Bad Habits

Break your bad habits

If your work performance is dipping, perhaps there are areas in your work behaviour that need to be identified and improved on MORE often than not, during the first few weeks in your job, you may go out of your way to make a good impression and convince the boss that you really are a “model worker”.

But once you have been on the job for a little while, it is easy to get lulled into a false sense of security, get complacent and let your standards slide. After a few months, it just does not seem to matter if you arrive for work a little late, take an extra 15 minutes for your lunch break, or spend half an hour gossiping with colleagues when you really ought to be getting on with that extremely important project.

If your slacking and sliding off are affecting your work day in, day out, then it would not be too long before your boss notices, and that could seriously damage your career prospects.

So, whether you are starting a new job and do not want to repeat past mistakes, or simply want to progress more in your current role, it is always worth putting your own behaviour under the microscope to identify and address any potential problems.

Unless you really are the perfect employee, it should not take too much soul-searching to find those areas you can polish up in order to improve your overall performance.

Research suggests that most people are quite good at identifying their weaknesses. Surveys in Britain find that “missing deadlines” is top on the list of habits that employees want to change. Other habits include never returning phone calls, going to work with a hangover, gossiping about colleagues, and lying about whose turn it is to make the tea.

Even if you are not in the habit of helping yourself to envelopes or ducking out of getting the office coffee, there are other changes you could make.

Perhaps your timekeeping is not what it should be, or you spend too much time organising your social life over the company’s e-mail system or on the office phone.

Another common failing is moaning. While you need to let off steam once in a while, too much whining can lead to a very negative workplace. However, realising you have bad habits is one thing. Kicking them is another. In order to make a permanent change, you need planning as well as willpower.

Be realistic about what you can achieve. Do not set yourself impossible targets, and do not be too hard on yourself if you occasionally fall back into old ways. You could also try to persuade another colleague to give up one of his bad habits as well, so you can support each other.

If you do manage to kick your habits, there could be some major benefits. Even making small changes to your working practices can have a big impact on your productivity, and if the boss notices the effort that you are making, it could lead to a raise or a promotion.

But even if that does not happen straight away, you may find that by putting more into your job, you get more out of it. And if you are enjoying your job, then those old, time-wasting habits may not seem so tempting to you any more.

I didn't write this. Taken from "Straits Times, ST Recruit section, published on November 21, 2005"