7 Unintentionally Self-Damaging Things We Say at Work
“This may be stupid…”
I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard.
A coworker and I were doing a presentation to a group of potential clients we’d never met and two minutes into the opening remarks he said:
“You can’t make this sh*t up!”
He was talking about something funny that happened, but I knew our professional factor had just dropped and we’d be taken less seriously from that point forward.
Our efforts had been damaged and he had no clue.
Once you break the seal on unprofessionalism during a first impression it’s impossible to regain respect to some degree.
He threw in a couple references to Trump and Biden also during the talk which I’m sure was icing on the discount-these-guys cake for some listeners.
He, and maybe you, think he was just being real, authentic, who he was. Fine. No big deal. Authenticity is important and even critical to building relationships and being a human. But misplaced profanity, even when mild like this was, can hurt you.
Be you, but when in doubt or when in new territory, err on the side of respect and professionalism if you want to protect your efforts and career.
