Though no one was hurt, the incident left everyone in the car shaken. Worse,
the lieutenant hindered his own promotion, according to executive coach Bruce
Sillers, who was a member of that same battalion at the time of the incident.
You may never have committed as grave a faux pas as this lieutenant, and if
so, be thankful. Nonetheless, we're all capable of making mistakes that can
send us straight to the career doghouse. Here are five big no-nos to watch out
for.
1. Sending inappropriate e-mail
Most of us are bright enough to realize that chain letters or off-color jokes
have no place in business communications. Where most office workers get into
trouble is with the over-hasty e-mail reply.
Ever read an e-mail too quickly and fired off an angry reply, only to discover
later that you had misinterpreted the first sender's message? You end up not
only wasting everyone's time, but poisoning your work relationships -- perhaps
permanently.
Before you reply to an e-mail that has elevated your blood pressure, apply
one of these useful tests: Ask yourself, "Would I feel comfortable explaining
my response on a witness stand?" or "Would I want my response to be
published on the front page of The New York Times ?"
If the answer is no, take time to cool off. Store the message in a drafts folder
and review it later. Are you sure this is what you want to say, especially if
you're directly insulting the recipient? Can your words be interpreted more
negatively than you intended? And finally, would you want this message to find
its way to your boss -- or to the HR director?
By the way, don't rely on any "unsend" feature, either. That feature
will fail when you need it most. And be very careful of hitting Reply All --
or your supposedly personal conversation could be the talk of the office.
2. Putting down co-workers
Having done a significant amount of work for a particular client, I decided
one day to try to expand my presence there. I called an executive in another
part of that organization, introduced myself and said that "Carl"
(a fictitious name for the IT executive with whom I had been working) was pleased
with my work.
That executive responded, "Why should I care what Carl thinks?"
Not smart -- especially when said to someone outside the organization. If Carl
had heard about this remark -- and these things do get around -- it could have
created a Grand Canyon-size rift between him and his indiscreet co-worker. More
critically, remarks like this damage the credibility of the organization.
Here's another example: Suppose you're the person the help desk elevates problems
to when they are unable to resolve them. You find out, while talking to a customer,
that the staffer she talked to gave her some really poor information. At this
point, you may think the staffer is an idiot, but it's not a good idea to say
so.
For one thing, if word gets to your boss that you're bad-mouthing your co-workers
to the customers, you could be in big trouble. CIO Denny Brown of electric utility
provider Arizona Public Service
makes no bones about it: Such behavior constitutes insubordination, and therefore
is "grounds for termination," he says.
It's a much better idea to maintain a united company front when dealing with
the customer. Resolve the issue with your IT colleague privately.
3. Contradicting the boss in public
Suppose that your boss, while giving a presentation, makes a factual error.
Should you jump in and correct the error immediately, secure in the knowledge
that your boss will thank you for underlining the mistake in front of an entire
room of people?
Um ... no.
Correcting your boss in public will hardly endear you to him. More likely,
he will be upset at being made to look foolish, and may even wonder why you
didn't catch the error yourself prior to the presentation.
When may one safely contradict the boss in public? I can think of only two
instances:
First, if the building is on fire and your boss is pointing people to the wrong
exit, you probably can speak up with few repercussions.
Second, if the boss makes a mistake about making a mistake, you can speak up
-- the louder, the better. So, if your boss identifies the correct vendor for
your off-site backup, then mistakenly says, "Sorry, that was wrong,"
you absolutely may say, "No boss, you were right to begin with." You
don't get these chances very often, so take advantage of them.
Otherwise, exercise extreme discretion when your boss misspeaks in public.
If the matter is truly important (for example, the CIO gives the wrong date
for your SAP go-live), approach him during a break and quietly mention the mistake.
A smart and gracious CIO, upon resumption of the session, will identify the
error, apologize and credit you with the correction.
If a break isn't forthcoming soon, try to catch your boss' eye and talk privately.
But you really don't want to shout out the correction in front of the whole
group.
4. Committing social blunders at a company event
Staff misbehavior at office parties has been a cliche since the 1950s, but that
doesn't mean people still don't make fools of themselves. Don Michalak, co-author
of Making
the Training Process Work and a consultant for companies such as Ford,
KPMG and Marsh
& McLennan Co., stresses that such functions are not purely social events.
"Don't do anything you wouldn't do at the office or at a client's office,"
he says.
Yes, the party will have food. Go ahead and eat some, but don't draw attention
to yourself by parking at the shrimp cocktail table. (Right or wrong, people
will judge you if you pig out.) Consider eating something before you get to
the party to avoid looking famished when you arrive. Be careful if the party
offers alcohol; you know what can happen when a person drinks too much.
If you bring a guest, ask that person beforehand to be careful about his words.
You don't want your guest to say to your boss, for example, "Oh, you're
not as bald as they said you were!"
By the way, no matter how well you get along with your co-workers, the party
is no time to complain about all the overtime you had to put in on the SAP rollout.
If you do talk about the hours or the project, try to keep things positive,
as in, "It was tough, but we did it."
5. Burning bridges when you resign
Many of us fantasize about telling off the boss when we quit a job -- but before
you let loose, think twice. Remember the '90s Internet bubble? Many IT people
left traditional companies with visions of pulling in millions from Internet
start-ups, only to be rudely surprised when their new companies went under.
Those who left on good terms with their former employers had a better chance
of being rehired.
Christian Bass is a firm believer in maintaining good relationships with previous
employers. Until 2006, Bass served as director of academic technologies at George
Washington University. After leaving GWU, he spent two years as an employee
of a consulting company; he then formed his own company, Successant
LLC, in 2008. He recently negotiated a consulting contract with -- you guessed
it -- his old boss at GWU.
When asked how he handled his GWU resignation, Bass said he emphasized that
he was leaving for positive rather than negative reasons. "If something
was bothering me at work," he said, "I resolved it, rather than letting
it be the factor that led me to leave." He also stressed the importance
of leaving with a good reputation and a record of solid accomplishments.
So, when you leave, keep things as gracious as you can. When you make the Big
Announcement, stress the advantages of the new job, not the shortcomings of
the current one. Conversely, come up with reasons to be grateful to have worked
at the latter, but be sincere and don't make things up.
If you learned something from your boss or co-workers, let them know. Even
if you had difficulties with someone, you still could say, "Thanks for
teaching me how to benchmark an Active Directory environment." Leaving
on good terms can only help you if you encounter these folks later.
Career suicide can happen all too easily, in several different ways. Fortunately,
by taking common-sense steps, you can reduce its chances of happening.
