Often, you hear tons about the characteristics and practices required to keep and excel in a job, but what about those attributes that can help you to lose one?
As there are practical ways to move forward in a career, there are also habitual, often unnoticed ways that can be detrimental to your professional progress, which can factor into you ultimately destroying your career.
Below, BlackEnterprise.com offers more insight:
1. Muddying Your Reputation
At the end of the day, your reputation is all that you have. Once that gets dirty, so does your image. A stellar or dooming reputation can follow you throughout your career, thus shortening your career timeline.
Always be certain that you’re representing yourself as you’d like to be perceived. Keep your best foot forward, do great work, and excel. There’s no better way to be referenced than as someone who knows exactly what they’re doing, and does it well.
2. Biting the Hand That Feeds You
If they’ve helped you, try not to hurt them. If you can possibly help it, never bite the hand that feeds you–or the food will stop coming. Be kind and grateful to those who have helped to pave your way. The flame from one burning bridge often finds the next.
3. Under-Delivery
You said you could, but then you didn’t–well, so will they. They could keep you around because they told you had the job, but they won’t keep you around because you didn’t do the job. This doesn’t have to be your story. Exceeding expectations sets the course for an excelling career.
4. Loss of Passion
The passion behind your work is made most evident in the quality of your work. When your passion begins to wane, it becomes more apparent than you may know. Some things are just a little harder to hide. Losing passion often results in losing drive. If you aren’t driven, you aren’t moving forward. And, if you aren’t moving, you will be left behind.
5. Recklessness
You social media presence can make or break you. Yes, it’s your personal space to express yourself, but that certainly doesn’t mean you won’t be held accountable for your expression. Companies and brands are now, more than ever, taking your social media into account, when deciding whether to hire, promote, or fire workers. Troll if you’d like, but feel no way when your lurking boss finds out. Keep it cute and classy.
6. Disrupting Company Culture
If you can’t get with it, you will get out. Being adaptable is a career saver. Not every job will be like the last. Making it a point to learn and add to a company’s culture makes you an asset–disrupting the culture may only make you a liability.
7. Adopting a Pessimistic Attitude
If you constantly feel like things can’t be done, they won’t be done. A thriving career feeds off optimism and positivity. A negative attitude directly affects your productivity, the quality of your output, and overall accomplishment.
8. Being Unlikable
If you’re looking to not work again, the easiest thing you can do is make yourself hard to work with. As mentioned, your reputation precedes you. Being known for being awful is the perfect transition to being known for being unemployed.
9. Your Evolution Plateaus
The more you learn and grow, the more you have to offer. The working climate is rapidly changing. If you aren’t willing to change with it, you can count on the fact that you will be left behind.
Any job destroyers let off this list? Help your fellow professional and share.
Safon Floyd is the Digital Editor at Black Enterprise. Follow her @accordingtofon.