No Bull Business Blog

14 nasty habits you should never do in the office

Excerpted from the Executive Report: Business Etiquette - 95 Dos and Don'ts for Managers and Executives.

Everyone has at least one bad habit or tic - and they can be truly embarrassing. They can be tough to control because they're often unconscious and generally the outward signs of anxiety or nervousness.

The tic itself is an attempt at self-comfort. But they can be distracting and interruptive at best, offensive and offputting at worst.

So you need to find a way to control them. Often breathing exercises, where you concentrate on taking deep, abdominal breaths, holding and then releasing them can help curb involuntary gestures. You might try that if you do any of these:

• pick your nose, ears or any other body cavity
• twirl, twist, braid or fondle your hair
• scratch - anything
• clean your teeth (even with a toothpick) or nails
• "adjust" yourself
• interrupt others when they're talking
• crowd others (leave at least 18 inches of personal space between yourself and anyone to whom you may be speaking)
• snort, belch, fart or spit (if any of these things happen inadvertently, apologize profusely),
• point
• stare
• wiggle your leg incessantly

Also  avoid:

• consuming smelly food or drink
• playing music (wear headphones if you must), or
• wearing excessive perfume or cologne.

DIGGING DEEPER
It takes more than business savvy to get ahead these days. Following the proper business etiquette will help you stand out - or at least not derail your career. For help, read the Executive Report: Business Etiquette - 95 Dos and Don'ts for Managers and Executives.

Most Difficult Conversation: Tell employee he smells!

When it comes to difficult conversations with employees, which ones cause the most angst for managers?

Firings? Nope.

Explaining why someone didn't get a raise? Guess again.

The most dreaded conversation:

Telling an employee that he or she smells!

And the easiest conversation?

Confronting an employee about having inappropriate photos on his or her computer.

In fact, managers don't mind giving an employee bad news if he or she deserves it. But they squirm when things aren't so cut and dry, says the survey by HR News Update and Communications Update of more than 900 managers and HR professionals. The managers were asked to rate each of 19 difficult conversations on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being the least difficult conversation and 5 being the most difficult.

The 5 Most Difficult Conversations (Total percentage those giving ratings of 4 or 5)

1. Telling an employee that he or she smells or has a hygiene problem (78.9%)
2. Telling an employee the company is downsizing and he or she will no longer have a job (73.8%)
3. Informing an employee that he or she is being demoted (68.4%)
4. Telling a hard working, valuable employee (but who doesn't have tremendous talent) that he or she isn't likely to rise any higher in the organization (67.6%)
5. Explaining to an employee this his or her spouse's behavior at a company event was unacceptable (53.4%)

The 9 Least Difficult Conversations (Total percentage those giving ratings of 1 or 2)

1. Confronting an employee who has porn on his or her computer (77.9%)
2. Confronting someone who is spending too much time on MySpace.com, etc. (74.9%)
3. Talking to an employee about begin tardy or missing work (72.9%)
4. Confronting an employee who is job hunting on company time (70.7%)
5. Confronting someone who has stolen from the organization (70.0%)
6. Confronting someone for sending inappropriate email (68.7%)
7. Confronting an employee who's blatantly lied (65.5%)
8. Firing an employee for cause (63.7%)
9. Confronting someone who is spending too much time on the phone (60.3%)

And the 5 Conversations with average ratings:

1. Explaining to an employee why he or she didn't get a promotion
2. Firing an employee for performance
3. Explaining to an employee that his or her clothing is inappropriate for the office
4. Telling a normally excellent employee his or her work is not up to par
5. Explaining to an employee why he or she didn't get a raise

ADDITIONAL HELP:
We've all had some of these “uncomfortable” conversations with employees. To help, you’re invited to check out the Executive Report: Handling Difficult Conversations with Employees: What Every Manager Needs to Know.