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The entry-level guide to office etiquette

In a world of unpaid internships and distracted managers, how’s a young professional to learn?
Five essential insights to surviving as you start out.

By Nadira A. Hira

NEW YORK (Fortune) — A few years before I began writing “The Gig,” when I was starting out as one of the starry-eyed Gen Y staffers I now write about (and still am), I walked to the office printer barefoot. Granted, it was in an office where wearing short sleeves constituted a statement. (Not Fortune, you gossips.) And to my credit, I’d taken my shoes off under my desk and simply forgotten to put them back on. But the veritable uproar this etiquette infraction caused — we actually had a meeting about it, if I recall — taught me an invaluable lesson: Nothing ruins your workplace rep like a breach of office etiquette…Read the full article for the 5 essential insights

The entry-level guide to office etiquette

In a world of unpaid internships and distracted managers, how’s a young professional to learn? Five essential insights to surviving as you start out.

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By Nadira A. Hira, writer


Class of 2009: Who's working, who isn't
The class of 2009 graduated into the worst economy in decades, with unemployment at a 26-year high. Here’s how 11 grads are getting by.

When will you know that an economic recovery is underway?

  • When the Dow tops 10,000
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  • When job growth resumes
  • It’s already started

Don't! Get laid off
You’ve got a job. Good. Now keep yourself off a potential-layoff list by avoiding bad office behavior. 15 horror stories straight from the trenches.

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NEW YORK (Fortune) — A few years before I began writing “The Gig,” when I was starting out as one of the starry-eyed Gen Y staffers I now write about (and still am), I walked to the office printer barefoot. Granted, it was in an office where wearing short sleeves constituted a statement. (Not Fortune, you gossips.) And to my credit, I’d taken my shoes off under my desk and simply forgotten to put them back on. But the veritable uproar this etiquette infraction caused — we actually had a meeting about it, if I recall — taught me an invaluable lesson: Nothing ruins your workplace rep like a breach of office etiquette.

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