Professional Etiquette

Improving the Workplace Culture

Ian McCarthy, Emory University

Economics PhD Professionalism Workshop

Culture

What can you do to help improve the culture?

  • Be professional and treat others with respect (we already know this one)
  • Maintain regular hours and be present
  • Say hi and step out of your office every now and then

Regular hours

  • Typically required for non-academic jobs
  • My opinion: Should be required for academic jobs too
    • Others should know who you are
    • Students should be able to stop by outside of office hours (especially close advisees and PhD students)
    • Faculty should want to help other faculty
  • Try leaving your door open

It’s super depressing to walk through a whole department and just see closed doors or vacant offices everywhere.

Interact

This is harder to do for introverts, but…

  • Ask people to go to coffee or tea
  • Go for walks
  • Go out to lunch

Try to be part of your workplace. It’s much more rewarding.