In a true meritocracy, the only thing that would matter to your career prospects is how well you can do the job. It wouldn’t matter the type of job; from retail assistant to lawyer, the only aspect that would count would be your efficacy.
We supposedly live in a meritocracy, where the best and most able will float to the top. Yet it’s all too simple to find yourself with a wealth of skills and knowledge… but utterly unable to hold onto a job. It can be deeply confusing, because you know the task you have you are good at. You might even have had employers telling you that you are good at the basic job – but they still don’t want to retain your services.
If this happens once, it might not be something to worry about. A workplace has a chemistry just like any other human interaction; sometimes, you just won’t be a good fit. But if you’ve heard it more than once, then it might be worth examining why. While we can’t speak for everyone who has ever employed you, there are a few non-activity related problems that might be preventing you from furthering your career.
- Your Personal Appearance
Not in terms of how you do your hair, your weight or your height. The major issue that employees have with personal appearance is when you don’t take enough care of it.
Should it matter if you perform well at an important meeting – but your shirt is buttoned incorrectly? No, it shouldn’t, but it does. If you are sloppy, have poor personal hygiene or don’t dress business-appropriate, then it puts people off. It makes them doubt your skills, even if they know your skills are good. Employers want to see that you have got yourself together. Dress to a dress code; employ perfect personal hygiene and try and work on your posture so you don’t stoop.
- Aggressive Tendencies
If you work in a high-pressure field, then there are inevitably going to be times you lose your temper. It could be with your colleagues when they make an error, or just shouting at your computer when you accidentally delete a file.
Not being able to keep a handle on your anger is a seriously bad sign for employers. It shows an emotional vulnerability. In a sense, it’s just another sign of you not having got yourself together.
If you feel anger brewing, then excuse yourself from the room. Forget counting to ten – 100 is more like it. Use a stress ball and even give meditation a go. Resolve never, ever to snap at a colleague in the moment. Walk away and address the issue by email, when you have calmed down.
- Poor Time Management
You may think that if you complete projects before a deadline then nothing else matters. But it is possible for you to technically complete things on time while making life difficult for others. Say you have to organise a rota by 5 pm – and you have it filed at 4.59 pm. However, half of the staff needed to know when they were expected to work earlier than that.
Lateness is also a major sin for many employers. Of course, sometimes it happens outside of your control. However, if it’s more than once a month, then the problem is more likely to be your lack of control over yourself. If this is a chronic issue for you, then investigate high pass rate time management training classes to learn techniques to prevent it occurring again. Reliability is a valuable asset for employers; you need to demonstrate that you have it.
- Making Excuses For Yourself
If you do something incorrectly in the line of work (such as any of the errors mentioned above), do you defend yourself? More problematic still, do you ever try and justify it? “Of course I am dressed haphazardly, I have a two-year-old baby!” is one such statement. Or, “I live miles away, of course I’m going to be late from time-to-time as traffic flows change!”.
Here’s the kicker: your employer doesn’t care about your reasons. They can’t care; if they tried to bend their business to what suits everyone best, they wouldn’t have a business. It’s up to you to fit into their business, not for the business to meld to fit you.
Finally, if you do have a justifiable excuse – roadworks on your normal route to work, for example – then tell your employer. That way, if it’s an issue going forward, they have been pre-warned about it. It’s far easier to excuse something anticipated than something sprung on them.