10 Things That Could Ruin Your Career - Classy Career Girl

10 Things That Could Ruin Your Career So you’ve found your dream job. Now what? Millions of workers around the world are stuck in jobs they don’t like. A survey revealed that nearly half of the world’s employees are unhappy at their work. Covering 120,000 respondents worldwide, the survey found that part of what is making 48% of workers unhappy are headcount reductions, smaller bonuses, and company policies. Another sign of unhappy workers is the constant shifting of jobs, a phenomenon very closely identified with millennials. Known as the job-hopping generation, career shift among millennials is the new normal. A 2016 Gallup report found that 21% of millennials said they have changed jobs within the past year, three times more than other generations. This job hopping of millennials  translates to economic losses and even more young workers disengaged at work. Being disengaged at work to the point of being miserable can ruin quickly ruin your career without you even knowing it. 10 Things That Could Ruin Your Career 1. Consistently Showing  Up Late  â€œI’m on my way,” is probably the greatest lie ever to be crafted by humanity. It is rude enough to do this to a friend, but to do this at work is fatal. If you do this consistently and have stopped caring what other people say and how it may affect the quality of your work and your relationships with colleagues, you are ruining your career. Coming to work, meetings, and other functions late is simply disrespectful. 2. Making Too Many Excuses Even legit excuses have their tipping point. You can only make so many excuses. Always having an excuse for everything ruins your credibility and will make your co-workers think that they can’t trust you to do things right or deliver on time. Some employees spend so much time thinking about an excuse when they really should be focusing on ways to ensure everything is done correctly. 3. Engaging in the Blame Game At work, you have to deal with many people and departments to get things done. Some customer service personnel sometimes need to work with sales and operations. If the job ends up a disaster, it is very convenient to blame it on other people. But, is that going to help? Not only will blaming others leave the problem unresolved, engaging in the blame game also makes you look unprofessional and unable to take on more responsibility. 4. Putting  Others Down Let it be clear that when you put others down, you don’t pull yourself up. For example, a call center agent gets promoted or gets an increase and you flash the biggest congratulatory smile to the person but secretly tell everyone how undeserving she is. Not only do you come off as pathetic and bitter, you also appear unworthy of your co-worker’s trust. Gossip is a very unhealthy activity and pretty soon you will feel all of your co-workers gossipping about you. [RELATED: My 10 Success Principles] 5. Multitasking But Not Getting Anything Done There’s a huge difference between working hard and working smart. When you try to do everything all at once, the risk is that you end up accomplishing nothing or turning in work that isnt your best work possible. Spreading yourself too thin will leave you more vulnerable to making mistakes. Instead of multitasking, focus on the most important task and work your way down. 6. Being Too Personal For Work Taking occasional personal calls or ordering online to buy your spouse a birthday gift is acceptable. But, when your personal life interferes with your work so often that you can barely distinguish work emails from personal ones, you appear disinterested and disengaged. 7. Moving Too Often So this is your third job in six months? Maybe you are just testing the waters and still figuring things out and that’s totally fine. We all have to cut ourselves some slack. But, how long do you intend to figure things out? It is hard to find your career path when you move too much. Chances are that you will miss out on the long-term impact of your work and your growth will be limited. Employers might also think that you lack commitment especially if you hop across different industries. 8. Talking Yourself Up But Not Delivering Do not make promises you can’t keep. Never over-promise and under-deliver. Not only will you end up discouraging your employer and co-workers, you will also come off as inefficient and unreliable. For example, if you desire to be successful in your career, do not take multiple shifts, accounts or workload if you can’t handle it. 9. Going  Overboard With Social Even if you are a social media specialist at work, you must still learn how to detach your virtual life from your official job function. Do not let hours of web surfing and online chatting get out of hand. Before you know it, you have watched too many videos on YouTube and have accomplished nothing on your long to-do list. As you engage with your virtual friends, you disengage yourself from the workplace. 10. Telling Lies Instead of Owning Up Honesty is a value that is fundamental in any work environment. This shows that you can be trusted. But, when you make a mistake and lie instead of owning up to it, your credibility and trustworthiness are compromised. Remember, coverups only make  things worse. You might not be aware of it but you are actually ruining your career by doing these ten things. You may think that having the right skills and abilities is enough, but remember that getting a job and keeping it require character and hard work.