You’ve heard of tragic mistakes that took someone downhill fast in their workplace. While that happens, it’s more common that some subtle, lowkey mistakes that ruin a career are in the mix. It’s these parts of daily work life that get overlooked and can change your career trajectory more than you realize.
The lowkey mistakes we’re outlining here may surprise you because they can often seem normal. They are habits we come to by our natural human nature and go under the radar.
Before you know it they are causing more damage than you would like to admit. Then, with enough time and influence, these practices can cause a deep rift in your career potential.
Slow and Subtle Career Mistakes You can Avoid
Luckily, with enough self-awareness and genuine care, you can pick these out easily and work towards correcting them. It’s likely you’ll even start to notice your coworkers making these mistakes. Hopefully this insight will provide some self-reflection and put you on a better track for career stability.
1) Personality
While everyone has a personality, of course, it’s these quirks that can sometimes get you in trouble. If you have an outgoing and intense personality it will be easy to walk over coworkers who are more soft spoken. With a nature of curiosity, someone can come across as difficult or uncooperative.
In every person is the potential for their personality to intrude on their career success. The problem emerges when personalities disrupt teamwork, slow progress, and make communication harder.
If you keep to yourself, coworkers may find it difficult to collaborate with you. This can also be the case if you’re someone who has a hard time slowing down and accepting input. Over time, this can lead to frustration for all parties and can stunt your career growth
THE FIX
Balance will save you here. Chances are you have a fairly clear idea of your personality and ways it influences those around you.
Take moments in your work day to slow down and observe how people interact with you. Also think about ways you behave naturally may be having a negative influence on daily tasks or longer term projects.
Even insight from a trusted coworker can help open your eyes to problematic personality traits. If you find these are compromising your workspace, explore ways to find a better balance that benefits you and those around you.
2) Favoritism as a Lowkey Mistake that can Ruin a Career
Although you can think of favoritism as a top-down concept, the practice among coworkers can be equally harmful. When it comes to your career, establishing yourself as someone who treats everyone fairly means you are easy to work with and can be more productive.
When any employee receives special treatment, others may feel undervalued, leading to resentment and disengagement. It can reduce teamwork, damage your credibility, and result in unfair decisions that hurt performance and discourage growth.
Whether intentional or not, over time, favoritism creates a toxic environment where motivation and accountability decline. You’ll quickly lose likeability and trust in the workplace if you can’t maintain an even treatment with all coworkers.
THE FIX
Remember that having coworkers you enjoy being around more than others does not mean the same thing as favoritism. This lowkey mistake that can ruin your career comes into play most when you allow your preferences to influence the way you treat those outside your circle.
Consider if you are giving all coworkers the same grace and respect. Create a reasonable distance from those you do not work well with but maintain a professional level of collaboration.
3) Complacency
When you become settled at work it is easy to relax and let complacency take over. This is one of the more dangerous mistakes people make that can compromise their career.
Complacency in the workplace leads to decreased productivity, more errors, and reduced attention to quality and safety. Because you become lax in seeking improvement or changes, this behavior can injure teamwork, lower engagement, and limit innovation.
When it comes to your career this kind of behavior will decrease your performance. It will also show coworkers you are coming from a “good enough” mindset.
THE FIX
Stay vigilant and curious. Complacency is such an easy trap to fall into and is contagious. Even if those around you have fallen into this, keeping yourself attentive bolsters your career stability.
Listen out for coworkers who have different ideas and give their suggestions some serious thought. Do your own research on where you lack experience or are curious about something. Avoiding complacency means that you won’t let the workplace norm hold you back in your career.
4) Bad communication skills
If you think you have the strong communication skills to support your career, think again. Perhaps you feel you have a strength in communication. But, be cautious that you’re not making any lowkey mistakes that are easy to dismiss.
Poor communication skills can lead to confusion, misunderstandings, and mistakes among coworkers. When information isn’t shared clearly, teamwork suffers, conflicts increase, and productivity drops.
Over time, bad communication can erode professional relationships and reduce trust. It can gradually create a stressful work environment where people feel frustrated or unsupported.
THE FIX
Watch for moments in your conversations, emails, and collaborations that elicit confusion or disengagement. Whether by your actions or others you may better notice small elements that detract from understanding and efficiency.
This could include being too vague, overexplaining, assuming understanding, interrupting, lacking input, and so many more. Once you recognize these elements you can work on new approaches to elevate your skills and career potential.
5) Poor attention to detail
Sometimes narrowing your scope from the “big picture” of a project or goal can be difficult. But, it’s that focusing-in on the smaller details that will carry you into long-term career success.
A lack of attention to detail in the workplace leads to errors, rework, and missed deadlines. As productivity slows the quality of work lacks. Then comes the frustration of coworkers who must work around or correct mistakes.
Over time, this lowkey mistake will weaken your overall performance and cause a loss in your reliability and credibility. As those are pillars of a career, it is easy to see how that could ruin your chances of success.
