FOUR ACTIONS THAT WILL DESTROY YOUR CAREER

We gathered the top ways to destroy even the most brilliant career. If you have been thinking about downshifting for a long time but did not know how to start, please take notes. 

Statistical Information

According to consulting firm VitalSmarts, 3 out of 4 employees in the US made fatal mistakes that severely damaged their careers:

• 31% said it cost them a promotion or even a job
• 27% believed that this mistake affected the working relations
• 11% were sure that such misconduct ruined their reputation

83% of respondents witnessed how their colleagues or friends made a mistake, as a result of which they lost their career, reputation, or business. 

Method No. 1: Lies and Fraud

US neurophysiologists explain that the more often a person lies, the easier it is for him. The fact is that the activity of the amygdala in the brain, which is responsible for shame and embarrassment, decreases as a result of frequent "training." When deceiving on the little things, people get gradually drawn into this process. Emotional discomfort disappears even at the neurophysiology level. 

The Superjob portal decided to find out — representatives of which professions lie at work most often. According to a survey, the strongest predisposition to lie was shown by:

• sales representatives – 61% 
• sales managers – 58% 
• loan officers – 56%
• tailors/seamstresses/fashion designers – 54% 
• advertising sector employees – 54%

People, whose career was ruined by lies and fraud:

• Australian railroad Chief James Pinder and Melbourne transport company Metro Trains manager Peter Bollas fired and are under investigation for suspected bribery.
  
  The investigation proved that in 2020 these managers regularly received "kickbacks" from the management of the Transclean cleaning company. Bollas also received a "gift" of 320 thousand Australian dollars for equipping a new home. In return, these managers "did not notice" the fact that Transclean did not treat trains with antiseptics as part of the fight against Covid-19.
• Scott Thompson was fired as CEO of Yahoo! because of cheating in his CV. One of the company's investors discovered that information about the degree of the CEO was a lie. During the proceedings, it turned out that Thompson did not submit a CV when applying for a job. Accordingly, nobody checked it. He filed a CV with the necessary skills and fake information retroactively after he was employed in the company.

Method No. 2: Explicit Posts on Social Media

According to We Are Social Company research, a person spends 2.5 hours on average a day on social media. Active virtual life and a lot of followers is great, but not when such coverage works against you.

More and more companies are interested in what their employees are doing online. 36% of employers periodically check the personal pages of their employees on social media, and 6% do it regularly. 

Scandals caused by controversial employee publications often lead to layoffs. Everything is saved online. Therefore, even after deleting a post, its shadow can pop up again and again.

People, whose career was destroyed by social media:

• American woman Connor Riley received an offer from Cisco and immediately shared the news with her Twitter followers on the joys. Riley's mistake was that the text was too ironic and even offensive to the company: 

This tweet quickly went viral. One of Cisco employees came across it, and the company withdrew its job offer.

• U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner protected the rights and interests of New York citizens in the Capitol for 10 years. It turned out that all the same 10 years Weiner was sexting on social media. The truth was revealed when the politician accidentally published his intimate photo in the feed instead of sending it to his girlfriend in a personal. Due to obscene texting with a minor, Weiner lost his job and his family and went to jail for 19 months. This situation also destroyed the career of his wife, a close associate of Hillary Clinton. The scandal happened just two weeks before the presidential election. According to Clinton, it was one of the main reasons for her defeat. After his release, Weiner got a job at a recycling plant.

Method No. 3: Discrimination

Gender-based and race-based discrimination is prohibited by law in many countries. However, not all comply with it. 

According to the Gender Gap Report, humanity will need at least 135 years to overcome the gender gap worldwide at the current rate of development.

In a Pew Research Center survey, 27% of women said their gender hinders career development. Until now, women around the world earn less than men. According to Gender Gap, this gap differs in each of European countries: from a 5.5% difference in wages in Italy and Luxembourg to 27% in the Czech Republic.

In addition, an analysis of the global labor market showed that in 2020, women lost their jobs 22% more often than men.

According to Pew Research Center's U.S. salary survey, African Americans and Latin Americans earn less than whites on average. Only the Asians managed to overtake the latter. Interestingly, women's salaries are lower than those of men of their race. However, at the same time, white and Asian women earn more than black and Hispanic men. 

People, whose career was destroyed due to discrimination:

• Two years ago, Islamophobic remarks on social media spoiled the reputation of Alternative for Germany Party vice president Beatrice von Storch and co-chair Alice Weidel. Their careers ended at that point. These politicians did not hold any significant positions after the forced resignation and the trial. 
• Software engineer James Damore said goodbye to his job at Google after his open letter on gender policy in IT. According to Damore, there are fewer women in this field, not because of discrimination or sexism, but simply because they are less suited to such intellectual work. Google did not support the employee's point of view and responded to this statement by firing him. 

Method No. 4: Disclosure of Proprietary Company Information

NDA is a popular way aimed at preventing the leakage of organization business information. If you violate even the unspoken ethics of keeping the secrets of the employer, this is a sure way not only to lose your job but also to put your future at risk.

People, whose career was destroyed due to information disclosure:

• US National Security Council employee Jophy Joseph paid heavily for his desire to become famous. The man created an anonymous Twitter account, where he offended the administration of the then US President Barack Obama and "leaked" state secret programs. Two years later, the authorities revealed Joseph's incognito and kicked him out with a scandal.
• At the end of 2019, Google fired four employees because of information leaks. The company representatives reported that data that was not subject to disclosure was uploaded from the accounts of these specialists. At the beginning of 2021, the same situation happened again. In February, Margaret Mitchell, head of the artificial intelligence ethics group, was forced to resign from her position. She uploaded several confidential business documents and personal data of other employees to make them public.

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