How Being Cheap can Hurt Your Career

Pinching pennies is great for saving money. It may not be all that great for your career, though. Here are three frugal habits that taken to the extreme can hurt your career.

1. Bringing your Lunch to Work Everyday
Part of getting ahead in your career is making contacts. People need to feel comfortable with you. They need to know you on a personal basis. Usually, the first step is going out to lunch with folks. From there, you can invite them to an event or over to your house.

If you always bring your lunch, you'll miss networking with your co-workers and superiors. This also makes it easy to get rid of you since no one knows you on a personal basis.

Suggestion – Decide ahead of time when you will have lunch with the gang. I usually bring my lunch, but for celebrations like weddings and Administrative Assistant's Day, I go out. If anyone in my chain of command asks me to lunch, I go.

2. Wearing Cheap Clothes
OK. This is not buying cheap clothes. If you can find appropriate work attire at the thrift store, more power to you. They just can not look cheap. Your appearance has to be up to the same standard as the rest of the office.

Suggestion – My rule of thumb is to look good enough to be pulled into a meeting with the executive staff. If you look the part, you may be called in. If you do not look the part, you can have the knowledge, but there is no way your supervisor is going to invite you to the meeting. They'll ask you to write a memo.

3. Deciding Your School and Organizations Only Based on Convenience and Price
Oh, this one can kill your career. I don't care how highly ranked a school is, if it is not the right school for your area, it will hurt you.

For example, in Atlanta you need to be a University of Georgia grad if you want to go into business. Engineer? You had best have graduated from Georgia Tech. If you are a graduate of either of those places you instantly have something to talk about with those in power.

If I ever go to graduate school, I'm going to the University of Georgia. Not only does UGA have a top-ranked program in my field, it will give me something in common with the top dogs (pun intended.)

If you want to join a civics or personal development organization, it may be worth the drive to join the chapter with the right contacts.

Suggestion – Do some research. Look at the biographies of the top people in your field. I bet you will start to see a pattern. It may be where they went to school, what part of town they live in or community organizations that they are involved with. Figure out how you can put yourself in that sphere of influence.

People buy from people they like. People promote people they like. Crossing that line from frugal to just being cheap can turn folks away from you and therefore, hurt you in the end. As in everything, there needs to be balance.

Disagree? Agree? Comments are open...

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