What Every Graduate Should Know Before Starting Work

Graduate in cap and gown standing before a large maze with a city skyline and sunrise in the background

College graduations are around the corner.

In my 26 years in the corporate world, I’ve seen too many young professionals sabotage their career start. They fail to recognize new pitfalls. To the Class of 2026, here are a few things to keep in mind:

If you grew up sharing your Netflix and Disney+ passwords with friends, please be warned: you will likely get fired if you share any work passwords with anyone, inside or outside of the organization. This is true even if your supervisor asks you to share your password with a colleague while you are on vacation (true story).
Think before posting pictures of your colleagues or work environment on social media. Even though you grew up doing this at school and at camp and at Starbucks, many organizations have policies prohibiting such posts.
Chances are you will also have to add a disclaimer to all of your online profiles (LinkedIn, Instagram, X, etc.), reading something like “Any views expressed are solely mine and not those of my employer.” And that disclaimer doesn’t give you permission to post anything you want. A racist post will bring discredit to your employer and can be cause for termination. I recall the story of an employee disciplined for posting a picture of himself holding a Confederate flag on his private Facebook page. A “friend” was rightfully offended and forwarded the post to the company’s hotline.

I could provide other examples but my point is that some of the behaviors your parents and teachers found acceptable or tolerated during your teenage years won’t fly in the workplace. It’s not always intuitive. Ask HR for your company’s policy manual on your first day and read it, especially the sections on social media, intellectual property, and conflicts of interests.

This is an exciting time for any young adult. Make sure your first work experience is a positive one by reevaluating your everyday behaviors through this new filter of the workplace.

Send me to the future

If you had access to a time machine today, would you want to go back to the workplace of the ’60s?

What if you are a woman? Or Black? Or transgender?

In a recent interview, Neil deGrasse Tyson said (at 1:52:00) that if you are an oppressed minority and can time travel, there is no time in the past that was better for you than this moment, despite all the problems we are facing today. Go into the future, because the arc of history bends toward justice.

So our mandate is clear. We must work each day to create a world that is more just than yesterday. And by “we”, I mean everybody. Those in the majority just as much, if not more, than those in minorities. Let’s build a world where those born in the next ’60s have no desire to travel back to today.

Breaking the rules

Today you might be sitting quietly by yourself and have this strange idea about doing something wrong. You’ll probably dismiss the idea quickly.

Or an acquaintance might suggest that you do something wrong. You’ll probably politely decline.

Or your boss might ask you to do something wrong. That will be uncomfortable.

Or the law might ask you to do something wrong.

Today in 1955, the law asked James. F. Blake to use his police powers as a bus driver to sign a warrant for the arrest of Rosa Park after she refused to give up her seat to a white man. To be fair, Blake did not hesitate. Twelve years earlier, Blake had made Parks disembark after she entered his bus from the front door and paid her fare; he wanted her to enter from the back door. But not all bus drivers agreed with the law. What were they supposed to do? What would you have done?

Today we have laws that separate children from their parents at border crossings. We have laws that criminalize sharing our food with the homeless. Perhaps you have rules in your office that are unfair.

Will you enforce them?

New employees and new risks

According to this article, most homebuyers are not warned about the new flood or wildfire risk caused by climate change. They know a lot about their new home: quality of schools, access to public transportation, and presence of lead paint. But they don’t know about the rising risks associated with climate change, mostly because the law doesn’t require disclosure.

Which got me thinking: are companies adapting their new employee training and onboarding process to account for the new risks associated with the pandemic and social justice?

Is yours?

Same words, different meaning

I read The Daily Stoic every morning.

I have been doing so for the last 4 years. The daily meditation I read this morning is the same one I read on August 20th the 3 previous years. It is familiar by now. But because I am not the same person I was one year ago, that meditation offers something new.

Your employees feel the same effect when they hear you speak of the company values. Do not assume that because they’ve heard you speak of their importance in the past that there is no point in repeating the exercise. Your employees are not the same people they were before the pandemic or before witnessing the murder of George Floyd. When you speak of safety and respect today, they don’t hear what they heard last year.

Care not what others think

“I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do. That is character!”
Theodore Roosevelt

Every leader is called to be an antiracist, today more than ever.

Taking a stand will expose us to attacks and criticism. We may damage a relationship with a relative, lose a friend, or be excluded at work.

Let us not care about it. Our character is at stake, and that of every nation on Earth.

How to beat the two pandemics

Many people refer to COVID-19 and racism as “the two pandemics.”

With COVID-19, our job is to keep our distances, wash our hands, and wear a mask while we wait for a vaccine. For anyone trying to do the right thing, the task is fairly simple.

With racism, our job is much more complex. The steps to a cure are not as simple. But the first step for just about anyone appears to be education and learning. And today, at 7 PM UTC -4, we all have an opportunity to learn from National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi, as he discusses his book “How to Be an Antiracist.” For anyone trying to do the right thing, today’s task is fairly simple: register for the free event and listen with an open mind.

We can’t just wish these pandemics away. But we can wear a mask. And we can learn how to fight racism. That’s ethical leadership.

How wrong we are

Since becoming the father of three kids, I’ve often given thought to the fact that so many professionals complete 40+ hours of continuing education each year to maintain their professional license, and yet most parents don’t spend a minute in any given year to learn about parenting.

I suspect it’s because we believe that our experience as children has taught us how to parent. And because we’ve never seen a book about parenting in our house growing up.

How wrong we are.

A similar thing is happening in the world today with White people and racism. We think that our experience as Whites informs our understanding of the Black experience. We’ve never read a book about racism, anti-racism, White fragility or anti-Blackness. We don’t think we’re racists.

How wrong we are.

As I write this post, 4 out of 5 New York Times bestsellers are about racism and anti-racism. They were not written for Black people. If you are White and aspire to be an ethical leader, you owe it to yourself to pick one up and learn. I recommend you start with Me and White Supremacy.

Becoming a parent conveniently reveals the hardships of parenthood. But White people can’t become Black for a revelation of racism. We must instead educate ourselves, and stop being wrong.

Power and prejudice

To Kill a Mockingbird was published 60 years ago today. In light of the racism still permeating our society, it seemed fitting that I add it to my book list.

I won’t pretend that the character of Atticus Finch is perfect. No man is. But he is the type of father I would like to model. I would like my kids’ school principal to be like him. I would gladly work for him. And I certainly would vote for him.

That last action is important. Our duty as citizens is not simply to vote, but to vote for ethical leaders. To elect a leader is to put her in power. And racism is born out of prejudice from those in power. If we want to eradicate institutionalized racism, we must elect better leaders.

Practice for the real game

Making ethical decisions can be difficult.

The difficulty increases when you are facing a real decision.

So practice making these decisions when you don’t really have to make them. Pretend that the cashier gave you change for $20 when you handed him a $10 bill. Pretend that you overheard your aunt make a racist joke at the family gathering. Pretend that your boss turns a blind eye to your colleague’s expense fraud because your colleague is the top salesperson.

These or similar situations will happen to you. Practice them in your head. Decide now what action you will take. Note that I am not asking you to decide what the right thing to do is. You already know what to do (return the extra change, tell your aunt that her joke is inappropriate, report the fraud). The real difficulty is in deciding how to do it. It’s difficult even when it’s not for real.

So practice for the real game.