Five Daily Behaviors That Can Sabotage Your Career

Ever wonder why the person in the next cubicle is being promoted instead of you? You work just as hard, if not harder, so why are you passed over? People seem to like you, you do a good job. So, what are you doing wrong?

Maybe you are engaging in one of these five career sabotaging behaviors. I’ve ranked them from the least offensive to the most. If you do any of these five things, it could be why you are finding career frustration.

 5. Spending too much time on personal matters at work. – Let’s face it; all of us have bills to pay, errands to run, and appointments to schedule. We are very social creatures so it is natural to want to jump on FaceBook in the morning to see what is going on with our friends. We take personal calls at work too. A little time each day on these activities is acceptable in most work places. However, it becomes career sabotage when you spend more than 30 minutes in any day on these activities.

 4. Treating co-workers poorly. When you work with someone daily it almost becomes like a marriage. You see the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is easy to fall into the trap of becoming annoyed at a co-worker and only seeing the negative. When that happens, sometimes our attitude toward that person shows in our interactions with them. The problem is that you never know when the person down the hall from you might become your boss or may leave your company and go to work for a client. Too often negative relationships become career sabotages because we can’t take our ego out of our interactions. Keep it professional. You aren’t paid to like your coworkers, just to do your job.

 3. Poor time management – Remember, your time is worth money. In 2005, America Online and Salary.com conducted in-depth research relating to time wasted at work. Among 10,044 respondents results showed  2.09 hours of an eight hour day were wasted. Wasted time means checking emails, taking too long in the break room, too many smoke breaks, and simply not focusing on important tasks.  If you make $55,000 per year and you waste 2.09 hours per day, you are costing your company nearly $14,000 per year in wasted hours. If you think they don’t notice, you are wrong.

 2. Inability to take constructive criticism. We all have room to grow. When someone tells you something, don’t become defensive. An employer wants an employee who is always striving to be their personal best. Use the criticism productively and grow. Each time you make an excuse, blame someone else or refuse to accept it, you show yourself in a negative light. You think you are helping your cause, but you are in fact hurting yourself and sabotaging your career.

 1.  Not listening when others are speaking. Listening is the single most important trait you can have in business today. You need to listen completely and attentively. You can’t start giving your solutions before the person is finished telling you the problem. You can’t do email while someone is in your office speaking to you, you can’t hear only what you want. You need to listen completely, demonstrate that you understand, and THEN respond.

If you want to keep growing in your career, you have to pay attention to the things you do without even realizing it. Once you do, you will eliminate the behaviors that hold you back.