Your first thirty days

Week one: get the admin right

Boring, and the reason people get paid late or taxed wrongly.

• Bank details and tax paperwork submitted before your first payday cut-off.
• Contract read and stored somewhere you can find it again.
• Emergency contact, right-to-work documents, any certificates copied.
• Ask: when is payday, what is the pay period, and when is the cut-off for timesheets?

The questions that make you look good

New people are allowed to ask anything in the first two weeks. Use that window fully — asking in week one is learning, asking the same thing in week six is a problem.

• "What does a good shift look like to you?"
• "What's the mistake new people usually make here?"
• "Who should I go to when you're not on?"
• "How do you want me to flag it when I'm not sure about something?"

Carry a notebook for the first two weeks

Write down names, codes, opening steps, allergen procedures and who covers what. Nobody has ever been thought less of for taking notes; plenty of people have been thought less of for asking the same question four times.

Probation is a two-way test

Ask for a check-in at the end of week two and again at the end of month one. Bring what you've learned and one thing you want to get better at. This converts probation from something done to you into something you're steering.

How reputation actually gets built

Not by heroics. By turning up five minutes early, flagging problems before they land on someone else, learning names, and finishing the jobs nobody wants without being asked twice.