It can be just as tough if you are meeting a new starter as it is being the new starter in an office.

The one thing a new arrival has to worry about is the chance that no one will speak to them, because it appears that the team you are joining is such a perfectly happy and finely balanced clique that there is no space for another. This actually isn’t true.

Most offices love fresh blood arriving, probably because they are so sick of each other that they get excited when a daily courier turns up.
Usually the new recruit will just smile and sit quietly at their office desk keeping their more sociopathic tendencies to themselves in their own corner of the office, quietly sat in their office chair for a week or two.

It can be decidedly more complicated for the workers welcoming them into the office. Of course, instincts will tell you that you must be friendly and give them the grand tour of the office: "This is the coffee machine, this is reception, and this is your office chair!" You may invite them for lunch. You will definitely win eternal gratitude for being the newbie’s first office friend.

To help an office newcomer settle in, ensure that:

•    They have an office desk to call their ‘home’ at least for the first few days as there is nothing worse than standing hopelessly waiting for someone to tell you where to goo next
•    If you cannot provide the office desk quite yet, then at least ensure they have an office chair to call their own, even if it means dragging it from desk to desk as they learn on the job or listen to people

Remember what it was like when you started your first office job.