How to get fired

Are you doing more to hurt your career than you’re doing to help it? If the company is downsizing, certain behaviors turn employees into layoff targets. This article on CIO.com entitled, “How to get fired”, lists 5 such behaviors to avoid.

I’ll add one more, specific to the IT industry: Never create an “IT vs. Non-IT” atmosphere. For example: If an IT professional spends all of their time shooting down requests or ideas, other people in the company get the feeling IT is out to thwart them, rather than help.

If you must reject ideas, try to explain why the idea isn’t feasible and suggest a different solution instead (if possible). Become someone who tries to help, rather than someone who only says “no”.