Hiring managers say your attitude is just as important as your work - and it can sabotage your career

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Hiring managers say your attitude is just as important as your work - and it can sabotage your career

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Employers care as much about your attitude as your work.

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  • More than half of hiring managers say a bad attitude would make them regret hiring an employee.
  • Negativity spreads throughout the office and can be as bad for a work environment as poor work skills.
  • Being a positive employee can help get you a job or promotion over a negative colleague.

Forget about hitting your deadline and focus on shaping up your attitude.

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CareerBuilder discovered that your attitude may have just as much of an influence on your career as the actual work you perform. When asked what makes a bad hire, employers considered low quality of work and a negative attitude as practically equal.

Harris Poll surveyed 2,257 hiring managers and human resource professionals, and the results showed 54% categorize a worker without proper quality of work as a bad hire. Meanwhile, 53% said a negative attitude would create regret over a hire.

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The chief human resources officer for CareerBuilder, Rosemary Haefner, said in a statement "there's a ripple effect with bad hires. Disengagement is contagious - poor performers lower the bar for other workers on their teams, and their bad habits spread throughout the organization."

Considering so many hiring professionals have regretted employing someone for their can't-do attitude, it's important to examine why those decisions were made. A quarter of HR managers ignored warning signs and 29% of employers say they made a bad hire because they focused on skills and not attitude.

A different CareerBuilder survey found that 62% of employers are less likely to promote a worker with a negative or pessimistic attitude. That's partly because of how it affects coworkers: A 2015 CareerBuilder survey found 55% of employees have seen colleagues whine and 46% have witnessed coworkers pout over something that didn't go their way.

That same survey found that office gossip, showing up late to work and meetings, and submitting sloppy work are all signs of disengagement that bosses look down on, and habits like incessant interrupting and unnecessary swearing at the office may signal a needed attitude adjustment.

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On the flip side, negative employees may be the result of a poor working environment. A study by Towers Perrin and Gang & Gang found that employee negativity stems from an excessive workload, concerns about management, anxiety about the future, lack of challenge at work, and insufficient recognition.

It's never too late to change your approach. The CEO of Adidas was fired from a previous job at HP for being confrontational and having a bad attitude. "All my numbers were great, and therefore I thought I could act however I wanted to. But I couldn't," he told Swedish publication Di Weekend.