6 Effective Ways To Earn Respect At Work

Women aiming for respect must dress, act, and behave like it. Managers and co-workers challenge respect, but the proven information here shows the ambition is worth it.

Management and co-workers love to push your buttons. Start to finish, the 9-to-5 shift is difficult to maneuver. Jealous co-workers, hotheaded managers, and difficult clients are personalities that drive any woman insane.

Yet the best thing to do is to keep it calm, cool, and collective. You can gain respect in the workplace too. We’ve gathered valuable tips to turn your from a person with a bad reputation at work into an employee-of-the-month worthy candidate.

1) Dress for success

young business woman in white shirt on summer street city

Respect begins with the dress code. Dress the way you expect to be treated. Eliminate too tight and see-through clothing. Eliminate short skirts, daisy dukes, thongs, low-cut dresses and jeans, and sandals.

Are you attending work or finding a date? Jeans, T-shirt, and sneakers send the wrong message too. It represents laziness and disinterest. It’s great for casual Fridays, but not the weekday. Impress co-workers and bosses with button shirts knee length skirts, dress pants, and dress shoes.

2) Organization

First impressions continue with the organization. A clean workspace emphasizes the focused, hard-working worker part of you. Those people gain respect for being neat and put together. Naturally, messy personalities will struggle with this concept.

Messy desks show carelessness; companies frown on this due to brand image. Fear not; messy people can conquer this hiccup. Just place more emphasis on where common things like pens, paper, and paper clips go.

Concentrate on placing the pen (for example) in the penholder. Don’t aim for the ‘neat freak’ award; aim for cleanliness. Memorize and understand where everything should go.

3) Come correct

Young businesswoman using tablet computer in cafe

It’s time to earn respect. Intelligence, life experiences, leadership, teamwork skills, and problem-solving skills incorporated into daily tasks are the correct way to earn respect.

Specifically, do the work as told and respect co-workers and management (even if the respect isn’t mutual). However, many don’t work for it correctly. Incorrect “work” includes sleeping around for promotions and/or finding a co-worker to do the job for you.

Word gets around in the workplace. No matter the accomplishment, no one will see you for the person you’re aiming to become. Attitude holds equal weight to job performance.

A braggart, a smarty-pants, a bossy person, and overconfidence will not gain co-workers or management’s respect. Yet, allowing disrespect also loses respect. Co-workers and management take advantage of a quiet, friendly, and people-pleasing nature.

The respected are assertive, yet respectful. Those people voice their opinion and embrace the word “no.” With a serene tone and eye contact, their voice and body language beams confidence. Likewise, the assertive must take criticism and consequences instead of blaming others

4) Toe the line

Respect is about balance. Learn when to be assertive and when to remain quiet. Listen for the time for teamwork and the time for independent work. A good idea is to observe. Use the eyes and ears to determine which line to express. Keep emotions in check during work.

The balance comes from professional and personal social media and email accounts. The behavior on professional social media and email accounts differs from personal accounts. With professional accounts, don’t post or send anything the boss wouldn’t like.

To avoid the issue, consider opening personal and professional accounts and make distinct separations about the two (company name, saying the phrase ‘professional account’ in the description, etc.). A second idea is to make personal accounts private and professional accounts public.

5) Eliminate job-threatening situations

Quick briefing before meeting

While adjusting to ‘coming correct’ and ‘towing the line,’ eliminate lose-lose situations. Those situations will get you terminated and ruin workplace relationships. Sleeping around, mentioned earlier in the article, is a lose-lose situation.

Personal problem discussions with co-workers and managers are never a good idea. Keep those problems at home. Additional lose-lose situations are office gossip, arguments, tardiness, and temper tantrums. Lately, social media postings are costing employees their job, qualifying as a lose-lose situation. Therefore, think before posting.

6) Maintain professionalism at business parties

This is not about business trips or networking events. Professionalism is mandatory because the setting is set; it’s a business event. Office parties are different – and tricky. The gathering is away from the establishment. It’s a party, but the business is sponsoring the event.

Is it a professional or personal event? A boss/co-worker’s birthday, company celebrations, and goodbye parties don’t give professionals an excuse to bring ‘home’ attitude to work. Therefore, maintain professionalism at office parties. While it tempting to let loose, misbehavior at office parties leads to write-ups, suspensions, lost bonuses, and/or termination. Besides, drunken behavior, inappropriate comments, and rudeness look bad.

The successful oozes respect from head to toe. Those women are courteous in the workplace and refuse to be a doormat; the co-workers and managers acknowledge this. They balance assertion and silence because they listen before reacting. You can too; stop dreaming about respect and aim for it.

Is it difficult to gain respect at your job? Mention the trials and tribulations below. Let’s start a discussion and help each other thrive as a collective support group. In addition, bookmark this page for safe keeping and share this information with others on all social media channels.

About the author

Tonya Jones Reynolds

A professional writer with years of experience, I like adding my personal spin on various topics. I worked in various marketplaces like Textbroker and Blogmutt.

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