Top Factors Preventing Workers' Chances of Promotion

In a recent CareerBuilder study, employers revealed the top behaviors that hurt an employee’s chances for promotion, with poor attitudes and consistent tardiness taking the top spot.

• Having a negative or pessimistic attitude: 62 percent
• Regularly showing up to work late: 62 percent
• Using vulgar language: 51 percent
• Regularly leaving work early: 49 percent
• Taking too many sick days: 49 percent
• Gossiping: 44 percent
• Spending office time on personal social media accounts: 39 percent
• Neglecting to clean up after himself/herself: 36 percent
• Always initiating non-work-related conversations with co-workers: 27 percent
• Taking personal calls at work: 24 percent
• Taking smoke breaks: 19 percent

“In addition to on-the-job accomplishments, employers also take attitude, behavior and appearance into consideration when deciding who deserves to move up in the ranks,” said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder. “While your work performance may be strong, if you’re not presenting yourself in a professional manner, it may be preventing your superiors from taking you seriously.”

This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,175 hiring and human resource managers ages 18 and over (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) between February 11 and March 6, 2015. With a pure probability sample of 2,175, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 2.10 percentage points. 

CareerBuilder is an HR firm, helping companies target and attract great talent. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com, is the largest in the United States with more than 24 million unique visitors and 1 million jobs. CareerBuilder works with the world’s top employers, providing everything from labor market intelligence to talent management software and other recruitment solutions. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.