer as a result of this poor choice of judgment, which will ultimately lead to greater problems.

Even if the relationship goes great for a while and something long-term comes from this, even if you get married this just means there will be more tension between the two of you in the work place when a discrepancy arises. What happens if one day the two of you get into an awful fight? He’s sleeping on the couch, you’re tiptoeing around him, and now you have to see him all day? This doesn’t give either of you enough time to recuperate from an argument, as it is extremely to hard to get over such conflicts when the person you're mad at is sitting ten feet away.

Or what happens if one person in the relationship has a higher position within the company than the other? Does that cause animosity? Favoritism? Have I convinced you not to do this yet?

Do not talk about your drinking escapades

Yes, you’re a legal adult and drinking is completely acceptable for someone of your age. However; what you do on the weekends should simply not be mentioned in the workplace. No one in your office wants to hear about how you threw up everywhere after doing Irish Car Bombs for three straight hours with your boys on Saturday night. No one needs to hear about how hot the guy you brought home was either.

These things are just unprofessional, and even if you’re discussing them with a colleague of the same age, people talk. Word will most definitely get around and imagine how that would make you look once your boss finds out. You need these people to be judging you for your work, and nothing else.

Keep your mouth shut

Do not talk about your political views, do not talk about your religious views, do not talk about who you’re voting for in the upcoming Presidential Election and please keep any major opinions to yourself. I guarantee that at least five people in the office will strongly disagree with anything you have to say and that’s just statistics. Any kind of unnecessary argument that could potentially jeopardize the productivity of the office must always be avoided.

The workplace is supposed to be a place for you to excel, in peace. You’re supposed to be focusing on furthering your career, not creating hostility between coworkers and yourself. Disagree with someone who is vital in your every day work process and it's all downhill from there.

Know when to let things go

Here at Elite Daily, we’re fortunate enough to have bosses who are just as fucked up and crazy as we are, but some offices are not so lucky. There’s going to be times where your above and beyond work will go unnoticed. There will definitely be times where you’re treated unfairly and there will absolutely be moments where you want to flip a table, scream, and kick your boss in the teeth. Always keep your cool. Never let yourself lose it and tell whoever it is in the office to go fuck themselves even if they most likely deserve it.

All of these laws should be meticulously followed and enforced to prevent any less than favorable situations in a place that you can’t escape. The only people who shouldn’t follow these laws are the staff of Elite Daily. This is simply because our website wouldn’t be half as interesting if we didn’t argue with each other, hit on each other, and generally make the environment extremely uncomfortable on a daily basis.

Elite.

Photo Credit: Getty Images