How do you know a team is nice ?

[CanklesByPauline]

It's hard to tell at interview or even a 10 minute visit how can you tell if a team is going to be nice??

[BackforGood]

Don't think you can really. Unless you know people that already work on the Team, or you've worked alongside them in some way previously. You just have to hope.

[Nightmanagerfan]

You have no idea! Unless you know someone who works there

[ljlkk]

Gut feeling, but no way to be sure.
Someone I thought was super nice at interview I've since decided has a very sharp end to her so I dodged a bullet (I got a different job in parallel team).
The guy I did get job with turned out to be a flake, but we found our own path to rapport & now work very well together.

[daisychain01]

Depends what you mean by "nice".

In the context of work, all that matters is that you can get on and do your job, with minimal drama and politics. Some of this is down to your own interactions with the team.

So if you can focus on what you can do positively to contribute to the team spirit that's about all you can do. The rest as they say is in the lap of the gods!

[CanklesByPauline]

By nice I mean the type of people who don't twist everything you say

[daisychain01]

Cankles there is no-one on here with a crystal ball who can claim to have insights into a 10min interview and whether it spells bad news or otherwise.

You cannot control other people's behaviour and attitude, you can only control your's, including your response to their's. No guarantees in life, I'm afraid.

I take it you've had a bad experience in a previous role. Believe me, there isn't a team in the land without issues around communication and politics. Most of the permutations of issues have turned up on this Employment Board

You need to focus on earning your place on the team. Anything else is futile ime.

[chickenlegscarla]

You don't.

Ask questions at interview and listen carefully. The jobs that have been problematic for me had warning signals at interview.

Having said that, I have found that if I am pleasant to everyone but direct and professional then colleagues don't tend to mess me around. I give the difficult people in the office a wide berth and don't offer my help too freely.