Your reputation at work isn’t just built during big presentations or annual reviews. Some small, daily habits also affect how everyone sees you. And a lot of those behaviors seem harmless until they start eroding your respect. If you want to improve your image at work, it’s time to change the following workplace habits, starting now.
Constantly Showing Up Late To Work
Show up late regularly, and you’re sending a clear message that your time matters more than everyone else’s. Those extra five minutes of sleep are costing you respect and future opportunities. Meanwhile, colleagues who arrive early are building the reputation you’re destroying with every tardy entrance.
Missing Deadlines On Important Assignments
Meeting deadlines consistently opens doors to bigger projects, leadership roles, and career growth. Missing them does the exact opposite. Each blown deadline signals unreliability and disrupts team momentum. Soon, you’ll be watching coworkers advance past you, wondering why opportunities have dried up. The answer was always obvious to everyone else.
Gossiping About Coworkers Or Managers
Organizations are built on foundations of trust and collaborative harmony—core values that gossip systematically undermines. When employees spread rumors about colleagues or leadership, they not only compromise their own professional character but also actively poison team dynamics. This breach of workplace principles rapidly erodes credibility and creates a culture of suspicion, directly undermining organizational cohesion.
Taking Credit For Other People’s Work
Steal credit once, and your colleagues will never forget it. They’ll stop collaborating with you and watch your reputation crumble. Real career advancement comes from building people up, and not tearing them down. Credit stealers may gain quick praise, only to lose the trust that sustains real success.
Avoiding Responsibility For Mistakes Made
Mess up and blame others? Your colleagues see right through it every single time. That dodge destroys credibility faster than the original mistake ever could. Own your errors, propose fixes, and you’ll actually gain respect. Leaders admit fault, whereas career killers point fingers.
Ignoring Emails, Calls, Or Team Messages
In today’s digital workplace, ignoring messages can have far-reaching consequences, making colleagues perceive you as unreliable and unapproachable. It also derails project timelines. All of this damages your professional relationships and reputation. If you feel anxious, find a creative solution, like using emojis strategically, to warm up exchanges and prevent misunderstandings.
Complaining Excessively In The Workplace
Do you know why some people get excluded from team lunches? That’s usually due to constant griping. Even if your grievances are justified, your coworkers see only toxicity. Managers take note, too, mentally crossing you off promotion lists. Normal venting is fine, though nonstop negativity kills careers faster than poor performance.
Interrupting Others During Meetings
Cut people off mid-sentence, and they stop wanting to work with you. Each interruption reveals that your ideas matter more than theirs. Colleagues observe this pattern and start tuning you out entirely. Let people finish their thoughts first, and suddenly, your contributions gain credibility as your reputation improves.
Dressing Unprofessionally In The Office Culture
Showing up in crumpled shirts or overly casual gear creates an immediate credibility problem that’s hard to shake. People start doubting your professionalism before you even speak your first word. The fix costs nothing fancy, though. Just wear clean, properly fitted clothes that match what successful coworkers around you already choose daily.
Overusing Personal Phones At Work
Your coworkers aren’t oblivious to the constant phone checking you think goes unnoticed. They see every glance and every scroll away from actual work. What feels like harmless browsing to you registers as total disengagement to them. That gap between your perception and their reality is costing you every single day.
Talking Negatively About The Company Publicly
Social media rants never stay private, like people assume they will. Someone always knows someone who works at the same company—and words spread faster than any delete button can fix. As soon as managers see those comments, they start questioning your loyalty. Colleagues also wonder what you say about them behind their backs.
Delivering Sloppy Or Incomplete Work
One hastily proofread email might seem harmless enough until your manager starts double-checking everything you submit. Before long, those sloppy deliverables and half-finished assignments aren’t just causing extra work for your boss—they’re actively derailing team progress and cementing your reputation as the office’s resident corner-cutter.
Being Unreliable With Commitments Or Promises
Consider two employees facing the same commitments: one consistently follows through, earning managers’ trust and building a stellar reputation, whereas the other leaves colleagues maintaining mental tallies of missed promises. Over time, these divergent paths lead somewhere predictable; the reliable worker advances into leadership, and broken commitments leave the other’s career progress stalled.
Exaggerating Achievements Or Lying About Results
Those little lies about results aren’t fooling anyone anymore. The team already doubts every claim, and credibility is shot. Exaggerating achievements can boost the ego temporarily, but it’s a fast track to severe consequences—including losing the position entirely.
Poor Hygiene Or Lack Of Self-Care At Work
Poor hygiene sends a louder message than you’d think. Bad breath, body odor, or wrinkled clothes might seem minor. However, they make colleagues uncomfortable and suggest you lack self-awareness. In professional settings, basic self-care isn’t optional—it’s fundamental to how people perceive your competence.
Not Giving Recognition To Team Contributions
Not acknowledging team wins or staying silent when others contribute kills morale fast. When people’s work goes unacknowledged, they disengage and stop collaborating. The fix is simple: public recognition through shout-outs, team meetings, or quick thank-you makes people feel valued and strengthens teamwork.
Constantly Arriving Unprepared For Meetings
Nothing says “I don’t want to be here” like arriving unprepared for meetings. You haven’t reviewed materials or thought through the agenda, so you drag down discussions and frustrate teammates. People start questioning your commitment and competence. Think of preparation as non-negotiable—it’s just part of being a competent professional.
Being Overly Competitive In A Toxic Way
Ambition can turn toxic fast. Some people hoard information to stay ahead, undermine teammates’ ideas, or celebrate when colleagues stumble. This behavior destroys trust and makes everyone uncomfortable. Before long, nobody wants to work with the office cutthroat. Collaboration, not ruthless competition, actually builds lasting careers.
Ignoring Constructive Feedback From Supervisors
Supervisors offer feedback, and some people wave it off, which is a bad move. It gets noticed faster than anything else. Defensive reactions can label you as uncoachable and unfit for the role. Managers keep a note of employees who take criticism well and those who don’t. So, if you listen and adjust your approach based on guidance, you have the chance to grow.
Oversharing Personal Problems With Colleagues
Do you know the difference between talking and emotional dumping? It’s in the frequency and intensity. Occasional vulnerability can build trust, but constant crisis-sharing drains everyone and tells them how miserable you are. So, avoid sharing too much personal information at work. Otherwise, colleagues start feeling uncomfortable around you, dodging future conversations.
