Shelter dogs often need weeks or months to settle into a new home. So do people in new places. Give them both time.

Settling runs on its own clock and cannot be hurried by good intentions. Somebody who has just arrived is spending most of their energy working out whether this place is safe, which looks like being quiet, awkward or uninterested when it is really just work. Comfort comes after enough repetition, not after enough welcome.

If somebody is new in your class, team or workplace, plan in months rather than days. Keep inviting them without needing a warm response yet. And if you are the new one, let yourself be unsettled for a while without reading anything into it.