Interpersonal Skills Stack Exchange
Interpersonal Skills Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [professionalism]

For questions regarding work-appropriate behavior and etiquette.

Knowing how to interact with people professionally is an important skill. Use this tag for questions about professional behavior or situations in which maintaining professionalism is important. When asking a question, make sure to indicate your background, as these customs can vary significantly between cultures and even industry.

Also note that The Workplace is another Stack Exchange site focused solely on navigating the workplace. If your question about professionalism is off-topic for Interpersonal Skills, you may wish to check if it is on topic there.

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How to respond when a Doctor's Receptionist asks the reason for the appointment, after confirming appointment is made?

I have recently come across a situation that made me feel very uncomfortable, especially if it had been more of a personal issue. I contacted my doctor yesterday with pains in my hand/wrist as I didn't feel it was serious enough for a visit to the…
Clannagh
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How can I politely tell someone I won't do my job for free?

I am a relatively open individual who is shy (for lack of a better word) around new people. One of my coworkers has a business and is asking for my help as a financial analyst outside of work, and while I'm more than happy to help my fear is that my…
Anoplexian
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Why is a 'good' handshake important?

When preparing for job interviews in the past, my recruiters have told me to ensure that I greet the interviewer with a "good firm" handshake. Even so, outside of the work environment when I've given a good handshake to either an academic (when at…
Bradley Wilson
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I'm in marketing in a team whose name sounds too much like mine. What to do when introducing myself?

Let's say I'm in a small team called Adhyan, and my name is Adhyan. (I've changed the names for privacy.) There's no correlation, and I happened to join this team because I wanted to learn a topic that they specialise in, no other reason. When I…
Abhigyan
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Talking to the parents of an adult autistic student

I have an adult, autistic student who I have tutored weekly in programming since about November. His parents would like this tutoring to result in him being able to work as an entry-level programmer, but I have been slowly coming to the conclusion…
Ben I.
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How to tell my usual plumber their service isn’t needed any more?

So my regular plumber who has serviced my boiler for several years has become quite unreliable lately (hard to get hold of and book) and I’ve booked someone else to do the annual service this year. My regular plumber text today asking when they can…
Notts90 supports Monica
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What is the etiquette for smalltalk in a workplace when the context and person is always the same?

Every single day at 3:45 PM Bob rings the doorbell at work. Every single day I answer the door and hand Bob a small amount of paperwork. Every single day there is about 10 seconds as Bob flips through the paperwork checking that everything is in…
Jesse
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How can I assert my domain knowledge, while signalling openness to useful information, over email?

My current project at work is part of a product that many people use internally, with an active email list for user feedback. I recently pushed out a rather visible change and unsurprisingly someone started a thread on the list with some feedback. I…
Em C
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How to ask a friend to do professional work?

A good friend of mine, James, is an unemployed graphic designer with a significant amount of time on his hands. I really like his work and would like to commission him at his desired rate. However, I've asked him casually (although I did…
Arthas
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What is the politest way to follow up on an ignored email?

I send a lot of emails - some important and some not. I often get replies for the important ones promptly, but the less important ones can often be forgotten. I understand this - I'm sure I do the same sometimes. This specific case is me emailing a…
Tim
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How to handle accidential baldness in a professional environment?

Last night, I wanted to cut my own hair and I used a hair-cutting-machine for that. I wanted to cut it short, about 1-2cm. In the middle of the process, the machine stopped working, I opened it for repair and put it all back together. But I forgot…
Max Mustermann Junior
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Can we use abbreviations in professional communication?

Is it good to use abbreviations in professional communication? I generally uses Mail or Skype to communicate with others. In that case, many times I used words such as ASAP, CTN, FYI etc. So when should I use these words and when should I not use…
Code Lღver
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How should one deal with overly familiar serving staff?

This question is very culturally specific to the United Kingdom. Social and age deference is waning in the UK, this may be a matter of personal opinion as to whether that is a desirable trend. Many people of "a certain age" in the UK were brought up…
r m
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How to tell other people that my job is only a job to me?

I don't know if this question may be confusing to some of you; so I will try to explain myself as well as I can. I have been interested in informatics and technology all my life. When I was young I started learning how to code. I spent time…
Xeng Garcia
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How can I deal with good friends who suffer from a lack of self-esteem -- and rightly so?

I have a few friends, very good ones amonst them, that suffer from low self-esteem that leads them to lack drive and evergy in both everyday and professional lives. Over the years, I tried to help and encourage them in various ways, like helping…
tempaccount
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