How to make or break your nursing career over lunch

Table Manners

Just because you eat with your hands at home doesn’t mean you should do it at lunch with your coworkers. The same courtesy goes for your treatment of restaurant employees — even if the service isn’t top notch. Tip generously when appropriate.

Also, even though you spend a lot of time together and maybe even socialize outside of the hospital, it’s best to keep conversations civil and clean. Keep the profanity to a minimum. If you have to tell a risqué story, save it for a time when you’re off the clock. And if you’re going back to work after lunch, stay away from alcohol. All it takes is one manager to get upset and your job could be in jeopardy.

Don’t Gossip

Although we’d like to know as much about our coworkers as TMZ does about celebrities, nothing good can come from workplace gossip — even over lunch.

Know a juicy patient secret that would leave everyone at the table shocked? Keep it to yourself (hello, patient privacy laws!). If you divulge sensitive info from your coworkers, patients, superiors, or anything confidential you’ve been told by a manager, you’re putting your reputation — and your job — at risk.

If one or more of your lunch buddies engages in regular gossip fests, be careful. Even if you don’t take part in the conversation, hanging around serial hangers of dirty laundry can render you guilty by association. It’s better to spend your lunch hour alone than with people who could compromise your reputation.

Use Lunch to Your Advantage

While there are plenty of things to watch out for during your lunch hour, eating lunch with coworkers can be a boost to your health care career aspirations if done the right way. If you’re invited by a superior or potential mentor to share a meal together, use the experience as a way to glean useful information and prove that you’re a smart worker with a great personality.

Ask questions about their experiences and be complimentary. Skill is a part of working your way up the hospital ladder, but people hire those they’re comfortable with. Sharing a meal and some good conversation can go a long way towards earning some points.

Like all workplace functions, such as parties and retreats, you’ve got to remember that while you’re at lunch with coworkers you’re still at work, with patients to check up on, charts to fill out and paperwork to complete. By minding your manners and behaving in a professional manner, lunchtime can be more than a mid-day break — it could be the break you need to push your nursing career to the next level.

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