The gaffes are legendary and we laugh (or wince) at them every day. Those more than notable mistakes made by a professional that is in the fury of a career death spiral are all too painful to watch. Or are they really? We share these stories at the dinner table, with our co-workers, across the fence with the neighbor and with the coach at our kid’s soccer match. We talk about this kind of stuff because it’s great for a laugh. This is mostly because those who commit career suicide do so without an apparent shred of consciousness. They make “errors” so fraught with stupidity and bereft of common sense that we actually wonder if their decisions are coming from their last séance with Dionne Warwick!
Let’s do a crash course of the Art of Career Suicide with some quick anecdotes of the stuff that is hitting the news reels and the desks of HR executives in the Philadelphia region and across the country.
- An elementary school teacher in the northeastern US was dismissed from her position for calling her students “germ bags” on her Facebook page.
- A mid-level sales professional interviews for a job in the Delaware Valley and tells the hiring manager that she just read a book by Stephen Covey but could not share any specific knowledge from the book.
- Ten factory workers were filmed by Fox News drinking beer and smoking pot while on their lunch break only a mile from where they used to work!
- A local financial services professional proudly lists his accomplishments on his resume including his proudest achievement of reaching over 1,000 songs on his iPod! Wow!
- Unique Mid-Western college graduate films a “self-directed” video resume for YouTube and describes himself as a “delicious” choice for a prospective employer.
- Hollywood child star turned, socialite and party gal enters and re-enters rehab amidst concerns that her clothing line and career will fail if she can’t work!
- After being caught by a senior executive at his desk sleeping, a Mid-Atlantic customer service representative tells human resources that he feels he is being “singled out” for his behavior.
So by now, we are all on the same page about the behavior which will land one squarely in the cross-hairs of the career death squad. For a clearer picture, imagine driving down the road on the way to work with a cup of your favorite $4 coffee. Traffic is heavy and you take a moment to look down and adjust the radio station. You look up and hear a screech as the car in front of you begins to stop short. As you slam on the breaks you grab the wheel with both hands to control the car. Where’s the coffee? It’s flying through the air and hits the windshield traveling at about 40 miles per hour. Hot coffee goes everywhere! The vents, the dash, the carpet and your clothes are all covered. Luckily, you don’t get burned.
What in the world does this coffee story have to do with a career? It really is a matter of thinking through what just happened. You got distracted, did something stupid and now you’ve got a big mess to clean up. Sure, you are not dead but you are covered with coffee and the car will still smell like a latte several months from now. Generally speaking however, coffee is easier to clean out of carpet than it is to clean up a career characterized by risky, careless choices.
When you are laughing at that next stupid criminal expose on the news or getting a kick out of a professional just making a “bone-head” move, think about the work that goes into building trust and credibility. It can all be lost in an instant and the TV cameras don’t even have to be there. A “friend” with a Blackberry can be just as lethal.
Comments