Start new year with new habits at workplace
By Andrea Kay
Before you complete your list of New Year's resolutions, take a peek at this list of what others would like you to change when it comes to work habits. Whether you're a manager, employee or co-worker, somebody is bugged about something you do — they just aren't telling you. They are, however, telling me. And knowing could improve your career next year. Here are some of the notes I've been taking.
Forty-five percent of hiring managers have caught a worker calling in sick with a fake excuse, according to a CareerBuilder survey. Sixty percent said they don't believe excuses that include "I was poisoned by my mother-in-law" and "One of the walls in my home fell off the night before."
If you hate your career or job so much, put your creative juices to better use and figure out what you'd rather be doing and a plan for getting there.
It could be a work-related social event, dinner or lunch meeting or situation where you walk into a room full of semi-strangers. People find it incredibly distasteful when you approach them as if they are a slot machine — "Let's see what the payoff will be if I talk to her." So stop jamming your business card into every open hand, and, when face-to-face, stop looking around to see who else is there. Try having a meaningful conversation and connect with the human being standing before you. You'll not only gain more satisfaction, you might even gain a new admirer.
Who's not for oral hygiene? In fact, when it comes to better dental hygiene at work, 40 percent of men either brush or floss after morning coffee or lunch, according to a Guardian Life Insurance survey. But not only do your colleagues not want to witness it, you're seen as uncouth. Please do remove those food particles, but go to the restroom to do so.
If you could hear how immature and stupid you sound when every other phrase out of your mouth is "And I'm like..." you'd stop immediately. This annoying, sophomoric habit is part of the reason the accountant in Michigan isn't getting a promotion and the young doctor in Cincinnati is having trouble getting his patients to take him seriously. And referring to everyone as "you guys" is why one worker's boss in Florida thinks she's "a half-baked nitwit."
Just because you can dispatch a message to everyone you know with the flick of your send button doesn't mean you should. People are not reading the eight or more e-mails the woman in New Jersey sends out daily to her network with, "Sharing" in the subject line. They don't have time to read them nor are they relevant. It's nice you to want to share. But if you're overloading others with e-mail, you're not getting the results you intend.
People can't hear it enough. They need to know they're appreciated for their work — as well as how they can improve — yet, rarely hear it. They are barraged with input on how much money their company makes each quarter. But too few managers sit down and say, "I like the way you handled that." Or: "I know you worked all weekend on that proposal. I appreciate that." Or, "Let's talk about what you're doing well and how you can improve and some ways to get there." Nothing is more motivating — and good for business — than showing a personal interest in the well-being of the people who work for you.
