SUMMARY POINTS

  • You may unknowingly have some bad habits at work
  • Identify bad habits and drop them to boost your chances of promotion
  • Be awesome to others, get shit done and you’ll move up
You’ve been at the job for a few years now and kicking ass on your projects.

And in that span of time, a few of your coworkers got promoted, even Sharon got bumped up a level and she started at the company after you did.

You’re wondering, “What the fuck? Why haven’t I gotten promoted?”

What’s Sharon doing that you’re not?

It’s not like you’ve been cyberloafing and slacking at work all the time. You’ve been busting your ass.

There hasn’t been one project or task that didn’t get done. Nothing ended in failure. Everything crossed the finish line.

So, what’s the deal?

You know that hard work improves your odds for promotion.

But, what you may not know is that there are other factors or in this case, habits that you may be doing that are tanking your odds.

These are habits that you may not even realize that you’re doing that are screwing up your chances of getting promoted.

Bad Habits That Can Tank Your Promotion

You’re eager to move up in the organization. And, it’s not just because of the bump in salary. It’s for a more senior role with greater responsibilities, maybe even managing a team of your own.

You think you’re doing everything right, but there are subtle and not-so-subtle things that you may be doing that other people notice - and not in a good way.

And, it’s these kinds of habits that reflect poorly on your personal brand and start to trigger second thoughts from your boss about whether or not you are ready to move up in the organization.

1. Being A Sore Ass Loser

There are many office battles that you have to go through day in and day out at work. There’s just no avoiding it.

It could be about defending yourself and/or your projects, dealing with unresponsive coworkers, negotiating terms with other groups, departments, suppliers or customers.

Let’s say you just lost an argument with a coworker. You feel defeated. It sucks. And, for the rest of the day, you’re pissed off about it and it shows.

All of your coworkers can obviously see that you’re in a shitty mood. Now, everybody knows that you’re a fucking sore loser.

You may feel angry, but it is important to process that anger in healthy ways and avoid showing all of that negativity.

Go take a walk outside to blow off some steam. Maybe, even meditate at work to ease the stress. It’s all about resetting yourself, getting balanced and most importantly, keeping a professional attitude.

2. Never Saying Thanks Or Giving Recognition

Every project you work on requires the help and support of others in the organization. In most cases, you’re not doing everything on your own.

Everybody is helping each other.

Think back to the times when you turned around an urgent request and worked multiple late nights, maybe even over the weekend and you didn’t get any thanks for it. It kinda makes you feel shitty and resentful right?

You want to get the recognition you fucking deserve.

If you become one of those people that rarely give thanks, you’re just digging yourself into a deeper hole of being a thankless work jerk.

You need to start saying thanks more often, even for the littlest things and definitely for the big stuff. A simple little email reply saying thanks is all it takes. Add in a smiley or thumbs-up emoticon for a little more joy.

It’s even better and more impactful when you send an email to their boss and copy them and say how much they’ve been helping you - that’s a big thank you and huge dollop of recognition.

3. Talking Shit About Others

Office politics is one of those things that are simply unavoidable at work. Many of your projects are cross-functional in nature and involve stakeholders from all levels and departments.

You’ve gotta learn to navigate office politics smartly. And, that comes with time and experience.

The one thing that you should not do is throw someone under the bus and talk shit about them. You may think that it helps you look good, but in fact, all you’re doing is showing your insecurities and lack of professionalism.

Word will spread fast that you’re nothing but a trash-talker. And, trash-talkers don’t get promoted.

4. Acting Like A Bratty Kid

There’s always at least one person in the office that acts like a spoiled bratty kid. Whenever they don’t get their way, they metaphorically cry, pout and stomp their feet until they get what they want.

You don’t want to be that person. It’s time to grow up and be an adult at work. You gotta keep your shit together.

If and when you feel like you’re about to lose your shit, give yourself a timeout and step away from your desk and take a breather.

You can do a one-minute meditation out on the patio area or grab your work BFF and have a five-minute venting session to blow off some steam.

We all have moments where we need to get the emotions out. But, there’s a time and place for that. And, you don’t want to be seen as an immature kid in an adult body.

5. Not Respecting Boundaries

There’s a certain level of courtesy and respect that everyone at the office must maintain. Otherwise, it’ll just be a chaotic mess of disorderly conduct with everyone in each other’s faces.

Beyond the obvious stuff of just being professional, it’s the smaller things that you need to pay attention to as well.

It’s things like not cutting off someone while they’re talking. You need to be patient and allow others to share their thoughts and say their part before you jump in.

It’s even on the physical level too.

