Your After-Work Behavior Can Harm Your Job or Career

While we’d all like to believe that our after hours behavior is personal and shouldn’t be penalized in the workplace, this isn’t always the case. Whether or not your career or job is harmed by your after hours actions really depends on the sort of job you have, the particular responsibilities of your job, and the sort of behavior you were engaging in.

One thing it’s not a good idea to do is to post risqué content on the Internet. Some people put compromising pictures of themselves on Facebook or MySpace, not even considering the fact that their boss or coworkers might see it. What might seem like a bit of fairly harmless fun can really have a detrimental effect in the workplace, however much we may want to believe that times and attitudes should be relaxed enough to handle it. While posting such pictures may not lose you your job, you may have to put up with whispers and gossip in the workplace, and you may find that your manager or boss no longer takes you as seriously as you’d like, which could affect your future advancement prospects at the company.

A lot of people like to go out and have a good time outside of work, and this often includes drinking too much alcohol and acting quite differently from their sober selves. Unfortunately, sometimes people do stupid things when they’re drunk. Obviously if you’re caught by colleagues throwing up into the gutter at 3am it’s going to get around at work. And this isn’t the worst thing, sometimes people do stupid enough things that they end up getting arrested and spending the night in prison. Something like this can really mess with your reputation at work, and again, may make it harder for your boss to take you seriously.

Another stupid thing people do outside the office is badmouth their boss, manager, or other colleagues to others. It’s a small world we live in, and it doesn’t always take long for things to spread around. Once your boss finds out, you’ll be lucky to keep your job! If you’ve been badmouthing colleagues you may not lose your job, but you may find that work becomes very unpleasant when you have to face angry colleagues. It’s very had to work effectively with a person who you know has badmouthed you behind your back, and a great deal of resentment can build up. Even eating humble pie and making an apology to those affected may not be enough, because once words are out you can’t take them back!

A lot of people nowadays have a blog, and they have a tendency to put quite a lot of information into it, especially if they believe that they’re anonymous. Well, anonymity can’t be guaranteed, and if you spend time complaining about your colleagues, boss, workplace, company etc. etc. and someone does find your blog, you could find yourself in a great deal of hot water! While what you’re doing with your blog may appear innocent enough, sometimes it doesn’t take much to create a problem, especially when you start discussing things that should be kept private to the company. Making harmful comments about colleagues can also be construed as a criminal act (libel) particularly depending upon the nature of what’s posted. When it comes to blogs it’s better to be safe than sorry. Be anonymous if you must, and when you do want to say something, ensure you’re extremely careful not to mention names!

There have been a number of cases where people have lost their jobs because they’ve taken a “sick day” when they weren’t actually sick, and were caught out! This often happens when people are foolish enough to make updates on their Facebook or MySpace pages letting people know exactly what they’re doing. Other times people take off the day to go shopping, or spend some relaxing time at the beach. Unfortunately, people frequently get caught out where they’re not supposed to be, and it’s a bit difficult to account for your absence when you’ve phoned in sick, only to be seen several hours later soaking up the rays.

There are many professions that are less forgiving of others when it comes to behavior outside the workplace. A primary school teacher lost her job because a scantily clad picture of her was published in a men’s magazine. She hadn’t seen anything wrong with it at the time, as it was her personal life and private business, unfortunately many of her pupils’ parents didn’t see it quite the same way and complained about her to the school board.

People in the armed forces and law enforcement are also judged more harshly for their behavior outside of work. People expect that those sworn to defend them should also have higher moral standards than the rest of us, which means a police officer seen stumbling around drunk will probably be thought worse of than someone else in the same condition.

No one expects their colleagues to behave perfectly outside the workplace, but most people do have a certain expectation of professionals, which means that their professionalism should, to a certain extent, follow them into their private lives. This doesn’t mean you can’t go out and have fun, but it does mean that you should be a little cautious what you do and say when you’re outside of work. Also be careful what you say to others. It’s a good idea to keep what occurs in the workplace, there in the workplace, and don’t discuss too much of what could potentially be private and damaging information.