It is a fact that every one of us has bad habits. There are individuals, who procrastinate, aren’t punctual, gossip and more of negative behaviors. All these aspects not only makes you a negative individual but can also cost your job.
Executive director of wake forest University Dr.Katharine books mentions that a single habit may not harm an employee immediately but the increasing effect of bad habits over a period of time can. She also mentions that a bad habit can lead to isolation and have the capability to affect your ability to perform your job and your performance review.
Bad Habits That May Kill Your Professional Career:
1. Being a negative person:
There are people in the work environment who complaints and whines mostly about everything that happens. They complaint and speak negative about work, family or friends. These people should know that being a negative person has more impact on the work they do and understand that nothing is perfect on this earth.
Employers usual routine to get you on your nerves, you may be a person who isn’t satisfied with your salary or job, or you may find many colleagues as slackers in your office environment. All these factors aren’t going to change and hence complaining and being negative is of no use.
Being negative would only make you harder and hence focusing on the right things with a positive attitude make you satisfied and also enhanced productivity. You can give your best and avail promotions and raises when you’re positive and completely satisfied with the job.
2. Always late to work:
Being late can be a good excuse inside a family environment but not in an office environment. Being late to work daily, coming back from lunch daily can make you tough to fit all your chores within a single day.
In the same manner when you’re late, your day starts late which leads to lack in projects, delay in deadlines and more serious consequences regarding work. In this way when you’re noticed that you’re a common denominator who delays projects and misses deadlines, it can greatly affect your reputation and job.
3. Addiction to social media:
There are individuals who are glued to their mobiles and tabs checking out social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for every 10 minutes. These people are addicted and cannot focus on work for about eight hours without checking these sites.
Social media sites are beneficial ones as they help family and friends who are far away to stay connected but, checking each notification for every 5 minutes and commenting, liking and reading latest updates can spoil the rhythm in work. Your accounts can be accessed and employers can find out where, and what you’re updating.
4. Skipping meals:
People who skip meals every day must remember that skipping meals has an impact on the work than what they think. You can be a person who is on diet or forget to eat, but having meals every day is mandatory to work well.
When you are in the responsibility of a challenging job, meals are important as you need the physical as well as mental energy for the job. When employees skip lunch they are pushed to a state of irritability, brain fog and sluggishness which affects the work.
Workplace psychologist Dr. Janet Scarborough Civitelli mentions that the employees do not know the effect of skipping lunch each day, the fact is that the fatigue and burnout are hovering over them and one day they realize that they are less enthusiastic on their jobs.
5. Procrastinating:
Procrastination is a bad habit which almost all people have. When you’re not interested in a job you always have the habit to put off the chore for some time later. Procrastination can affect your health when you put off checkups and affect your finances when you do not pay your bills at the right time.
In the same manner procrastination affects your work as well as career one day. For ones who are chronic procrastinators who put off challenging or boring chores for the last minute are to face serious consequences such as missing deadlines, rushing with the work in the last minute and making more of mistakes and ending up with irrelevant solution. Procrastination not only affects your job but the organization as a whole.
6. Smoking:
All of us are aware of the effects that smoking brings in such as cancer, stroke and other heart diseases; it is also a fact that smoking affects the job performance each day. It is a fact that smoking impedes your work to a great extent. Every smoker wastes time taking breaks for smoking from assigned job duties.
Creeping away with four or five minutes break per day can be usual for the employee but when its counted for the complete day, week or year it may sound to affect the productivity of the company.
In the same manner the employee’s immune system can be down due to smoking and hence may fall sick and take leave. At the same time when smoke breaks are restricted by the managers, employees aren’t able to fix the nicotine they require and hence led to nervousness, irritability and offer a less quality work.
7. Having a too low profile:
Every employee is busy each day with their daily schedule but it is also vital to remember that working only at your desk can diminish your potential career and success in the long run.
It is important to get connected to other people in the organization, volunteer for any business and more. Employees should think of their profiles beyond their office boundary and try to launch a personal brand within their organization.
8. Having bad relationships:
Employees should remember that they possess good relationships with their colleagues and higher officials. Having bad relationships and moving about with bad people can lead to a state that can affect your job. Hence having bad relationship is a bad habit and can ruin your career in some way.
9. Burning bridges:
There are many people in an organization such as clients, managers, co-workers, vendors, buyers and lot more who are difficult to handle. Employees who aren’t patient tend to break their relationship by burning bridges.
This is not a good sign in an office environment, by this way more and more of enemies have erupted which may affect the company’s productivity. Hence burning bridges is a bad habit that can cost your job.
10. Being defensive:
There are employees who get defensive as they receive a less feedback, but remember that this may spoil your career. Many people just give up interactions with these kinds of people. Being defensive they avoid getting in relationship with more people to advance in their career by denying absorbing the details that help you grow. Hence being defensive is a bad habit that can ruin your career.
11. Making rash decisions:
People who do not think carefully during decision making such as accepting a job offer or resigning a job or any other matter where he needs to think may find it difficult to continue with their career because impulsive decision making have no special place in an organization. The decision made at work have more effect on the organization as a whole and also on the individual employee and hence making rough decision is a bad habit.
12. When you’re not assertive:
When an employee is unassertive there are more chances to get kicked off the job. Employees should believe and make sure that the decision they make is right, if they think that a decision is wrong, or a project can lead to disaster then managers require employees to speak up, because voicing is one way where employees are adding to the success of the organization.
13. Lying:
Your credibility would get destroyed when you lie and it gets proved. When such a thing happens it cannot be set back. Though you can be honest for the upcoming years without lying, you will always be remembered for the lie you said and would never be trusted by employees.
Conclusion:
These are a few pointers that help you recognize if you possess bad habits. These bad habits are dreadful and have the capacity to spoil your complete career and hence avoiding these bad habits can be great. In order to succeed in career and go to higher levels, avoiding these unknown bad habits is mandatory.
You can also advise your co-workers about these bad habits and its effects that cause which in turn affect the organization as a whole. Hence identifying bad habits that spoil your career and getting rid of them is a perfect way to save your precious career.
