The 4 people sabotaging your career

At work, most of us are supposed to work in teams. Which often means that we have to help each other excel. However, ironically, these are the very set of people (co-workers) that we have to compete with to get promoted and earn a better role and, of course, a heftier pay package. These are the very obvious people you would have in mind as you work harder, making a strong case for yourself, to move up the career ladder. But there are other, some very important people in your life who may be keeping you away from climbing further up the organisational hierarchy and becoming more successful at work. Here are four such people who, intentionally or unintentionally, may be sabotaging your career. #1 Your spouse Your husband or wife would be the last person on the earth to ruin your chances of getting a promotion, but they do play a role that will affect and impact your performance at work. Unless you are one of your boss’ favourites (of which there can be only a limited number), only proving your work credentials can push you further up. This may mean putting in extra hours at work, forgoing your weekends or giving up on things that you would do in your personal life. If you do all this, the first person to be impacted is your spouse. It’s quite obvious that your significant other will want your time and attention and s/he in a way will compete with your job, or at least for the same time that you may otherwise devote to your office. In many cases, this can lead to a lot of friction at home, which will reflect in your work as well. The best way is to tell your partner about your work, responsibilities and the upcoming promotion that you really want so that s/he can be more understanding and accommodating. #2 Your kids Kids are a huge responsibility and they need attention – and that’s what good parenting suggests. Most employers understand this and the companies that make it to the list of top employers are the ones that let employees maintain a healthy work-life balance. Yet, there will be some employers who will be less accommodating at times, and any kid/s related emergencies may not go down well with them. If you make your responsibilities as a parent sound like a chore, your boss will eventually see you as an overly stressed-out person, unable to juggle life’s many commitments and definitely not a contender for more work that comes with a promotion. The best possible way is to work out a plan with your boss/employer and be honest with your work. Don’t let the boss get an impression that your kids are interfering with your ability to handle your work responsibilities. Be composed at work even when you were up all night nursing a sick child and look efficient enough to handle more work. #3 Your less-than-efficient supervisor A person higher up than you in the organisational hierarchy may not necessarily be smarter than you. If your superior is less-than-efficient and less knowledgeable about your organisation’s functions than you are, there is more than an offhand chance that your promotion will be obstructed. Such a manager will not be confident enough to give you a fair appraisal which may land you a more important role, fearing that you may eventually displace him or her. In such a scenario, there is not much you can do unless either you or the manager leaves, or the manager becomes more proficient at what s/he does. However, you can try and warm up to the supervisor and, in subtle ways, giver him/her the confidence that you are not eyeing his/her position. #4 Your lazy friends at work If you tend to hang out with the lazy and inefficient members of the team, you will also be viewed as one of them even if you actually belong to the high achievers category. Besides, hanging out with time-wasters at work may eventually make you one too. It’s not entirely correct to pick and choose friends on these merits alone, but at work you may need to fit in the mindset of those who will decide if you should get the promotion or not. Do not ditch your friends but also try hanging out with employees who will be giving you competition during the appraisal time. [Image via Shutterstock]