Whether you’re starting a new job or have been at the same place for
years, everyone develops a work routine. The way you interact with your
coworkers, assess tasks, complete assignments, and present yourself in
the office showcases your technique, personality and effort. However,
you may not realize that your seemingly innocent actions in the
workplace will precede a negative performance review, removal from a big
project or rejection from a promotion. Look out for these professional
pitfalls that may have snuck into your office life.
Self-sabotage
at work can manifest in various ways, hindering your professional growth and
overall satisfaction. Here are four common ways individuals might unknowingly
sabotage themselves at work:
1. Refusing to delegate
Type
A collegiettes often believe that the best way to ensure high quality
work is to do it all yourself. However, you may not realize that you’re
putting way too much pressure on yourself, as well as closing yourself
off from the valuable inputs of your coworkers.
Rachna
Shah, a freshman at Dartmouth College, knows what it’s like to want to
take up all the responsibility. “Sometimes, I'll try to lead an entire
project by myself,” she says. “I'll be impatient, caught up in the
excitement of an idea. This quickly leads to fatigue, confusion, and
disillusionment, and would have been easily avoidable if I had sought
help out earlier.”
Even if you’re supposed to go solo
on a project, ask a few people you trust around the office to weigh in.
“Confidence is good, don’t get me wrong, but realize that you don’t know
everything, no one does,” says Tamara Peters, Associate Director of
Career Development at Rutgers University. “Always try your best to
listen, and be open to others’ ideas and feedback.” Don’t be afraid to
reach out to someone for some help—collaboration usually makes your
workload easier and your final product better!
2. Maxing out on overtime
In
theory, overtime can seem great—you get bonus pay and bonus experience.
However, you need to remember that there is a legal limit on hours per
week for a reason. Even as a young, hardworking girl-boss, you need to
give your mental and physical health some good TLC.
Emily
Schmidt, a freshman at Stanford University and fast-food employee, says
that pushing the limit on her hours has pushed the limit on her
performance. “Because I'm exhausted every day, I'm not giving my full
attention to customers and end up being grouchy most of my shift,” she
says. “Sometimes I think the extra money just isn't worth the mental
strain.”
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Shut off your computer and clock-out when your
workday is done. With a better attitude and a higher quality of work,
you (and your boss!) will thank yourself later.
3. Behaving unprofessionally
Having
work friends makes your nine-to-five a lot more entertaining, but the
term NSFW still applies to anything you say or do with them. Crying
about your breakup to your coworker in the office or getting too sloppy
at happy hour with your project team may seem like opportunities for
bonding, but they really just make you look like your life is not
together.
Peters believes that if you’ve known your
coworkers for less than six months, you should definitely steer clear of
intimate topics. “As a rule of thumb keep it primarily positive and
work related, no gossip,” she says. “A few personal comments about what
you did over the weekend, or the latest episode of Netflix series are
fine, to show you’re human, but elaborating too much on a topic at this
point is dangerous territory.”
While you do always want
to bring your unique skill set to the job, work events with alcohol are
not the time to show off your flawless four-second shotgun. Tom Dezell,
Career Advisor and Author of Networking for the Novice, Nervous or
Naïve Job Seeker, believes that you should limit or avoid drinking in
these situations. “I remember the story of a colleague years ago who
would always order a drink he couldn’t stand at such events so that he’d
always have one in hand, but never drink it,” he says.
Connect
with your office-BFF over whatever you’d like, but just remember, this
is a person that you want to always impress. He or she could end up
being your boss one day, and you’ll want him or her to hold you to a
high standard—not hold your hair back.
4. Thinking deadlines don't really matter
Just
because you aren’t receiving grades—and you may not get a tangible
repercussion—doesn’t mean assignments shouldn’t be completed on time.
Every task you complete, regardless of your seniority within the
company, is intrinsic to the structure of some larger task. Turning your
work in late, even if its just a few hours, could mean that a
higher-level executive has to pull an all-nighter to finish preparing a
presentation for an important client meeting.
Your boss
may be your best friend or the most laid-back person you know, but at
the end of the day, if a deadline was set, it was set for a reason. As
long as you’re on time, you won’t be the reason something goes wrong.
Don’t
sweat the small stuff—but make sure the small stuff doesn’t escalate
into bigger issues! Fix these sneaky bad work habits and you should be
smooth sailing in the office in no time.
BOTTOM LINE
To overcome these self-sabotaging behaviors, it's crucial to
cultivate self-awareness, set realistic goals, and actively work on personal
and professional development. Seeking feedback from colleagues and supervisors,
building strong networks, and addressing challenges as they arise can
contribute to a more positive and successful work experience. If persistent
issues are affecting your professional life, consider seeking guidance from a
mentor, coach, or professional counselor to help you navigate and overcome
these challenges.
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