Want to Advance Your Career? Avoid Turning Into These Negative Workplace Personalities at All Costs

One’s professional personality can make or break their career. Now, more than ever, workplaces are beginning to focus on creating positive work cultures and collaboration in their spaces. Thriving in these scenarios entails an employee to have high emotional intelligence (EQ) and excellent soft skills.

Fortunately, these traits are attainable as long as one is self-aware enough to change bad habits that may be hindering them from succeeding in the workplace. That said these are some of the negative professional personalities that one should avoid becoming.

The Office Gossip

Know when to change topics when speaking with coworkers to avoid participating in office gossip

The office gossip is that one coworker who always seems to be on the prowl for other people’s personal or professional information. And they don’t stop at that, gossipers also have a habit of sharing what they’ve gathered with the rest of the people at the office.

This habit of putting their nose into other people’s business means spending less time doing actual productive work. What more, these individuals also tend to develop a not-so-professional reputation. In the end, office gossips are not seen as trustworthy by their team members and maybe overlooked by their bosses for promotions.

Sharing stories with coworkers isn’t inherently a bad habit. It could even be an opportunity to bond with them and break the ice with new colleagues. Just make sure to not repeat information that is meant to be confidential, especially to people who don’t seem to be 100% trustworthy.

The Mr./Ms Know-It-All

Know-it-alls won’t see their faults right away as they think of themselves as a charming person and uses this to justify condescending behavior

Also known as ‘smartypants’, know-it-alls often believe that they are the most intelligent one in the room. This arrogant attitude can lead them to think that they can do no wrong and that every mistake made at work is the rest of their team’s fault instead of theirs.

And although they may have truly great ideas, know-it-alls will often find it difficult to implement these as they tend to write other people off be it in their work relationships or even during meetings. A telltale sign that one might be becoming a know-it-all is the habit of constantly correcting others.

The Ambitious Politicker

Politickers also develop a habit of repeating other people’s ideas during meetings to impress other stakeholders

Having ambition isn’t a bad thing in itself. However, politickers tend to have the habit of taking things to a new level and not in a positive way. These individuals often dedicate their whole career to getting themselves to the top spot no matter what.

They do this using a variety of ways from constantly throwing colleagues under the bus or taking credit for good ideas that aren’t theirs all in an attempt to make themselves look better. In the end, though, this behavior catches up to them