10 things you should never do at work

There are a number of things that you should never do at a work place. This would of course include things that have been detailed on your contract and would be a legal agreement. Employees are also generally expected to follow the code of conduct and the contract and almost all of us do follow them – like being in the office at agreed working hours, turning up for a meeting in time, calling up the manager if sick etc. etc. These are all common stuff that everyone is generally aware of and would be happy to follow. But there are a few untold things that may not be expected out of an employee but if followed could help you in a number of ways later…

1. Don’t forget your values

Most companies have a document detailing the code of conduct and the code of ethics. These explain the ethics involved in doing business from a company’s point of view and not from a person’s point of view. I am strong buyer of having a defined ethics for yourself. This could mean turning off the PC when you leave work, buying fair trade coffee for the office, running fundraisers  and participating in events, to name a few. You would probably do these things in your personal life – then why not incorporate them in work life? Remember….everyone respects people with values.

2. Never over commit

Only commit what you can do. Trying to over commit to impress managers is a very common phenomenon at work. There are two problems associated with this -

* You over commit and do not deliver and the project goes out of schedule potentially leading to a failure

* You over commit then stress yourself and deliver and your manager is going to assume that is what you are generally capable of delivering.

3. Don’t seclude yourself

Don’t seclude yourself by having lunch at your own desk and not being at a work gathering unless you have a very good reason for doing so. You may be seen to be a outsider within the team and that is something you would not want to be bothered with. Once you start moving with people, it makes it much easier for you to voice your opinion during meetings and people will be more likely to accept your point of view and will be happy to discuss ideas further.

4. Never lose your self-respect

Do not engage yourself in doing thing that would tarnish your self-respect. Sometimes being too down-to-earth can be damaging and one needs to balance his personal preferences with his job role. Cleaning up the mess you created is no problem – but do not offer to clean up the mess someone else created – that is not your job! This doesn’t mean you should not help others when they are in need of some help; but it is not a good idea to keep offering help and letting other take advantage of your good attitude.

5. Say ‘No’ to personal work

This is one of the most important of all “never do this at work” topics. It is better not to confuse the work place with your home. Most of us will not work during personal time, then why do personal work during work time? This would include checking personal emails, logging to social networking websites, reading news etc. etc. That said, it doesn’t mean you should always push personal work after office hours. There may be certain personal things that might need immediate attention and you might not have a choice not to do it. In that case, do keep your manager informed.

6. Never poke into others business.

Understand what your job role is and act accordingly. Companies have various levels of engineers and managers to split the job to be done and get that done effectively. Trying to impress the management by over doing things and by doing that, stepping into your colleagues domain / job role is an absolute NO. If you have potential showcase it in what you are asked to do and not by doing some one’s job.

7. Never lie

Although companies do not use lie detectors to find out whether someone is lying about something they did – it is one of the most important aspects to build a good reputation within the company. If you have done something wrong, it is better to put forward the case with all the facts and then say you would take care the next time. Doing something wrong and being genuine about it is much appreciated than lying about it or pointing someone else for your mistakes.

8. Don’t get into personal relationships

Never ever think of misbehaving with co-workers and avoid entering into any sort of relationships at work. These relationships will invariably lead to messy situations when you have to be decisive with a person with whom you are on a personal relationship. And, the moment this story leaks within the office, it is for sure going to affect your personality and esteem.

9. No backbiting…please.

Talking about others behind their back is completely unprofessional and something that you should avoid. If there is a problem, better call the relevant people – manager, supervisor or even the colleague with whom you have a problem – and sort it out right in front of their face. The moment someone realizes that you are talking behind their back, they are going to make you the last person on their ‘much respected’ list.

10. Don’t steal

Well…this sounds straight forward. Most companies have CCTV in their premises and although this is not to monitor what employees do – they can indeed see what you are up to. Most of us would say stealing property like cables, stationary etc. are an obvious ‘NO’. But what about technology? Making a copy of the unreleased software that you are currently testing is of course a cause for concern.