The following four tips can help you determine how to approach your boss like a true professional.

Even the most diligent employees can make mistakes at work, or have to take ownership of problems they technically didn’t cause. The following four tips can help you determine how to approach your boss like a true professional:

1. Choose your timing
While it’s important to let your boss know about urgent mistakes at work as soon as possible, you want to ensure you will have her full attention and enough time to explain the details. Request a quick, private, in-person meeting with your manager. If you work at different locations, suggest a Skype call or Web conference. A face-to-face meeting, even virtually, is a more effective way to communicate serious mistakes at work than by email or a phone call.

2. Know your audience
How to approach your boss with news about mistakes at work may depend on his communication and leadership style. If he’s the analytical type, you may be able to cut straight to the chase, spell out the problem, offer up a range of solutions and get back to work. But if he’s more collaborative, you may need to give more background on what happened and why, and then work with him to find a solution.

3. Answer honestly
When talking to your manager about mistakes at work, be prepared for questions — lots of them. She’ll likely want to know how it happened, your role in the event and who else might be involved. Be direct and respond with facts. Avoid making excuses, justifications or stories. Take responsibility for miscalculations and oversights.

4. Be a problem solver
Bad news is always easier to accept when a path to resolution is clear. Make a timeline of events so you and your manager can troubleshoot what went wrong, where and when. Then, outline possible next steps.

For example, you might tell your boss: “Because of X and Y, client Z is unhappy with the results. But I’ve discussed with my team how to make things right with the client, and I’d like to share those ideas with you.” End the conversation with an agreed-upon action plan to ensure that everyone understands what to do to solve the problem.

It’s never easy to take ownership of mistakes at work, and it’s tough to know just how to approach your boss when things go wrong. But it’s best to make your manager aware of issues before they snowball and do more damage.

Even in urgent situations, a well-considered approach to breaking bad news can help you have a constructive discussion with your boss and, perhaps, earn more respect for your professionalism and resilience.

The post How to tell your boss you made a mistake and move on appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

If you’re like many 9-to-5ers, you likely spend most of your day sending emails—and the rest of it following up on them.

If you could just get your question answered or get that feedback on your report in some sort of timely manner, you could bulldoze through your to-do list and call it a day before nightfall. But instead, your unanswered email is buried in your manager’s crowded inbox, and you’re left desperate in your cubicle, seriously considering an SOS signal. What do you do?

Before you hit “send” on another check-in email, change the subject line to all caps, and tack on that beloved red exclamation point, use these tips to get it right the first time.

1. Make it Snappy
You hear this advice when it comes to all forms of communication, but getting your message across quickly is especially important for email. Long blocks of text look daunting to read, especially for managers who are constantly inundated with messages. If a message is too long, it risks getting pushed aside and revisited when there’s more time (which is, in many cases, never).
Think short, punchy, and to-the-point. Use bullets or lists where you can. Keep your paragraphs to four to five lines each, so they’re easy to skim—you should see lots of white space in the message field. And if that’s too hard, it might be a sign that you’re trying to cover too many topics in one email. Stick to one topic per email, and send others under separate cover.

2. Address All Potential Qs and Requests
At the same time, you want to be thorough enough in your email that there’s no room for misinterpretation or need for your recipient to request more information. (The last thing you want is to finally get that response—and instead of receiving a decision, you get a question!)
So, anticipate the questions you might receive ahead of time, and answer them. For example, if you need your boss to choose a venue for an upcoming event, provide links to the restaurants’ or hotels’ websites, attach photos of the spaces you know she’ll want to view, and include a cost comparison for the options.
Remember the more work you do for the original email, the less work you’ll have to do following up on it.

3. Get Specific in the Subject Line
Write detailed subject lines so that the recipient has a clear understanding of the issue and call-to-action in the body of the email. Skip vague phrases like “Questions for you” and “Great idea for the meeting,” and instead use something like: “Feedback needed: Agenda items for Q1 budget meeting.”
This strategy will also help you search for the message easily in your inbox should your recipient call to discuss rather than writing back via email.

4. Highlight Action Items
If you’re getting across more than one point or posing more than one question in your email, make sure those items stand out from the rest of the narrative by putting them in bold, highlighting them, or arranging them in a bulleted list. The contrast naturally draws the recipient’s eye to the meat of the message (the piece that you can’t afford them to miss!) and is the perfect guide for skimmers who speed through email.

5. Lead with the Number of Needs
How frustrating is it when you’ve presented a number of options in the email for the recipient to choose from, only to receive a response that says, “Sounds good!”? To avoid this, make sure your objectives are clear from the get-go. For emails that include more than one question, note the number of inquiries in the first line of the message so that the recipient knows exactly how many to look for an address. If you sprinkle questions throughout the message, you risk the recipient overlooking pertinent information.

6. Know When to Pick Up the Phone
If you feel the topic will require (or is requiring) multiple emails with no end in sight, skip or halt the email discussion altogether. Some business is best handled on the phone or in person, especially when logistics or relationships are complex. In fact, your willingness to come out from behind the email veil is not only most efficient in these cases but also shows assertiveness and initiative.
Wishing and hoping won’t get your messages opened, but applying these tips will. And if you can make your emails stand out and stop spinning your wheels on follow-ups, just think—you might actually have some more time on your hands.

