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Tu devrais d'abord saluer le chef.

Tu devrais d'abord saluer le chef.
You should greet the boss first.
From Lesson 142:Giving advice (tu devrais, vous devriez)·French

Questions & Answers about Tu devrais d'abord saluer le chef.

What is the difference between tu dois and tu devrais?
Tu dois is the present tense and means 'you must' or 'you have to' — it is a strong obligation. Tu devrais is the conditional form, meaning 'you should'. It is much softer and is the standard way to give advice in French, just like in this sentence.
Why does d'abord come before saluer? In English we say 'greet the boss first'.
In French, adverbs like d'abord (first / first of all) typically go directly after the conjugated verb. Here, that conjugated verb is devrais. So the French structure is literally 'You should first greet...'.
Why do we use d'abord for 'first' instead of premier?
Premier is an adjective used to describe a noun (like le premier jour for 'the first day'). D'abord is an adverb meaning 'first of all' or 'before doing anything else'. Since we are describing the timing of the action (saluer), we must use the adverb d'abord.
Why isn't the verb saluer conjugated?
When you have two verbs together where the second depends on the first, only the first verb is conjugated. Because we already conjugated devoir into devrais, the second verb saluer (to greet) stays in its dictionary form (the infinitive).
Does le chef mean 'boss' or 'cook'?
It can mean both! In French, un chef broadly refers to a leader or the head of a team. In a restaurant, it is the head of the kitchen, but in a general work context like this sentence, le chef simply means 'the boss' or 'the manager'.

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