A cartoon character, Pogo, said: “We have met the enemy and he is us. Many people are doing themselves in. They jeopardise their credibility by doing adversity. It is ironic to know that despite having higher education and good skills, many sabotage themselves in the workplace.
Here are the seven most common areas where employees sabotage their credibility and their careers.
1. DOING THE MINIMUM
According to a 2012 Gallup’s 142-country study, only 13 per cent of employees worldwide are engaged at work. The study found that most employees are not committed to their jobs and, hence, unlikely to contribute to their organisations.
Many employees think they can get away by doing the minimum. They rationalise that they should do less since they are not paid more. They believe performance does not matter as long as they do enough to get by. However, by doings so, they are shortchanging themselves from acquiring more knowledge and skills. They are missing out great opportunities to show their abilities. They convey a message of being less capable and lack initiative. When a great opportunity for a bigger responsibility arises, they will be bypassed for lack of evidence of good performance. And, of course when tough time comes along, their jobs would be at stake.
Here are the seven most common areas where employees sabotage their credibility and their careers.
1. DOING THE MINIMUM
According to a 2012 Gallup’s 142-country study, only 13 per cent of employees worldwide are engaged at work. The study found that most employees are not committed to their jobs and, hence, unlikely to contribute to their organisations.
Many employees think they can get away by doing the minimum. They rationalise that they should do less since they are not paid more. They believe performance does not matter as long as they do enough to get by. However, by doings so, they are shortchanging themselves from acquiring more knowledge and skills. They are missing out great opportunities to show their abilities. They convey a message of being less capable and lack initiative. When a great opportunity for a bigger responsibility arises, they will be bypassed for lack of evidence of good performance. And, of course when tough time comes along, their jobs would be at stake.
2. OFFENDING OTHERS
There are employees who despite their good work, go about offending others. Some are hot tempered. Others are rude or blunt for their own good. These people know about interpersonal skill, but are ignorant about people skills. Unless one is aware of the negative impact of his offending behaviour on himself and his future prospects, he will continue his self-defeating antics. He needs to know that every time he offends people, he is undoing his good work and sabotaging his credibility.
3. RESISTING CHAGE
There is no question that many changes - be it new system, a new structure or new equipment - take adjustment. Many employees will initially resist change, however, most will abandon the old and adopt the new. However, there are employees who continue to resist and boycott changes introduced in the workplace.
These are the “hardcore resistors” who, despite the encouragement and support provided, refuse to change. They are betraying their education, experience and talent. They resist change not due to their lack of ability but their unwillingness to change and learn.
4. SELF-DEPRECATING
It is bad enough when others try to discredit what one has achieved. What’s worse is when one tries to dishonour others. Man may think an innocent self-deprecating remark is a simple expression of humility.
As and illustration, an executive, after putting his best in completing his assignment, made a self-deprecating remark, “I am not good in writing and don’t have the flare for numbers. I hope I have not messed things up in my report.” When things are going smoothly, such remarks may be taken as modesty. Howevery, when things do not go so well and where leaders are looking for the cause of a problem, a self-deprecating remark like this may creates doubts about an individual’s ability or performance.
5. HAVING A NEGATIVE ATTITUDE
An employee who has a negative attitude shows it in all aspects of work. He has nothing good to say about customers. He criticises his superior’s decision. He is cynical about other’s behaviour. He looks for the slightest faults in others and blows it out of proportion. He blames company policies or procedures for hampering people from doing work. He makes it difficult for people to work with him as he focuses on problems instead of solutions. After a while, he develops the reputation of being negtive and his superior will begin to see him as a problematic person. His negative attitude is his No. 1 enemy and is damaging his career.
6. PRODUCING POOR WORK
Most of us would not wear a shirt that has stains on it as it would reflect us as a sloppy person. Likewise, poor quality work puts a stain on our credibility as it reflects apathy, incompetence or poor discipline. Our work is in fact a reflection of ourselves. Just as a person would take the effort to groom oneself to look good, it is important for an employee to do work with quality to reflect his image.
7. CLOCKING UP DOWNTIME
Some employees think that they are doing things above board if they take medical leave or emergency leave occasionally. They argue as long as they feel a little unwell, it is all right to be on leave. While it is all right to attend to emergencies once a while, the reality is that requent medical and emergency leave will tarnish one’s image. Their superiors will question the reliability of such staff. They will avoid giving important assignments to them. Whilt it is not possible to eliminate such leave, minimising them with better management is the key to prevent such matters from sabotaging your career.
Stop sabotaging yourself and your career by avoiding the above bad work practices.
