Toxic behaviors at the workplace can jeopardize your career, reduce productivity, and stall your career development. Here is a list of five things to avoid at your workplace.
Gossiping is the habit of talking about other people’s affairs, sometimes spreading rumors about information that has not been verified.
Gossip usually involves scandalous, hurtful, and non-public information usually to disgrace, shame, or hurt the individual. In contrast, rumors involve unverified and speculative information.
People gossip to fight boredom, feel accepted, gain attention, or feel better about themselves.
While tempting and interesting at the moment, gossiping usually leads to drama, regret, shame, mistrust, and the collapse of relationships.
A simple gossip usually runs out of control and spreads like wildfire, with false details added at every turn and attributed to the origin.
In the era of social media, secret recordings, and screenshots, gossiping could quickly spin out of control.
Victims of gossip may retaliate by gossiping back or divulging damning information about the gossipers, leading to a tense work environment.
Gossipers eventually experience social isolation, bad reputation, guilt, and shame and could face legal consequences. Also, gossiping could turn tragic, especially when the victims suffer irreparably.
Gossiping could also hurt your organization, as the old proverb goes, “loose lips sink ships.”
Since gossiping hurts the perpetrators, victims, and third parties, avoiding putting yourself and others in that position is advisable.
Procrastination is the habit of postponing or delaying performing certain tasks.
Sometimes it involves doing unnecessary tasks to avoid doing something you hate, such as obsessively organizing your desk to delay creating that report.
Slackers usually have to overwork at the last minute to compensate for the lost time, leading to stress, frustrations, and poor work. Procrastination is the easiest way to get your boss screaming at you.
Procrastination usually leads to missed deadlines and unsatisfactory results, putting your abilities in question.
A person who cannot complete their job on time is usually considered a bad fit for the company and usually, let go at the earliest opportunity.
Poor communication is the disconnect between what one person says and what the other hears or understands.
Poor communication at the workplace could lead to conflict and losses when instructions are misunderstood.
To avoid such mistakes that could cost your career, learn to communicate effectively, be an active listener, ask questions, be respectful to your listeners, and create feedback mechanisms.
Lack of accountability is a vicious cycle that creates suspicion, blame-shifting, and distrust among employees.
People who lack accountability are difficult to work with and make others uncomfortable, thus undermining teamwork.
Such people face workplace isolation since nobody wants to become their scapegoat or clean up their mess. The same goes for taking other people’s credit and claiming their work.
People who lack credibility are unlikely to be appointed to positions of authority because they never accept responsibility for their actions, a critical quality for decision-makers.
Having an unaccountable superior undermines the morale of other employees, making them less productive. It also encourages them to adopt similar traits, creating a company of irresponsible people.
Professionalism at the workplace is a set of traits, behaviors, and skills of a well-trained individual in the job’s context.
Indicators of professionalism
Some key indicators of professionalism include:
Professionalism helps employees function in the workplace, protect their dignity, and coexist with colleagues.
The internet is rife with employees who fail to maintain professionalism, causing unnecessary problems for their employers and themselves and eventually losing their jobs.
Unprofessional behaviors
Some unprofessional behaviors include:
Companies hire you because they trust your ability to do the job. Failure to hold your end of the bargain will get you out of a job.
Bringing personal affairs to work - bringing one’s personal problems at work and expecting sympathy makes other employees uncomfortable and divided. If having personal problems, speak to relevant persons such as relationship counselors, supervisors, etc. Always void broadcasting your personal problems to colleagues.
Employers bank on the assumption that their employees are professional and capable of handling themselves at the workplace and getting their jobs done.
Inadequate professionalism creates conflict with superiors, colleagues, and customers, a risk most companies are unwilling to take.
The key to maintaining professionalism is focusing on your job requirements, making the right decisions, upholding your employer’s values, and civilly conducting yourself.
Anything short of this could land you in untold misery and could be enough grounds for termination.
Final thoughts on toxic behaviors at the workplace.
Toxic behaviors at the workplace not only undermine your dignity and your ability to work with others but could be enough grounds for termination.
Additionally, toxic behaviors negatively affect colleagues and encourage them to adopt unhealthy behaviors of their own, creating a toxic workplace that everybody wishes to avoid.
Similarly, knowing how to conduct yourself at the workplace could be the difference between your professional success and you losing your job and getting into serious problems.
