Do one or more of your colleagues behave unprofessionally at work, leaving you to question how they even still have a job? We’re all creatures of habit and it’s hard to change the behaviours we’ve become accustomed to. But like I’m sure your mother said, “There’s a time and place,” and certain habits just have no business being in a business atmosphere.

While there are many contributing factors that might affect your promotion, it could be your habits that are keeping you from growing professionally. Put together by LifeHack are five unprofessional habits that can prevent you from achieving success. And while nobody’s perfect, we occasionally need a reminder from time-to-time.

5 unprofessional habits

1. Showing up late

It isn’t really a problem to arrive late one or two times, but showing up extremely late multiples times a week is. When your tardiness becomes a pattern, you’re telling the entire office that you don’t know how to manage your time and that you don’t care about your job. It reflects poorly and causes your boss and co-workers to view you as a lazy employee.

2. Wandering Eyes

We notice attractive members of whatever gender you’re into, but you should have the self-control to keep the up-and-down look under control. Eyes up here or you’ll look like a creep.

Also when you disagree with someone, you might react by rolling or another reaction with your eyes. You may think you’re being subtle about it, but chances are that others have noticed. They may not mention it directly, but he/she might keep a record of these signs of disengagement and it might prevent you from promoting. If you are frustrated with a certain decision, the best way is to discuss it directly with whoever is involved.

3. Secrecy

Sure, we all have private lives, but most of the time our businesses don’t truly involve them. If you’re hiding important information from employees or clients, you’re not doing much for your reputation as a leader, and you’re probably making them wonder whether they can trust you.

4. ”You guys” syndrome

The fastest way to label yourself as an outsider is always referring the team as “you guys”. Even if there are practices that you may disagree with or want to improve, the best way to create changes is by first taking ownership of your position within the team so you can work together to turn things around.

5. Using profanity

Swearing has become common enough in conversation that most of us have become immune to it. But surprisingly a lot of professionals also believe that the common use of profanities is acceptable in a professional setting. Regardless of how unconventional your workplace might be, cursing in an office is the biggest sign of unprofessional behaviour. Keep in mind that it’s not the swearing that drives your point across, but rather your conviction and delivery of your speech.

Source: http://www.lifehack.org/318072/five-habits-that-make-you-look-unprofessional