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Most people spend a lot of time working, which is why it seems only logical to make this activity efficient. Every job position has its specifics; however, there is plenty to be learned about the general conduct in corporate work that can benefit you. This woman, Valerie Rodriguez, worked in HR for 10 years and recently made a mini video series on TikTok pointing out 11 big mistakes that are common among people who are new to the office environment. She explains that having all the experience she does, she would never make these eleven mistakes and she strongly advises avoiding them in a corporate workplace if one wants to get ahead in their career. The woman’s mini video series went viral with 6.6 million views on TikTok.
More info: TikTok
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#1
Don't Harp On A Mistake
You will not catch me harping on a mistake I've made. I will acknowledge it and I will provide you with a solution, but I'm not going to harp on it. I learned that the hard way. I used to think like, "Oh, I need to own my mistake, so people know I can take accountability." No, no, because then they will harp on it too. And hold it against you. Nope. Let's focus on solutions and move the f**k on.
lavishvaal/ , Cup of Couple Report
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DeVille DeVille Community Member Follow
Very good suggestion, for work and life
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#2
Don't Share Too Much Personal Information
Sharing too much does not do you any good at any point in your career. Especially when you know that you're trying to move up. You're trying to establish yourself as a reputable person within a company. Do not overshare, it will only come back to haunt you.
lavishvaal , Andrea Piacquadio Report
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Trish Ferguson Trish Ferguson Community Member Follow
I'm terrible for this
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#3
Don't Stay At Company Functions For Longer Than One And A Half Hours
You will not catch me at company functions like happy hours, holiday parties for longer than an hour and a half. The truth is, people start drinking, stuff starts happening and I do not want to be associated.
lavishvaal , cottonbro studio Report
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Cyndielouwhoo Cyndielouwhoo Community Member Follow
I think this depends on what your coworkers are like.
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#4
Don't Vent To The Manager
I absolutely refuse to vent to my manager. And I did this early in my career because I thought my manager was cool. And they were a cool person, but I vented, thinking, like, whatever, they asked me how things are going. And it bit me in the back because it ended up being that they thought I was unengaged. I was unhappy. And the reality is, is no job is perfect. You're not always going to be like, happy go lucky about it. And yeah, he told people that I was really unhappy with my job. I will vent to someone else.
lavishvaal , Marcus Aurelius Report
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Manic Mama Manic Mama Community Member Follow
Saw this one happen. New colleague returned to work after being stabbed. Confided in another colleague (who he didn't know) that his drug-dealer's dealer had stabbed him. Person he was confiding in was the Managing Director. Helooooo unemployment. Clean drug test was a mandatory requirement.
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#5
Don't Take Things Personally
I am not taking anything personally from work. I used to do this and I had to shift my mindset and remind myself that there are a lot of other things going on that don't have to do with me. And I shouldn't take things personally and think it's an attack on who I am. Having emotional intelligence definitely helped me with this one.
lavishvaal , Mark Drago Report
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Tucker Cahooter Tucker Cahooter Community Member Follow
No love for the Linux nerd by the looks of it
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#6
Don't Be Too Humble
You will never catch me being humble ever again. I used to think being humble was going to get me far. People would appreciate me and say "Oh, she's nice." No. So many successful women I work with are far from humble and will literally make sure that they enter a room and their presence is felt.
lavishvaal , Maddy Freddie Report
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DeVille DeVille Community Member Follow
You can be humble AND loud and proud, humble doesn’t mean wallflower. Simply give credit where it’s due, take credit where it’s genuinely yours.
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#7
Don't Work For Somebody Whom You Can't Learn From
And number two, which I started doing later on in my career, was only working for somebody or under somebody who I wanted to learn from. I take the time to look at people's LinkedIn. Like, I've just picked up that habit later in my career. Let me see the role I'm applying to, who it's reporting to, and I get it, sometimes you can't control it, some but not all jobs lend themselves to do that. But I look at jobs as a two-way street. So it's not just me providing you know, a company with my expertise and my knowledge and my skill set. I also want to learn in turn. So a paycheck is not enough for me. Develop me, help me grow. Teach me things that you've learned in your career. I value that, maybe not everybody else does. Maybe a lot of people don't just want a paycheck. Your girl wants to grow.
lavishvaal , fauxels Report
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Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic Mr Fox Community Member Follow
I remember a quote from America jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, when a journalist asked him how he became so good: "By being the worst musician in the band!". Exactly. By working with people better than you, then you will grow fast. It's honestly very stressful so I feel also here I don't want to go to extreme. Just feel you are being pushed out of the comfort zone once in a while, learning something new, but not being totally stressed out and being in over your head.