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You may think of emails as quick to-dos that you can fire off in a matter of two minutes or sometimes, even 30 seconds. But if this is the approach you’re taking to email, you’re likely missing out on a valuable opportunity.

“In today’s fast-paced work environment, it can be easy to type up a quick email and not think twice before clicking send so that you can get on to your next task. However, sending emails that are well-written, thoroughly thought-out, and free from spelling/grammar errors is essential for not only preserving your personal brand, but also for ensuring that the recipient focuses on the content of the message, and not the way it is or is not written,” says Lisa Philyaw, Analytics Coordinator at organization and leadership development consulting firm FMG Leading.

In other words, if you want your emails to be effective, you need to rethink how you’re crafting them. So whether you’re trying to sell a potential client your business services, pitch a reporter, or simply get your manager to review the deck you created, read on to get the scoop on the must-dos (and must-avoids) of email.

Part I: Dos

Do: Use a Clear Subject Line

With emails, the devil’s in the details. If you quickly jot down the first subject line that pops into your head, it’s much more likely to get skipped over or deleted.

A few common errors: “Subject lines like ‘Important Document’ look like spam and subject lines like ‘Event Next Weekend’ are far too vague,” says Rikki Ayers, copywriter and content Marketer at Be Rad Media. “A subject line like ‘Email campaign draft needed for next weekend’s event’ helps me understand what you need. If your email is urgent, add that to your subject line.”

Philyaw agrees. “If you are requesting something, include it in the subject to make it known. If you are following up with specific materials, make that the subject itself. The more specific the subject is to the content of the email, the more likely the person is to open the email with a clear understanding of what’s to come and what’s expected,” she says.

Do: Start With a Greeting

Getting down to business in an email is important, but a little effort spent writing a greeting goes a long way.

“It takes only a couple seconds to type a ‘Hello ____,’ and can make a world of difference regarding how the email comes across to the recipient,” Philyaw says. “Without starting with a greeting, your email may come across cold or demanding, failing to address a recipient’s potential need to connect at a more personal level.”

Do: Be Mindful of Who You Send to

With inboxes so congested already, you want to be very mindful of not looping people into conversations that they don’t need to be in. In particular, “avoid Using ‘Reply-to-All’ unless everyone needs to know,” says business etiquette expert Sharon Schweitzer. As anyone who’s been on a never-ending reply-all email chain can tell you, those messages will go straight to the trash anyway.

Beyond that, Schweitzer recommends exercising caution with those who you cc and bcc. “Sometimes people are so proud of their work product that they add a dozen recipients in the ‘cc’ line… this may be interpreted as bragging, a cry for attention, or self-centeredness. Big egos are unattractive,” she says. As for bcc, “ethical questions have arisen regarding this practice. If you need to share an email with someone else, courtesy requires you to seek permission of the original recipient first. When you send your own message secretly to another, it is far safer to paste your message into another ‘FYI’ email, rather than add a person as a ‘bcc.’”

Do: Establish a Personal Connection

“20 years ago, you could have gotten away with writing sub-par emails because they were still novel at the time — they would have been opened out of sheer curiosity,” says Christian Chavarro, Growth Marketer at Clutch Prep. But “that’s no longer the case — people are slammed with emails daily, forcing them to optimize their time by prioritizing a select few emails, with the rest being ignored or deleted. On top of that, people are spending less time actually reading the emails they open, meaning you’re also fighting for a shrinking amount of attention.”

Because of that, it’s necessary to “differentiate yourself… [by] understanding who that target is and what commonality you share rather than shoving a sales-y, ego-centric email in their face,” says Julianna Corso, Sr. Marketing & PR Strategist at Moxe.

One strategy that worked for Corso? “I tried conducting research on who I was targeting first before I even started to write the email. Once I found that piece of gold such as sharing alma maters, watching their speeches, meeting at networking events, or affinities for outside passions like sports, I placed that at the beginning of my message. This creates a humanistic touchpoint rather than a direct sales point,” she says. As a result, “I was able to reach over 90% success rate with coordinating a call based on those emails. I actually got a note back from the CEO of Macy’s saying it was one of the best first impressions someone has ever made via email!” she says.

Do: Use a Strong Call-to-Action

With a limited amount of time in the work day, people don’t want to pick apart an email in order to figure out what the next steps are. As the email sender, your job is to make it as clear to them as possible.

“Assign tasks and deadlines in your emails, whether that’s responding to a memo by this afternoon or following up with a client immediately. A good example could be… Jeremy, please devote some attention to social media this morning and respond to the issues with this message: [insert message]. Thank you for your urgent attention to this matter,” Ayers suggests.

And to make sure that somebody doesn’t gloss over your request, Philyaw suggests that you “underline, bold, or find a way to draw attention to requests… for example, start a question with the actual phrase ‘Question for you: ________’ to make it very easy for the recipient to focus in on it and not let it get lost in the email,” she says.

Have multiple asks for somebody? “Number your request so I can number my responses as well,” says business English coach Guy Arthur Canino.

