Bad habits at the office can have an adverse influence on one’s career. When these begin to affect quality of work, the repercussions are serious. Once a poor reputation is established for a person amongst bosses, the problem can stop a potentially blooming career in the tracks, or worse, reverse the climb up the ladder. If certain bad practices have become part of your work life, you are probably aware of their destructive effects on your career. But as with most people you probably just can’t get out of the rut. Before looking at any technique for breaking bad work habits, it may be appropriate to have a look at some common problems that one finds at the workplace. Realisation of the problem is the first step towards a resolution. Being late Being late once in a while may be overlooked particularly if you had been working till late hours the previous day. But if you are a regular late-comer, be assured people who matter will notice. The impression made is that of a person who does not give much importance to his work. Since a lot of jobs involve team work, not being available when needed will make many of your colleagues frustrated with you. That frustration is bound to show up in the form of conflicts. What’s worse, if the practice continues despite counselling from the boss, it displays a couldn’t-care-less attitude which will certainly land you in trouble.

Procrastination Procrastination is a common behaviour that afflicts many people at the office. People may habitually procrastinate because they dread having to face a problem or a difficult person. On the other hand, they may just not be motivated. The more regularly this behaviour is indulged in the more stressful life at the office becomes. Work is submitted late which obviously does not make the boss happy. But that’s not all; procrastination can have long reaching effects on a person’s psychology. Every time a person delays a task because they want to feel free of the stress, the opposite happens. After some time, thoughts of the pending job surface to the mind repeatedly, bringing up waves of guilt and worry. Gossiping Your integrity at the workplace is the most important asset that you have which gives you the respect of your colleagues, subordinates and boss. You will find that when you have to persuade somebody, your reputation for integrity will take you a long way in successfully convincing them of any case you want to make. However, if you are known to be a gossip, rest assured, you will be considered highly unreliable. Now that you have identified the problems, it’s time to work on the solution; here are some tips: Create obstacles One way of discouraging bad habits is to create obstacles in the way of unwanted behaviour. In order to avoid getting up late for office, place your alarm clock at a distance from the bed. If you have to get out of bed to shut the alarm, you’ll find it easier staying awake rather than hitting the snooze and turning over for “just another 10 minutes”. Other tactics can include avoiding the places where you tend to start a gossip session. Make mental resolutions For the elimination of any bad habit, think about what drives you to perform the undesired actions. Every time your inner voice invites you to procrastinate or gossip, recognise what it is saying. You will need a conscientious effort to understand its message and you will find that it is repeating the same ‘scripts’ over and over again to seduce you into an emotion that elicits the problem behaviour. For example, it will be goading you away from a task that needs attention, telling you how much peace of mind you will get for the moment by not doing it immediately: “I can’t handle this problem right now and I’ll take care of this later because the deadline is so far away”. By creating an emotion of stress, it will lead you to an automatic and unwanted behaviour such as dropping the task and running as far away from it as possible. Recognise or, better still, note down in a journal the ‘scripts’ that this inner voice repeats. Also note down the emotion it creates and the behaviour that the emotion produces. Once the bad scripts are recognised, you have to remind yourself that these are fallacies that will eventually hurt your career. Next to every ‘script’ from the inner voice that you have noted, write down an alternative script that is a ‘mature response’ that you should maintain. For example, your response could be, “Start some of the work right now, plan it and avoid the stress that you may have to face closer to the deadline. Enjoy the satisfaction of submitting your work to the boss in time”. Late-comers may respond with: “Being on time creates a good image and a good reputation while tardiness is noticed immediately and considered a sign of sloppiness”. Be nice to yourself Reward yourself periodically for your perseverance when you find some improvements in your behaviour. Also, don’t blame yourself if there are some lapses. Remind yourself that the slower and easier you take it, the more likely it will be for the effects to be long term. Put in a conscientious effort to overcome your bad habits at the workplace. Be patient because your rewards will be numerous — peace of mind, increased productivity, a good reputation and better chances of moving up the ladder.