7 Bad Work Habits You Should Eliminate for a Better Professionalism

7 Bad Work Habits You Should Eliminate for a Better Professionalism

As an employee, there are some bad habits that you may do and keep without realizing. There are those who have positive habits, but there are also those who often behave negatively.  Sometimes, this negative habit can hinder other people’s work.

If you are wondering what are the bad habits, keep reading the following to know more!

Coming Late to the Office

If you often come late to the office, this is a bad habit that needs to be eliminated. Because it can make you considered as someone who is not professional. Not only that, you may also be considered not respecting your co-workers who have arrived on time.

Too Noisy

Nothing is more annoying than noisy coworkers because this can hamper other people’s focus and affect their productivity.

For example, playing a song during busy hours, making calls that are too loud, or even chatting and laughing with other co-workers during work hours. As mentioned before, if this keeps from happening, many other employees will have a disrupted focus as a result.

You may consider yourself a humorous or friendly person. But remember that you have to show a good attitude and follow the right norm in the working space.

What you can do to learn from my mistakes is by:

  • Avoid talking or engaging coworkers in conversation during work hours.
  • Try to enjoy your music alone using headphones.
  • If you need to call someone, go outside or into a quiet room.

Delaying Work

Delayed work usually happens due to procrastinating by employees. Some adopt this bad habit by assuming that work can be done later, thus why should they do it now?

Especially if your job requires you to work as a team, this habit is not a good thing! Delaying work not only harms you but can also make other teams who want to complete their work soon, get delayed because you haven’t done your part of the work.

Maintain Dirty Behavior

Do a quick check on your work desk. Do you see piles of papers scattered around? Food wrapper, and worse a dirty dish from yesterday decorating your space?

If so, this is definitely bad behavior. Though you are busy, remember that maintaining a clean workspace is very important. It is not only important for you but also for everyone around you. A dirty office can interfere with the work productivity of its employees. Can you imagine when your colleague requests a file from you, but you don’t organize it better? You may spend hours finding that one document!

Even though your office hires a staff to clean, it does not mean that you can be careless about office cleanliness, especially your personal space. Because usually the cleaners already have their janitorial checklist, and most of the time employees’ work desks are not included in the list. The janitor might feel afraid in case they clean your desk, and suddenly some personal stuff or document goes missing. Thus, keep in mind that ensuring your personal workspace is clean and tidy is your own responsibility.

Does Not Respect Boundaries

Understanding that you should differentiate how you act in your professional and personal life is important. Though you might think that you are close with your work colleagues, remember that there are boundaries that you should respect. This includes hugging your co-workers, tapping them on the shoulder, and joking around with impolite words.

You might think that this is an “okay” thing to do, after all, you are a close colleague.  Even so, not everyone has the same view of you. And thus, if you do things like that, some of your co-workers can feel annoyed.

So, it is best if you eliminate this habit. Or at the very least be smart in choosing which person you can act like a close friend, and which person you should maintain professionalism with.

Gossiping About Other People

The habit of talking about other co-workers is something that can cause an uncomfortable rift in the office. If you notice that you engage in this behavior often, you should stop it immediately. Gossiping can affect your professional image.

Not only that, but this can also make you shunned by the people around you. Besides, talking about other people is just a waste of your time. As a result, you will be more prone to find it difficult to meet work deadlines.

Being Negative And Overly Emotional

Another bad habit you need to kick while at work is being negative and end-up not being able to control your emotions. This attitude can be caused by several things, such as long working hours, not getting along with co-workers, or feeling frustrated due to the slow progress of the project being worked on.

Whatever the reason, being negative and emotional can affect your work productivity. On top of it, people will also tend to stay away because they feel uncomfortable working or even talking to you. What you can do to improve yourself is by:

  • Know when is the right time to step back and rest because too much work can cause stress that leads to negative and emotional behavior.
  • Have a daily positive affirmation talk in front of the mirror.
  • Learn how to meditate to control your emotions better.

These are some bad habits in the professional world that you should avoid.  If you often do this habit in the workplace, it won’t be good and can even actually jeopardize your career in the future.

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