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28 March 2024

UAE job market: Bad habits that can get employees sacked

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By Shuchita kapur

We are all tainted with bad habits but sometimes repeating them too often can risk us our jobs. Whether it’s procrastinating, gossiping, or being unpunctual…these negative behaviours reflect badly upon an employee and may irritate your boss so much that he may have to take the big step to send you a warning, which can lead to your exit.

Ask Jousha M (full name withheld). “I had a team member – very qualified but he personified all things negative and I could see him pass it on to other people at work. I tried to pep him many times but he was a born moaner. When it became too much for me to take I asked him to leave, which he did,” he told Emirates 24|7.

Just like Jousha, there are many bosses who are waiting to take the final step but cases like these can serve an alarm bell for such employees. “Jobs are still not raining and it’s important that we value our jobs,” said a HR manager in Dubai on the condition of anonymity.

Experts in the recruitment industry in the UAE believe there are many bad habits that can unnerve the bosses in the country but there are some common ones which can annoy just anyone.

Spending too much time on checking a friend’s photos on Facebook, following them on Twitter and the likes can eat away your pay check the next month. Moreover, social medium is not about thrashing your boss or your work.

“Social media has changed the way that employees manage themselves, both in and out of the office, and has resulted in some bad habits creeping into the workplace. While employees should monitor what they’re posting and sharing online, remembering that your boss might stumble across some information you’d rather him or her not see, social media etiquette goes beyond this. Increasingly employees are checking their social media accounts on their smartphones in the office or even shopping online when they should be working. Many companies now offer ‘free’ times where employees can access personal information online at lunch or during breaks, but if it starts to hinder performance, it could result in an employee being dismissed. Other habits, including regular tardiness or poor work ethic may also lead to an employee being required to look for opportunities elsewhere,” Gareth El Mettouri, Associate Director at Robert Half UAE told this website.

According to Lama Ataya, CMO at Bayt.com, there are many things that need to be avoided if you want to be a serious person at work.

“There are many habits that can get an employee fired, but some of the main ones are include consistently missing targets, procrastination and missing deadlines (inefficiency at work), bad mouthing the boss, gossiping around at work, lying, negativity, recurrent tardiness, wasting time online (i.e. on social media networks), not accepting criticism even when constructive, not paying attention and being easily distracted, poor linguistic skills, getting angry and losing temper, being unprofessional or lacking manners and not taking ownership of one’s mistakes or refusing to be held accountable for an error,” she lists.

“Bad performance, constant absences, unethical or negatively provocative behavior and bad mouthing,” are some of the traits that can be disastrous, warns Konstantina Sakellariou, Partner, Marketing & Operations Director at Stanton Chase.