TJ Walker runs through the top 10 workplace habits that tank careers, from procrastination and poor body language to showing up sick and fidgeting. Complaining and dressing unprofessionally made the list. He ranks them worst to best with quick explanations and notes on what varies by workplace culture.
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I saw an interesting article. I wanted to share with you some of the tidbits from this. It's a story that looks at the top 10 bad habits, a list of the 20 worst habits to have in the workplace. Some of these are obvious that I think you would know not to do them, but I just wanted to share with you. These were compiled by a researcher. I'll share with you a link and I'm sorry, it is narrowed down to the top 10 things, negative habits that get people into trouble in the workforce. In 10th place, procrastinating. If you don't do your work on time, you're waiting till the last minute. That is a serious problem. It impairs. Gives people the sense that you have impaired judgment. Procrastination is a bad one. Number nine, neglecting your body language. There are some people in the workforce where a boss, a colleague wants to talk to them and they're not looking them in the eye. Sad to say, but that can be a deal killer for your career right there. Not having proper body language. Now this is culturally contextual. Some of you are watching from the Middle east today, Japan, where their cultural norms are different, especially as it relates to men and women in the workplace. So please be aware that not everything I say is going to be perfect advice for everyone in every culture. You have to look at it through the lens of your own culture. But there are body language norms absolutely everywhere. Number seven. Excuse me. Number eight, being unhygienic. Let's face it, if you work from home, as I do, you can have coffee stain on your shirt. Not that I ever would. No one will notice other than your spouse. If you want to skip a day or two of showering, maybe no one notices you. Especially if you work from home as a freelancer and you don't have any family. But when you're working with other people, it's really noticeable. And if you're in an office with 20 people, one or two of them will have an extraordinarily sensitive sense of smell. So you may have cats, you may have a certain cologne or perfume you think is wonderful and it's making other people sick, which, by the way, this is not on the list. But I do think it's important. Leave the colognes, the perfumes, the aftershaves for another time after work. Your social life in the workplace. The odds are simply too high that somebody has high sensitivity to smell or might actually be allergic to your smell. Complaining. It's human nature to complain. I complain. I even complain about complainers. But it is very much a negative in the workplace. Too much of it just makes you, it brings you down. Number six on the list, making a lot of noise. People have great variations as far as what's acceptable levels of noise for them. Some people can't work or think if it's a noisy environment. So try to minimize your noise. Number four, being prepared. These are the top 10 negative habits that have a bad impact on people's careers in the workplace. Being unprepared. Now this obviously goes hand in hand with procrastination. If you procrastinate enough, typically you won't be prepared. Number three, going into work when you're sick. Now I can relate to this because I'm someone who likes to pride and say I never get sick. And sometimes that pride can get in the way of other people's health. Because if you want to tough it out and work from home and still work, fine, you're not hurting anyone. But if you go to a workplace and you're contagious and you make someone sick and they take it home to their family, now their kids and family are sick, they're going to really resent that. They're going to think that you are selfish and that you used poor judgment. Number two, dressing unprofessionally. Again, if you work from home, you can wear a bathing suit, flip flops, a tank top, nobody cares. And if you're doing meetings through Skype, video or zoom, or you're doing live broadcasts like this, you can wear whatever you want from the waist down. Now today I'm wearing warm up pants and tennis shoes. But there are some days, certainly when it's warm weather, I'm just wearing a bathing suit. I wouldn't show up to a client's office or a place of work in a bathing suit. But I can do that working from home. Realize the difference between work and home. And when offices say they're casual, quite often that means something highly, highly specific of no jeans or cutoffs or T shirts. It can mean professional style khakis or something to wear. And shirts, long sleeve with buttons quite often is what business casual means. Many organizations it doesn't mean come in a tank top or flip flops. So please keep in mind it's very difficult to be punished in the workplace for overdressing a little bit. Now if everyone is completely relaxed, it's a high tech industry and people are wearing turtlenecks and nobody ever wears a tie and you come in wearing a suit and tie, yeah, that could hurt you. But dressing 10, 20% above what other people in your workplace are wearing. That's not a habit that's likely to get you into trouble. It's likely to help you. So keep that in mind. And finally, this, according to this one source, and this is a source called Career Addict, a website you may want to check out. Fidgeting mindlessly. If you are in a meeting and you're tapping, you're doing this, you're tapping your toe, your leg is jiggling, it annoys the heck out of people. So this is a habit that others believe is highly destructive and makes people not want to work around you. If people don't want to work around you, it's easier to see your career options narrowing and narrowing and narrowing. And that's not good. So everyone has some bad habits. One of these days on the show, we'll bring in my wife. She's a little more camera shy, but we'll bring her in and she could perhaps give you a list of my annoying habits. Everyone has some annoying habits, but the fewer we have and the more we're aware of them at certain contexts like the workplace, the more we can try to minimize them so they don't harm our career.