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#8
Don't Be An Extremist
I would not be an extremist. What does that mean? That means you're not over the top cheery and over the top everything. Or, on the other extreme, not chatty, not talking, not sociable. Finding a balance is everything in the workplace that people have told me "Wow, you really display emotional intelligence, you really seem very calm." And granted, personality is a big deal. So I'm not saying don't be yourself, but balance is everything.
lavishvaal , CoWomen Report
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Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic Mr Fox Community Member Follow
Yes you need to have emotional intelligence and empathy. Have an understanding of how other people perceive you and your interactions (without becoming super self conscious and awkward :)That's valuable to make the workplace a nice place to be.
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#9
Don't Mix Personal And Work Relationships
I will not be introducing work people to my personal life people, if that makes sense. I have seen so many messy investigations come across my desk because people start cheating or not getting along and it seeps right into work. That's the first place it goes. Not doing it.
lavishvaal , Noelle Otto Report
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Duke Kilroy Duke Kilroy Community Member Follow
I get it. But I have also known countless happy couples that met at work.
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#10
Don't Share Your Age
I am not sharing my age, you will not catch me doing this for the life of me. I've had people beg me, I've had people swear they're never going to share it with anybody else. No, I clearly look young. So that's already somewhat of a disadvantage in a corporate environment, because people do tend to judge and think, "Oh, you have your whole life ahead of you." No, you're not passing me up because of my age. If I'm qualified for the job. That's all that should matter.
lavishvaal , Cup of Couple Report
Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic Mr Fox Community Member Follow
Young age usually means less experience, so could be experience, not age, that people doubt. Maybe it depends on the business but I tend to think the age discrimination is against older people. Older being 40+
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#11
Don't Be Too Emotional
You are not going to catch me being too emotional at work, there's a balance. And I'm not saying you need to be a robot. No, you need to have emotional intelligence. And that took me some time to master. But it is definitely the top two or three qualities you need to be successful. And I'm not just talking about work, I'm talking about as an individual, for yourself. Having that emotional balance allows you to make decisions, not based on emotions, but a little bit more based on facts. And then you also know when to weigh in or introduce emotions, whether it's empathy, even if you know, you want to lighten up a mood and be a little bit more on the soft side. But having emotional intelligence is a must. So you are not going to catch me being overly emotional about something at work. Nope. And I will say just so you're aware, I used to be a crier. Like when I used to get frustrated or upset about things, I would cry at work sometimes. That was the biggest mistake I could have ever made. Ever. Do you know why? Because people then started to take me less seriously and thought I was just driven by emotion. Now, miss me with that.
lavishvaal , cottonbro studio Report
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StrangeOne StrangeOne Community Member Follow
This is super hard for me. I was raised to bottle up my emotions and not to react. It turned to me clenching me teeth every time I'm stressed, hitting myself and getting stressed out over the smallest things. There needs to be some balance.
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Duke Kilroy Duke Kilroy Community Member Follow
I've been with the same employer for 14 years. We have an HR department. But most of this advice doesn't ring true at our company. Sounds like rules for working for a s****y company.
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GoGoPDX GoGoPDX Community Member Follow
Right! I have worked places that these rules are necessary because it was full of power hungry people who would stab you in the back the 1st moment they got. I loved my actual job, but I was miserable working with my co-worker and supervisors. It takes it's toll when you can't trust anyone. I now work for an amazing company and have for a while, and I can honestly say I trust 95% of the people I work with, and this is from experiences that happened when everyone had my back, as well as others. I can be myself and always feel supported and valued.
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DeVille DeVille Community Member Follow
Hmmm, 2-3 of these are really good, but most of these should be taken with a big BIG grain of salt. It sounds like she’s not ever worked anywhere actually good, which is sad.
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Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic Mr Fox Community Member Follow
I find these useful. But really, as often with recommendations the easy part is to agree with and understand, but it's usually harder to act accordingly in the actual situation.
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Duke Kilroy Duke Kilroy Community Member Follow
I've been with the same employer for 14 years. We have an HR department. But most of this advice doesn't ring true at our company. Sounds like rules for working for a s****y company.
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GoGoPDX GoGoPDX Community Member Follow
Right! I have worked places that these rules are necessary because it was full of power hungry people who would stab you in the back the 1st moment they got. I loved my actual job, but I was miserable working with my co-worker and supervisors. It takes it's toll when you can't trust anyone. I now work for an amazing company and have for a while, and I can honestly say I trust 95% of the people I work with, and this is from experiences that happened when everyone had my back, as well as others. I can be myself and always feel supported and valued.
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DeVille DeVille Community Member Follow
Hmmm, 2-3 of these are really good, but most of these should be taken with a big BIG grain of salt. It sounds like she’s not ever worked anywhere actually good, which is sad.
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Fantastic Mr Fox Fantastic Mr Fox Community Member Follow
I find these useful. But really, as often with recommendations the easy part is to agree with and understand, but it's usually harder to act accordingly in the actual situation.
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