Personal Hygiene in the Workplace

Many times we talk to students about personal hygiene but we don’t talk about personal hygiene in the workplace. This isn’t something that they learn instinctively and have to be taught about this. Students will be working with or around other people so they need to be aware of their personal hygiene.

Here are some topics that need to be addressed:

Wash every day. Make sure your body is clean and doesn’t smell. Body odor is very offensive. Be careful about putting on perfumes or colognes because others around you may be allergic to scents.

Have clean and tidy hair (head and facial). You don’t want your hair to get in your face and cause you to lose the ability to see what you are doing. This could cause mistakes or even accidents. If you are in the food industry, you may be required to wear hair nets over your head or beard and mustache.

Wear clean clothes. If you wear a uniform, make sure it is clean when you go to work. No one wants to work around someone who is wearing dirty and smelly clothes. If you are in the food industry, not wearing clean clothes could cause you to lose your job. This would be a health violation.

Have clean hands including nails. People notice other people’s hands. You don’t want to have dirty hands when you are working with a product because this could cause them to be stained or scratched which would cause the company to lose money. Again, if this happens often, you could lose your job.

Brush your teeth and use mouthwash if possible. Nothing is worse than talking to someone with bad breath! If you are in customer service and dealing with the public, you want to put your best foot forward. This means not offending them with bad breath. By taking care of your teeth, you can keep bad odors away. Sometimes bad breath comes from not taking care of your teeth so daily brushing and mouthwash help.

Check with your employer to see what the dress code is concerning jewelry. Some employers do not allow you to wear jewelry because it could cause an injury. When my husband worked on computers, he was not allowed to wear rings in case they caught on something. This could hurt him and the object he was working on.

Keep a clean workspace. Keeping your workspace clean helps to keep you clean also. Your workspace says a lot about you. If your workspace is clean and organized, others will see you that way too. If you take pride in your workspace, people will know that you take pride in yourself too.

What other advice would you give about personal hygiene in the workplace? Please share.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

High-Leverage Practice 7: Social/Emotional/Behavioral

 I am going to discuss High-Leverage Practices as mentioned on the CEC website organized around four aspects of practice. I hope you will join in the conversation!

“HLP7 -  Establish a consistent, organized, and respectful learning environment.”

I feel that establishing a behavior plan is one of the most important things to do before planning any instruction. Without organizing the students behavior, the result will be chaos and little learning.

At the beginning of the year, I like to establish my classroom rules on the first day. I also like to label these rules as a Job Description. I think this has a better connotation than rules and it is preparing them for the workplace. I also try to keep the rules to a maximum of 6 items so that it is easier to enforce. Then when I share it with the class, I encourage the discussion about what each expectation means. We discuss them until all of the students appear comfortable with the rules and understand my expectations.

Many teachers like to have the students help come up with the rules together, but I like to establish the rules myself. I want the students to know right from the start that I am in charge and that my classroom is not a democracy. By doing this, I’m setting the tone for my classroom that these expectations are important to me and that I feel they are necessary in order for every student to succeed in my classroom.

Next, I discuss what the consequences are for not meeting the expectations of the job description. I call these things “fines” so they could equate it with breaking the law in real life. I also create these consequences without the students. These consequences are things that I feel are appropriate and help the student to remember to meet my expectations.

Then I end this discussion with sharing what rewards are given. As a big fan of a token economy, I like to give my students a mock salary for meeting the job expectations. Again, this is preparing them for the work place. When students fulfill their job requirements, they will get a paycheck.

All of these items are given in writing that the student and parent must sign and return. This also gives the appearance of a contract which again simulates the work place. The student is given a copy of the signed document to keep. This helps later when they want to dispute that they didn’t know what the expectations or the consequences were.

The most important part of this is to be consistent with following this plan. If a student earns a consequence or reward, it needs to be applied as soon as possible. It is also important that this plan is applied to all students equally. When I am fair and consistent, students are more receptive and willing to accept the consequences that they earn.

How do you feel about a behavior plan? Please share a description of what your plan is and how you implement it.

Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash

U is for Usefulness

I think it is important that students learn that usefulness is important. This is especially true on the job site. If an employer doesn’t see you as being useful, then they don’t need you.

No matter what job you have, an employee needs to find a way to be useful.

If I worked in a fast food place, I would look for things I could do when I wasn’t busy. If there were no customers, I would start cleaning without being told to do it. Employers like when employees take some initiative. If there are things that need to be done and I have time, I would take the time to do it, even if it is someone else’s job. That will make me more useful than the other person.

If I’m in an office, I would pay attention to jobs that other people do and try to learn some of the things that they do. Then if something comes up where I am able to do something without having to get help, it will only make me look better.

If I am a volunteer, I will pay attention to other jobs that I am able to do and offer to do them if I am not busy with something else. Sometimes, volunteers have some down time while new jobs are found. It is helpful if you see a need and offer to help with it.

It is important where ever I am and in whatever job I am doing, I need to pay attention to other people and the things they are doing. The more things I can learn; the more usefulness I will have. If the company plans to downsize, they will get rid of the people who are dead weight and not those who are more useful and can do different things.

What other ways can a person show usefulness in the workplace? Please share.

Likeable People

In Why do you need to be likeable? from Blue Skunk Blog, Doug Johnson asks

“What do you find that makes those with who you work likeable?”

Over the many years of teaching, I’ve found that I enjoy working more with certain kinds of teachers than others.

The people that I gravitate to are:

·      Passionate about teaching and enjoy their work. (I like to be around positive people.)

·      Looking for creative ways to teach concepts. (Love having conversations with teachers from other departments who are willing to bounce ideas around in order to come up with a good lesson.)

·      Doesn’t mind sharing strategies that work in their classroom. (When asked what is working in their classroom, they don’t mind sharing information).

·      Willing to chip in if needed. (When I was new to a school, I had an emergency IEP meeting that was called, and another teacher jumped right in and offered to do my bus duty for me. Since then we have become great friends!)

·      Offers emotional support when they see that I need it. (When I’m down and need encouragement, these people remind me the good things that I’ve done).

What a great question and a fun discussion for colleagues and for students!  

I think it would be insightful to have this discussion with colleagues and could learn a lot. It would be interesting if anything I do would be on the list and also interesting to learn if I need to change some things that I do.

 If I had this discussion with my students, it would be important to stress that no names may be used and all comments need to be given in a respectful way. This would be a great way to talk about interpersonal skills and skills for the workplace.

What would be on your list? Please share.