THE FIX
Slow down. It can feel like such a hassle but finding the right balance of detailed attention can elevate you above the competition.
Watch out for any patterns of small mistakes or corrections that come up. Then you can figure out what details you miss the most. Trusted coworkers can also provide input on which details are most important or most missed.
6) Over Eagerness
Being overly eager in the workplace can have both positive and negative effects. But, when it becomes excessive, it often causes worse problems. Before long you take on too many tasks, rush through work, or make decisions without proper information. This results in further mistakes and disorganization.
An intense drive like this can also make coworkers feel pressured, overshadowed, or interrupted. You can easily appear impatient or disrespectful of boundaries. This can strain professional relationships and reduce overall effectiveness of a team.
THE FIX
Proper balance—enthusiasm paired with awareness and judgment—is key. While a passion in your career can be so powerful, be sure to check in with yourself so you don’t bulldoze those around you.
This can be a hard perspective to find so consider checking in with a supervisor or coworker to gain insight. Chances are you may do this in your personal life too, so a family member or friend can also be helpful to consult.
7) Socialization as a Lowkey Mistake that can Ruin a Career
Again, as a level of balance, being on either end of the socialization spectrum could negatively affect your career potential. The difficulty lies in where these two natures, if left unchecked, communicate disinterest in workplace involvement and mutual success.
On one end, not socializing at work can lead to weaker teamwork, limited collaboration, and reduced trust among your coworkers. Cohesion, problem-solving and coordination become more difficult as a person is closed off or not easy to work with.
On the other end, socializing to an extreme can also lead to weaker teamwork, limited collaboration, and reduced trust among your coworkers. When your focus is too much on socializing there are missed opportunities to support teamwork. You also contribute less overall to projects or goals.
THE FIX
Regardless of if you are introverted or extroverted, challenge yourself to find ways to engage appropriately with those in your workplace. You may even have a coworker who has the same social battery as you that has already figured these tricks out.
Some ideas for an introvert could include contributing a question or suggestion during a team meeting. Or, you might consider getting to know a coworker better. You can do this by prioritizing conversation with them during a particular day or week.
As an extrovert, set yourself a boundary on socializing during certain times of day or throughout the week. Another idea is to recognize coworkers who keep you socially occupied and manage your time better in order to focus more on teamwork and projects.
8) False Competency
False competency is when individuals believe they are more capable than they actually are. Although you may think this would be easy to notice in yourself, it can definitely sneak up on you. Eventually this lowkey mistake that can ruin a career leads to poor decision-making and reduced quality of work.
This misrepresentation of oneself may also create friction within teams, as coworkers become frustrated if you dominate discussions or resist feedback. Over time, false competency can hinder productivity and undermine trust within team dynamics.
THE FIX
Self-assessment and the ability to receive input are crucial to turning around this error. As we become more developed in our careers it is easy to fall into an assumption that we know it all. It is also so much more comfortable to project confidence than outwardly acknowledge a deficit.
Staying humble and collaborating with honest and ambitious individuals can help you understand and present your strengths accurately. Keep yourself open to growth and the feedback of others that can help you fill any gaps in your knowledge or skills.
9) Inauthenticity
It is easy to present a false version of ourselves as we try to please others, avoid conflict, or fit in. Unfortunately, over time, this will not only wear on you but on your coworkers as well when they discover small falsehoods about you.
Being inauthentic can cause you to burnout, dislike your job, and avoid voicing honest concerns or potentially helpful ideas. For those around you a tension can build when trust is lost and open collaboration suffers. In small ways productivity starts to lack and you are on a slippery slow to ruining your career.
THE FIX
Trust yourself, or learn how to trust yourself. You are exactly who you need to be at this point in time. If you are in a workplace where you can’t find a way to fit in, figure out a new employment situation. Hopefully you can find a place where you feel more at ease and can act authentically.
Sometimes if you have the problem of being authentic with those around you it is not about something you are doing “wrong”. Instead, you just need to find the right atmosphere of people who accept and encourage your authenticity.
BONUS – Other Lowkey Mistakes that Ruin a Career
While the depth of this article only covers nine covert workplace mistakes here are a few more examples of ways you may be compromising your career.
- Not asking for clarification and so moving forward with incorrect assumptions.
- Not documenting properly causing confusion later.
- Failing to follow through on small tasks you agreed to.
- Multitasking during meetings and so missing key details.
- Not giving credit when others contribute.
- Not speaking up when something seems off, to avoid seeming difficult.
Final Thoughts on Lowkey Mistakes that Ruin a Career
Considering all the little things that can go wrong while building your career can be overwhelming. But if you are thinking about ways to recognize your weaknesses and bolster yourself professionally, you’re definitely on the right track.
You will be surrounded by others who don’t take the time to consider the subtle issues that compromise them. Yet, with the perspective to see how these can creep up as well as how to fix them, you are well equipped for a successful career.
About the Author
Anna is a twenty-something living in the south. She's passionate about family, crafting, and continuing her education beyond her college degree.