Today we begin a five part series on 'Things You Should Never Do At Work"........
By: Kathy Caprino from LinkedIn
I had an 18-year corporate career in publishing and marketing
that was highly successful on the outside, but on the inside, it was not. I
rose to the level of Vice President and managed multimillion-dollar budgets and
global initiatives, but throughout my career, I faced a number of excruciating
experiences of gender discrimination, sexual harassment, work-life balance
failures, chronic illness and exhaustion, being sabotaged and betrayed by
colleagues, and the continual nagging feeling that I was meant for different
work (but simply couldn’t figure out what it was).
And I made a great
number of huge mistakes. I did some important things right too, but my missteps
were legendary (at least in my own mind). When I look back on my 30 years of
working, and the careers of the hundreds of folks I train, coach and teach, five
blunders stand out from all the rest as the most negative, damaging, and
irreversible in your career and professional life.
The 5 things you should never
do at work are:
1. Speak, behave or quit out of
rage or revenge
Most people spend more hours at work than anywhere else, so it’s
normal and expected that we will experience the full gamut of emotions while
engaged in our work. I’m all for bringing our whole selves to work as well, and
being as authentic, honest, and transparent as humanly possible at our jobs.
That said, I’ve watched the inevitable destruction of losing control of your
emotions and acting out rashly and impulsively from rage or despair.
For example, in my early 20’s, I screamed an obscenity at the top of my lungs to my boss who I felt was harassing me, and I did it in front of the entire office. He had no choice but to fire me. Thankfully, I had another job offer in the wings so the damage was not too serious. While it felt fantastic (for one split second) to swear at him, what has stayed with me over time is the shock and shame of how out of control I felt during that time. I vowed never to lose it like that and act out of rage or fury again. If you act impulsively and rashly at work, you will likely lose much more than your self-respect.
For example, in my early 20’s, I screamed an obscenity at the top of my lungs to my boss who I felt was harassing me, and I did it in front of the entire office. He had no choice but to fire me. Thankfully, I had another job offer in the wings so the damage was not too serious. While it felt fantastic (for one split second) to swear at him, what has stayed with me over time is the shock and shame of how out of control I felt during that time. I vowed never to lose it like that and act out of rage or fury again. If you act impulsively and rashly at work, you will likely lose much more than your self-respect.
