Do you keep getting treated poorly by bosses? Passed over for promotions? Sometimes it is just bad luck, but sometimes you are doing things that can negatively affect your career. Here are 10 of them.
1. Treating your boss just like a friend. Are you sending your boss texts, friending her on Facebook, following her on Vine, and tweeting at her? Your boss may even laugh at your funny stories and such, but it lowers the chances of her thinking of you in a professional light — even if you don’t do anything inappropriate.
To read the remaining tips, click here: 10 ways you are undermining your career
This is VERY TRUE! I ignorantly would babysit for my boss. I use the work ignorantly because I was at the time. I did this twice and by the third time I felt like I was being stalked. She would text me on Sundays while in service, then on weekdays after work because of an unscheduled meeting she had. When I refused to keep her adorable little boys things went down hill. To the point where she informed our HR Director that I did not know how to do my job. The caveat is she has since resigned and I am still employed. Strange things take place when you try to make a friend out of a co-worker or acquaintance. Friends are just that your friends who will tell you the truth. If not, get rid of them because they are not a friend.
Terrific advice!
It’s unfortunate to have to be wary of friendly gestures (#1) or worry about other people’s issues (#9), especially if you are a naturally trusting, friendly person.
Sadly I have to have a rule, no friends from my current employer. Oh, I’m friendly but I am not friends. They cannot see my Facebook or any other social media. Some have my phone number or email address but we don’t talk outside of work or email unless it is work related.
A lot of the current office are friends on Facebook and there are days I feel isolated and alone because I’m not with the “in” group but at the end of the day I can leave the office at the office and I rarely bring the home into the office. It is hard but it is the way I’ve learned to survive.
“Office politics:” so true. This may sound smug, but I am the 2nd or 3rd most knowledgeable in my pretty large division because I’ve held so many jobs as we and I have grown. So when someone new starts, and I try to engage them, I expect them to be receptive to a few lunches or maybe a meeting with me. Most are. Well, new person started 2 months ago, and despite my attempts at building a relationship (to a position only slightly lower than mine), they are gravitating towards more junior staff, one of which, unbeknownst to new person, has some performance issues.
So new person is really starting off on a bad foot. Do you want to learn the company’s history and the history of the work and processes we’ve put into place from someone who actually helped implement them and lived through the problems we used to have, or do you want to hear the history from someone who never really took the initiative to help with our growing pains, but has sarcastic comments about some of our processes? Choosing the latter really is setting new employee off on the wrong foot.