Repair Your Damaged Reputation at Work

People make mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes are bad enough to cost us the respect of those around us or even our jobs. If you’ve made a bad professional error or hurt colleagues at work, though, the damage might not be permanent. You can put the past behind you, but you’ll have to work hard to rebuild relationships, become a model worker, and, in some cases, manage your reputation online.

Steps

Rebuilding Relationships

1. Admit your mistake. If you’ve damaged your reputation – wronging a coworker, angering your boss, or just getting an overall bad name – the place to start is to own up to it. Admit the error of your ways. Take stock of your actions and accept responsibility for them, to yourself and in front of others.
   • What happened? Where did you go wrong? Be brutally honest with yourself.
   • For example, do you have bad personal habits? Did you try to cut corners and dodge work? Have you been an office gossip?
   • Or, did you have a serious lapse of judgement? Perhaps you stole someone’s idea and got caught or plagiarized a report. Perhaps you just stole, embezzling money.
2. Apologize. Even if you don’t have a future at your workplace, you should apologize to the people you’ve hurt. Showing remorse is decent and will help you start to redeem yourself. You will not get very far with building bridges and repairing your reputation if you can’t say sorry.
   • Act as soon as you can. The longer you wait to apologize, the more it seems like you aren’t really that sorry.
   • Don’t make excuses. The point is to show remorse and accept that you were wrong. Don’t insert half-excuses or mealy-mouth language into your apology, for example “I’m sorry if you were offended that I took your idea. I only wanted to improve it.”
   • Be humble and own up. For instance, “It was really wrong of me to talk behind your back. I know I’ve hurt you and want to ask for your forgiveness.”
   • Be sincere. You won’t get credit if you don’t say specifically what you did. You also won’t credit if you don’t say it apologetically and sincerely, showing that you won't repeat the behavior.
3. Commit to reform. Besides an apology, write out a plan for how you’ll change and ensure your mistake doesn’t happen again. This can be for you alone or, if you’re lucky to keep your job, to share with the powers that be in the organization.
   • Outline what you did wrong and how you will avoid it. For example, “I made the mistake of getting too involved in workplace gossip and ended up saying harmful things about my coworkers. From now on, I plan to keep my head down, mind my own business, and avoid office politics.”
   • Don’t forget to “walk the walk” and follow your plan. You might arrange regular check-ins with your boss, for instance, to discuss your behavior. This will highlight your progress as well as show that you are willing and able to reform.
4. Keep your attitude in check. Repairing your reputation is going to be a humbling experience. You might feel angry or resentful. You might get annoyed, frustrated, or upset. Keep these emotions under control – you’ve had a bad attitude in the past and need others to see that you’re trying to change.
   • Try to stay calm, collected, and positive.
   • Be aware of the attitudes or emotions that added to your bad behavior in the past. Try to avoid them or situations that bring them out. If your problem is gossip, avoid the office gossipers as best you can.
   • Stop and ask yourself throughout the day, “How’s my attitude? Am I positive? Am I productive?” Catch any problems early and try to readjust your mindset.

Becoming a Model Employee

1. Get to work early. Apart from apologies and repairing relationships, set yourself up as a model employee to help you rebuild your work reputation. Be a go-getter. Arrive early and ready to impress. People will eventually start to notice.
   • Getting to work early will make a good impression on your boss and perhaps your coworkers. Often, people aren’t around to see who leaves the office last. But they will notice your presence in the morning.
   • Being early also means you don’t have to rush around. Use the quiet time to your advantage and plan out your day.
   • It doesn’t hurt to take a short walk around the office first thing in the morning. People will see you and take note.
2. Prioritize. Some people have trouble keeping track of what they need to do during a given day or week. Take initiative and prioritize your work. Keep your nose to the grindstone to avoid returning to past mistakes and to present yourself as great employee.
   • For instance, sit down and write out what you need to do for each day or, longer term, each week and month. If you’ve been coming to work early, use that time to set out daily priorities.
   • Having a to-do list will help you focus your energy. You might also tailor the list to take advantage of your peak work hours. For instance, if you do your best work in the morning, save that time for your top priorities.
   • Try to stick to the list. That said, be flexible in case your boss gives you special instructions.
3. Do your tasks thoroughly and on-time. Writing down your tasks isn’t all, of course. You actually need to follow through and do them well. Good work and dependability can make a past mistake fade over time. Build up a track record for reliability and your colleagues and boss will have more trust in you in the future.
   • Meet your deadlines. What about that report that’s due next week? Prioritize it in your list on Monday. If you still can’t get it done during the week, consider finishing it at home or over the weekend rather than asking for more time.
   • Be productive, especially if you have had consistency problems before. Take a short breather to stretch or use the restroom, but don’t try to skirt work.
4. Go above and beyond. Handing in finished work on time is good. To be a model employee, though, you will have to aim even higher and win (or win back) your boss’ trust. Track details, anticipate tasks, and work ahead to further develop a good reputation.
   • If a colleague asks you to think of venues for an upcoming tradeshow, for example, don’t just stop at a list. Take the next steps: call them, ask about availability, and compare prices.
   • When you take initiative like this, you’ll seem smart and like the logical go-to person for key projects.

Repairing Your Reputation Online

1. Check your online metrics. If your error was very serious, or if you are well-known and hold a big position, you might want to think about your online presence when rebuilding your reputation. Don’t underestimate negative online info. To start, you will need to take stock of the situation.
   • You can get a quick sense of your online reputation by checking Google’s autocomplete. Just go to the Google homepage. What appears when you type in your name, or your company name?
   • When you enter your name, for example, do you get something positive or neutral like “Harold Bing Brew Co. CEO” and “Harold Bing business award”? Or is it damaging, like “Harold Bing mugshot”?
   • Look at online news stories or reviews about you or your company, if applicable. Check local sites or other social media.
   • Set up a Google Alert in your name, so that you’ll be notified any time something new is posted.
2. Deal with Google defamation. Programs like Google Suggest reflect real internet searches and should give you an idea of how people associate your name and reputation online. Did you find something unwelcome in your results? There are some things you can do.
   • Do not try to manipulate the results. While some people suggest this approach, using techniques like crowdsourcing, you might end up causing more damage.
   • You might try acquiring the search term and building an optimized page to tell your viewpoint. That way, when someone types “Juliette Page embezzler” she is directed to your side of the story – that the charge is false, misunderstood, or not reported right.
   • You can also request that the search engine take down the autocomplete. This is hard and usually only works with results that suggest hate or violence, porn, or personal information. Still, it may be worthwhile to try.
3. Hire an online reputation manager. Your online reputation could get out of control. Don’t despair, however. There are people and agencies who can help you manage this kind of situation, like Reputation.com or BrandYourself.com. The work will be pricy, but it may just salvage your working reputation.
   • Reputation managers won’t always be able to get rid of negative content from the web. But they should be able to highlight positives about you.
   • For example, their services might include setting up a domain in your name for a page presenting your side of the story.
   • They can also respond to negative comments or reviews and manage your online presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube.
   • The goal is not to eliminate all negative info about you, but to tip the balance in your favor whenever someone searches for you online.
   • Keep in mind that management services don’t come cheap. Expect to pay between $20 to $200 per month.

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• Accept Criticism While at Work

References

See also

• Deal with Homophobia at Work
• Have Difficult Conversations with Your Boss
• Deal With a Weak Human Resources Manager
• Tackle Freelance Time Wasters
• Work for a Tyrant
• Identify Workplace Bullying
• Handle Troublemakers at Work
• Deal with a Passive‐Aggressive Employee
• Cope With an Arrogant Co Worker
• Work With Difficult People

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