Ever been with a “close talker” who really gets in your face?

VIDEO: Seinfeld Personal Space
YOUTUBE: Professor Ross
LENGTH: 1:55
Summary points:
  • Respect people’s personal space
  • Free tickets to the Met is an awesome treat
  • Make sure you don’t have dog breath
Personal space also extends to one’s working space too.

Barging into someone’s workspace without “knocking on their door” or waving hello is just not cool. It’s even ruder if it’s done while the other person is obviously busy like on a phone call.

Pay attention to how you’re interacting with others. Setting and respecting boundaries is important for you and everyone else in the office.

6. Spending Too Much Time Gossiping

It’s perfectly fine to gossip on positive things at the office - like the size of the bonus this year, where the office happy hour is going to be or if the company is going to win that big contract, etc.

What’s not good is spending a lot of time gossiping about petty shit in the office. It’s things like who’s dating the boss, who hates who and why, who’s about to get canned, etc.

People tend to gossip because they're bored at work. They don't realize that this is actually a bad thing. Gossiping hurts the people around you and also makes you look untrustworthy, which causes problems when it comes time for promotions or raises.

You need to avoid the gossip trap at work and just stay focused and kick ass.

7. Constantly Making Bullshit Excuses

There’s a difference between logical reasons and bullshit excuses for those times when a project is not meeting deadlines or when tasks are not getting done.

When shit hits the fan at work and the company’s internal systems are down and you can’t access the program on the network, that’s a logical reason as to why you can’t get your tasks done.

If you often have “headaches” on Fridays or Mondays, your goldfish ate your homework, you got another flat tire this morning, those are all examples of bullshit excuses.

If you're always making excuses for not doing your job, then everyone at work will get fed up with you. If they can't depend on you to get shit done in your current role, then there’s no way in hell that you’d get promoted.

8. Endlessly Bitching About Your Workload

Everyone’s got to manage multiple projects and tasks. That’s the definition of a job. You’ve got work to do and sometimes, a lot of it and it’s not unique to you.

However, when all you’re doing is bitching and moaning about how much work you have, it doesn’t make you look good at all. In fact, the more you do this, people will just start wondering how you have so much time to bitch-n-moan if you have tons of work.

If you can’t handle and manage your workload now, it’ll be obvious to your boss and others that you won’t be able to handle the added responsibilities of the next level up.

You need to quit the bitching and learn to do more with less stress by monotasking and staying focused.

It’s all about getting in the zone with your work and being as productive as you can with the time and resources you have.

9. Being Confrontational & Negative

Almost every task and project require some level of teamwork and support. Your progress is dependent on other’s contributions and input.

And guess what?

If you are always argumentative, confrontational and/or negative, then people just won’t want to help you as much. They’ll put your requests on the back burner or maybe just reply later than usual or maybe not at all.

Nobody likes working with an office asshole that makes work life a misery.

This kind of approach isn’t going to help build your case for getting bumped up in the organization. It’s only going to build an HR case against you.

10. Not Accepting Feedback

Nobody’s perfect. There’s always something that can be improved a bit or some new knowledge or skill to be gained.

Accepting feedback, even if it’s harsh or negative, is a great way to grow. It also makes you more likable at work because your openly recognizing the fact the other people’s perspectives and input have value.

If you're not listening to people's feedback about what you do and how you do it, then it makes you look like an ignorant person that is not willing to learn and adapt.

This is why some executives are so fucking clueless and don’t last long in their roles. You don’t want to be part of that club.

Be open and welcome feedback from others and it’ll put you on the right track for making the next step up more likely.

Drop Bad Habits & Get Promoted

Getting promoted has a lot to do with how much you’ve accomplished and the significance of your contributions to the company. It represents a good amount of the justification and rationale for you to get bumped up in the organization, but it’s not limited to just that.

Some of the strongest contributors to the company are often put on the sidelines for promotions because their bad habits are ruining their otherwise positive reputation.

And at the other end of the spectrum, there are some people that aren’t quite ready for next-level responsibilities, but because they’re good-natured, not PITA coworkers, and generally do everything that’s required of them, they are often considered for promotion earlier than others.

This is probably what happened with Sharon. She’s awesome to work with, is always supportive and helpful, gives out tons of credit to others and generally gets shit done right and on time.

However, just some advice - don’t spend your time comparing yourself to others and their career progress. Doing so will only make you feel like you’re always losing.

You need to run your own race.

Read that sentence above again.

Stay focused, keep the momentum going, pay attention to your informal work habits and you’ll set yourself up for that step up sooner than you think.

Feel Better,
[Cubicle|Therapy]

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