New hires watch how you treat the dishwasher to decide whether you’re worth listening to.

Nobody judges your character by how you treat the people who can help you. New arrivals pay close attention to the lowest-status person in the room, because that shows them what happens to somebody who has no power here, and therefore what might happen to them later. The verdict gets made in the first week and is rarely revisited.

Learn the name of whoever has the worst job and use it. Say thanks for something specific, in front of other people. Everything you say about standards afterwards gets measured against that.