Career Suicide

Career Suicide: 5 Killer Mistakes to Avoid At A New Workplace

You may have heard of the term career suicide. Most of the time you hear it when people pass a wrong comment to the boss and you hear someone say, “Are you trying to commit career suicide?” It is all too easy to destroy your career if you make some of these mistakes.

These are the top 5 mistakes people make when joining new companies. You would have probably had these experiences with new people you do not welcome. We will never know if these people deliberately commit these killer mistakes. We can only guess.

But if you are joining a new company, do keep these in mind so you do not cut short your experience in your new employment.

1. Better Than Thou Attitude
No matter how skilled and how knowledgeable you are in your field, be humble. You are there to contribute, not make people feel bad about themselves. You may be handpicked or headhunted to join the company to ‘clean up’ their act, but you still need to act with humility. You are new and do not understand and know the terrain. You need friends and you will need cooperation from everyone to execute your work.

Do not think that you are there to show them how to do things. Even if it is a positive change, learn to get cooperation. Do not strut around with a better than thou attitude and be so cocky. People will plot for your downfall and it’s a sure way for career suicide.

2. Always Comparing the Previous Company to the Present
Don’t you just hate it when you hear new colleagues bragging about how their previous company is better than yours? You wonder, if this place is so bad - why don’t you just quit?. Why did you join in the first place? You often hear them say things like “At XXX, we always did this and did that, and it’s a far better way than here….”

When joining a new company understand that people have their ways of doing things, rightly or wrongly. If you have a better way of doing things, find the right forum to air your suggestions. Frame your suggestions in a friendly manner. Comparing it to your previous company and saying how great it was will just hasten your career suicide.

3. Expecting Respect and Trust
Respect needs to be earned and trust can only be gained through time and work quality. You have to work at it. This is a new company and you are only as good as your last project. Colleagues in your new company have not seen your work hence you have not earned the right to boast and brag on anything at all. Do not expect respect and trust to be given easily. You are committing career suicide if you expect people to just respect and trust you without solid work quality.

4. Being Rude
It’s bad enough that being rude anywhere will make you unwelcomed. It is worst if you are rude at your new workplace. It’s a sure way to commit career suicide. Be nice to people when you are in a new work environment regardless of how famous you are or how good you think you are at your job. It’s just common sense. Do not have the attitude that you are only there to work. While that may be true, work is done by people hence you need to be good to people. Not being rude. I have personally heard people say things like “I am here to work, not make friends.” You can guess if this person can last long in the new company.

5. Disregard Existing Cultures and Dynamics
Every company has their culture and internal dynamics. Failure to respect the way things are in a new company and having a total disregard for it will spell the start of your career destruction. Learn these cultures whether you like them or not, understand the internal dynamics that is at play. Do not be judgmental. There is a reason why these exist before you arrived. You can learn to change it gradually later. But for now, as a newbie in a new company, disregarding these will just mean a quick end to your career.

Common sense as these may sound; these 5 killer mistakes are commonly made in the corporate world. Perhaps it has become a trend to become cold and calculated so new executives walk around the offices thinking everyone owes them a living.

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