Do you know what’s your type of attitude on the job? Are you a lover, doer, hater, or completely disengaged? Your attitude on the job is important and it can have an impact on not only your current job, but potential future jobs as well. On average, most individuals spend a majority of their day at work. With all the time spent at the office, even the best of us can have off days, but if you’re seen around with a scowl more so than with a smile, you may be setting yourself and your career up for failure.
Many individual components of your personality make up your attitude on the job. Are you sulking and slinking around? Do you avoid your coworkers? Do you do the bare minimum and never go above and beyond? While some may believe this is ‘going through the motions’ of a daily worker, it’s the social age, and people are taking note of your day to day behavior.
Pascoe Workforce Solutions, a staffing company in Springfield, Massachusetts, is here to discuss why it’s not wise to have a bad attitude on the job.
Limiting Potential
Maybe you’re happy doing the bare minimum. Maybe you already feel ‘overworked and underpaid’ and have no desire to take on any extra work. However, if you’re skimming by and never accepting new projects beyond your job description or don’t go above and beyond in your current responsibilities, you’re missing out on potential for personal and professional growth.
Your company may be notorious for promoting within, but even if you’re qualified, if you choose to skate by, you’ll keep being passed over again, and again. By not acting as a leader, or not showing initiative to take on additional responsibilities your dreams of a promotion or raise will be halted until you alter your behavior. By only doing the bare minimum, you’re also cheating yourself out of a challenge and the opportunity to learn more about your job and industry.
Instead, try taking on extra duties slowly but surely. Rather than simply making deadlines, try to get things done ahead of time if possible. Offer to help out a coworker or your boss with a special project if you feel as though you have room in your daily schedule.
Limiting Happiness
Negativity begets negativity. If you refuse to see the good in your job, or even have a hard time putting a smile on your face, it may be time to look for a new perspective. Even if you feel it is time to move on to a new job or company, take time to reflect to see whether the change needs to happen to your physical location or your outlook.
One bad day, or one lecture from your boss shouldn’t entirely change your overall feelings about your job. Consistently showing up to work feeling as if it’s a death sentence will ultimately end up making you feel horrible both in and out of the office. Being withdrawn and sullen can also start to put a wall between coworkers and yourself, or even begin to affect your work by causing disengagement and resentment.
Instead, try looking for the positives. Are you in a role you desire? Do you generally get along with your coworkers? Does the company sponsor opportunities for your growth? Think of the good instead of the bad to change your disposition in and out of the office.
Limiting Relationships
By perpetuating negativity or constantly sulking and avoiding co-workers, you’ll end up on the outside looking in. In even the most solitary jobs, you may have chances for collaboration with coworkers, or at least quick chats in the break room. If you choose to ignore coworkers, or treat them outwardly badly, you’re creating an awkward or otherwise negative workplace.
You may think how you interact with coworkers doesn’t matter, but that thinking is wrong. Should you need to collaborate with them on a project, collaborations and innovation will be limited if personal problems are put ahead of work. Even if you do move on from the job, if you’re planning on working in the same industry, chances are some of your old coworkers or bosses know employees or managers at the companies you’ll be applying to. It’s also important to consider the impression you leave on your boss. While it’s rare for someone to outwardly give a bad reference, most recruiters can tell if saying good things about an ex-employee is like pulling teeth to the individual. Hesitation could make a recruiter skeptical about you, and instead prompt them to divert to the candidate with glowing references.
Instead, always try to put on a smile to your coworkers and superiors to leave the best impression possible, since you never know what doors could be opened for you. Keep the philosophy ‘tread others how you’d like to be treated’ in your mind, and live by it.
If you’re struggling to alter your attitude on the job, think of the Five Es of Workplace Attitude you should follow: Enthusiastic, Efficient, Excellence, Early, Easy. Strive to be the best you in the workplace, and it will make the days happier as well as generally improving your career prospects. At Pascoe Workforce, we aim to match outstanding employees with outstanding companies. Contact us today for our help in finding a job that will bring a smile to your face all day long.