A third of white-collar professionals have admitted to being more self-aware of their behaviour in the past year to avoid being ‘cancelled’ by colleagues while at work, this according to a recent poll by Robert Walters.
‘Cancel Culture’ is the practice of boycotting support for a public figure or brand who has done something that is deemed socially unacceptable. Much like in mainstream society – once ‘cancelled’, opportunities are less likely to be presented to you, leaving some professionals very little choice but to leave their job.
Jasmine Araujo, Banking and Financial Services Manager at Robert Walters, shares her 12 tips for a drama-free workplace and to avoid getting ‘cancelled’ by colleagues:
- Get stuck in – you spend most of your day-to-day life with your colleagues – working for the same company, supporting the same brand, and striving for the same company goals. You are a team, so treat all of your colleagues as your teammates – that means not acting in silo, offering a helping-hand, advice, and support. The ‘that’s not in my remit’ approach is a fast-track approach to being cancelled by colleagues.
- Bring your authentic self – feeling like you don’t know the person that you work side-by-side with can be unnerving. It can feel quite robotic if all chat is kept to the parameters of work. If you are stressed about your wedding or buying a house, then by all means share it with the team – show that you are human! A refusal to let someone in personally can come across as cold.
- Ignorance is not bliss – there is a lot going on in the world – and social and political matters is the number one conversation topic that can divide colleagues. Now we’re not saying to establish a hard-line on current affairs, it just pays dividends to be aware of matters that are going on in the world and how they may impact people differently. By educating yourself on the different viewpoints, you are less likely to cause accidental offense.
- Watch how you use your humour – now that’s not to say don’t have a laugh when at work! But just be aware that satire, dry humour, and sarcasm all have a way of being easily misinterpreted – especially via text or email as there is no body language to be read. What can be funny to you may not be to someone else – mocking someone in the group or making a distasteful joke about something quite serious equates to a high chance of offence. Put simply – save some jokes for your friends outside of work.
- Pick your clique wisely – unfortunately, the office environment can fall foul to the same cliquey environments we see in schools or personal friendship circles. Be aware of this – and remember at work we are literally paid to get on with everybody! Aligning yourself very closely to certain – particularly acquired – colleagues also puts you at risk should they be cancelled!
- Don’t fuel the gossip – let’s face it, we talk about people in our life – and this isn’t any different to the people that we interact with every day, our colleagues. Talking is one thing – but getting involved in petty discussions and fuelling damaging office rumours, earns you a fast-track pass to being cancelled. A job is someone’s livelihood, and it is not your job to put that in jeopardy for a colleague. Stay out of futile gossip. If anything direct has happened to you, rather than sharing with colleagues, report it to management and have it dealt with professionally.
- Don’t forget where you came from – progression is something that most of us want. However, be mindful of how you come across as you rise to the top – do you spend less time chatting to your old colleagues, ignoring social invites, act ‘too busy’ – always on your phone whilst talking? Whilst progression should be celebrated, don’t fall foul to namedropping, be present, treat your colleagues how you would like to be treated, and stay humble.
- Be in the present moment – we could all argue that we have somewhere ‘better to be’ or ‘work that needs doing’ – these excuses are tiring and if we all said this, then we would never have any relationships in the workplace. Whether it is an after-work event or volunteering at your office’s Charity Day – whilst you don’t have to do it all, make sure that when you are in attendance, you are present and engaged. Don’t make people feel like a tick-box when you talk to them on a social level.
- Be responsive – the number one office gripe – a colleague ignoring requests or emails. Keep on top of your own internal communications. Reply promptly to things that directly involve you, give more definitive answers and updates, and don’t keep cancelling/moving or missing diary invites. We are all busy!
- Take accountability for yourself – we are human, and at work, things will go wrong a number of times – whether it is work-related or something that you said. If and when this happens, the best thing to do is to step up professionally and take accountability for your actions. The best case scenario is you do this before anyone else notices and brings it up themselves. Sliding out of trouble and generating lies, does not make for a honourable or trustworthy colleague.
- Practice gratitude – if someone helps you out with something – anything, no matter how small, show your appreciation for this by reciprocating it in some way. Yes, your team assistant is supposed to help with admin, but take the time to acknowledge the feeling they have when more work (than expected) is dropped on them. Check-in with colleagues, verbalise your thank you’s, tell others how much of a great help they have been. Don’t take all the credit for a project when you’ve had support and assistance.
- Don’t try to cancel others – we all know the type, the hawk in the office who is always keeping an ear out for tense conversations, budding office romances, or exaggerating the afterwork antics of others so that they can come up with a reason to ostracise this behaviour. Those individuals who make it a habit to cancel or call-out others regularly, will before-long find themselves on the receiving end of the same behaviour, with few allies to support them.
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