The average person works about eight hours a day, five days a week. If you add this up, it shows just how much time you spend there. Whether you love your job or just tolerate it, it’s undeniable how much of your life is focused on it. It’s for this reason then, that people fall into certain traps at work all the time.
These aren’t necessarily trapped by your boss or place of work, they are more of your own making and are easily avoidable if you know what they are. Here are just a few examples, and tips on how to avoid them.
1. Working longer than you should
Most jobs require a little overtime here and there, but if you find yourself putting in a lot of extra hours all the time, this can add up. Even an extra 2 hours a week add up to over 13 extra days of work a year—days you aren’t likely being paid for.
Many companies used to notice who was the first in and who was the last out, but with flexible hours, remote working, and four-day weeks, this culture is slowly dying. You shouldn’t be the one who is still holding yourself to it, though.
There is nothing wrong with finishing work regularly at a reasonable hour, and it’s important to stop yourself falling into the trap of your hours spent there slowly creeping up.
2. No longer improving on your skills
After being in your job or field for a long time, it’s easy to become too comfortable. The longer you’re there, the better you’ll get at that particular job. Once you’ve gotten excellent at doing what you need to do, it’s natural to sit back and fall into the trap of no longer improving your skills.
You have no idea what is around the corner, though, and having more skills under your belt will always be a great asset to have. From learning to code to learning more about Azure cloud computing, there are always new skills you can pick up.
3. Staying with the same company
Staying in the same job or with the same company for a while can be good—it looks great on your resume to show that you don’t jump ship all the time and that you can commit to roles for a long period of time.
Having said that though, when you become too comfortable in your current position, this is not good. Moving to a new company can not only be great for your salary, but it can also help you to widen your experience, as you get to work with a wider range of businesses.
While it might look good on your resume to work for one company for a while, working at a handful of companies for a good amount of time each will look much better. No one wants to be a job-hopper but that doesn’t mean you should pass up a great opportunity when it comes your way.
