Professionalism

There are times when work stresses us out beyond belief and we don’t conduct ourselves in very flattering ways. We get angry, petty or confrontational—in other words, unprofessional. The key to keeping your cool is being prepared. Mentally preparing yourself for workplace stress can be a boon for your career.

Whether your recognize it or not, your office has a culture. It has a certain way of doing things, of perceiving its mission and carrying out its vision. There are certain types of people who are an excellent cultural fit, and there are those who aren’t. Introverted people, for example, probably aren’t a good fit on the floor of the stock exchange. It’s nothing personal. It’s just the way business works.

Putting on makeup in the morning is a ritual millions of women perform every morning. It’s important to be presentable at work, and though men have to shave, at least they are spared the whole makeup routine. But makeup is important for professional women, and how they use makeup says much about who they are as an office professional.

It's an experience all too many professionals have faced recently: the dreaded layoff. If you've been laid off—or fear you may be soon—you may be so paralyzed by fear, anxiety or just plain shock that you feel helpless and don't know what to do.

That's only natural, but it's important to pull yourself together and formulate your plan of attack. The actions you take immediately after a layoff can help determine where your career goes from here. They can also help you get your professional life back on track as quickly as possible.

Yesterday you probably noticed that a few of your colleagues were running a little slow, had dark circles beneath their eyes and strained voices from a night of yelling at their televisions. Maybe in the future, the day following the Super Bowl will be a national holiday. But until then the day after the Super Bowl will remain as America’s number one hungover office professional day.

Office professionals know that part of being a professional entails being able to handle their coworkers quirks, annoying habits and idiosyncrasies. Harold Cummings in account cracks his knuckles. Anita Swanson in human resources clicks her dentures (gross!). Tim Swanson cuts his toenails in his cubicle (really gross!). Nevertheless, you are a professional, and somehow you manage to overlook these distractions that swirl around you all day and accomplish your work.

Some office professionals have a more difficult time than others understanding the boundaries that separate our personal and professional lives. Whether these people or lonely or just more open, they share too much of their lives at the office too fast, making others uncomfortable and themselves the target of gossip and criticism.

It’s often difficult to understand why some people act the way they do. After all, how self-unaware must one be not to know they are being rude? Were they raised by rude parents in a rude society, or is it something deep within their DNA, or perhaps just an unlikeable part of their personality. It’s unfathomable that in today’s workplace, where candidates are intensely vetted and scrutinized by various levels of a meticulous interview process, that rude people actually make it into the workforce. But they do.

No one likes to be judged. The worst part about judgmental people, other than the unmitigated arrogance and audacity it takes to assess the worth of another human being, is that most judgmental people are, inevitably, hypocrites. And judgmental people at the workplace are the worst. Without knowing exactly, or even generally, what other people do, they feel free to characterize the jobs of others as meaningless or trivial, which is simply another way of portraying that person as having no professional meaning or value.

If you’re a mom returning to work—or are currently working, but want to dress your best at the office—you may be wondering how you can put together a professional wardrobe without breaking your budget. Money-saving expert Andrea Woroch has tips to help you update your wardrobe with fashionable work-wear on a budget.