Do: Keep it Short and Sweet

When writing an email, it’s best to skip the flowery language and get right to the point. “A study in 2005 observed that readers spent an average of 15-20 seconds on each email they opened; I’m willing to bet that number has shrunk considerably since then,” Chavarro says.

You’ll want to keep it long enough to address everything it needs to, but “the email should contain as few words as possible,” Canino says. “I don’t have time to read a novel. As Shakespeare said, ‘Brevity is the soul of wit.’”

Do: Double Check Your Attachments

I have yet to meet somebody who’s never had to send a follow-up email after realizing that they forgot to include attachments. Once or twice is understandable, but repeated mistakes will make it look like you aren’t thoughtful in your communications or just don’t care. So when sending out documents, always, always look for the little blue link at the bottom of your email.

However, it’s best to hold off on mentioning the attachment until the end of your email says Barbara Farfan of Anyhows.com. “The minute you reference an attachment, it’s likely that everything written in the email after that will not be read. Why? Because of Shiny Squirrel Syndrome. The reader will most likely immediately open, download, print, forward, and give their entire attention to the attachment, completely forgetting that there was anything in the email beyond that,” she says. “Say everything you want to say first, and then at the end say simply, ‘Attached is the document/chart/photo/whatever [you’ve] been talking about.”

Do: Respond Respectfully

You know how frustrating it is when someone doesn’t respond to an email that you really need them to, so don’t put any of your colleagues in the same situation.

“Replying within 24 hours is common courtesy. Leaving someone hanging for any longer and you are not only perceived as rude, it could cost you business in the long run,” Schweitzer says. “If you’ve unintentionally kept someone waiting longer than 24 hours or extenuating circumstances arose, politely explain the situation and express your apologies.”

Even if someone turns down your initial request — for example, lets you know they’re not interested after you pitched them on your business services — acknowledging that you received the email and appreciate their taking the time to read it is the right thing to do.

“Be cordial and friendly even if your email doesn’t find the result you were looking for. If your recipient took the time to respond to your email, use that as an opportunity to build a relationship instead of burning a bridge,” says Jeff Alexander, co-founder of Interlude Artist Management.

Part II: Don’ts

Don’t: Use a Template

It’s tempting to leverage canned responses when you have to send out a large volume of emails, but be warned: “Most people recognize templates in an instant,” says email evangelist Gisela Hausmann. “Tailoring a template suggests that the sender doesn’t care enough about the matter to articulate their own thoughts.”

So for truly important emails, original copy is the way to go. It might not be the most convenient in the short-term, but it’ll spare you in the long run.

Don’t: Use Wishy-Washy Language

Have an opinion? Then don’t be afraid to say it! People often qualify their opinions and recommendations with phrases that downplay their expertise.

“Avoid the phrases, ‘I would say’ and ‘I possibly think’ — and variations of those. They come across like you’re not sure what you’re writing, which makes me wonder why you bothered in the first place,” Ayers says. “Take some time to think through your response before whipping out an email. Often you can remove those extra phrases. You are saying something, so you don’t need to say you would say it.”

Don’t: Rush Your Emails

You may think you can fire off emails in your sleep, but odds are those lightning-fast responses you send out don’t get the best reception.

“Never send an email it’s taken you only seconds to write,” Ayers warns. “Always proofread your emails for spelling errors and to ensure your reader will understand the context. Do all of these things and your internal emails will make you look professional, organized and confident — and that will go a long way.”

Don’t: Get Carried Away With Caps, Punctuation, or Emoticons

WHEN YOU SEE AN EMAIL THAT LOOKS LIKE THIS, DO YOU WANT TO OPEN IT?!?!?!?! Didn’t think so. Extend the Golden Rule to email etiquette and email others how you would like to be emailed — i.e., nothing that looks like you’re being screamed at. Oh, and save the smiley and winking faces that appear far too often in professional emails for closer friends 😉.

Don’t: Use an Unprofessional Email Address

“Aerosmith4ever@hotmail.com” may have seemed like a great idea when you first created it, but let’s face it: if you’re working full-time, you’ve outgrown your middle-school sounding email address.

“We’ve seen emails from usernames with vague drug references, emails from friend’s addresses, and even an email SMS message from a cell phone. If you’re asking someone to spend time reading your email, make sure you spend time presenting yourself in a professional way,” Alexander says.

Don’t: Misspell

With technology like spell check, autocorrect, and Grammarly, you really have no excuse to send frequent typos in your emails — so leverage them! Otherwise, you risk looking like an amateur.

One thing to look out for in particular is misspelling names, which can really rub people the wrong way. “In a face-to-face setting (job interview, sales meeting, meeting with the department head) anybody who greeted a lady named Brittany with the words, ‘Hi, Bethany’ would be considered impolite or incompetent… Writing in an email ‘Hi, Britany’ is the equivalent of this faux-pas,” Hausmann says. “An easy trick to avoid misspelling names is to copy the recipient’s name in a text document, thereby strip it of the formatting, then copy and paste it from there.”

Don’t: Overuse the First Person

It seems innocuous enough, but overusing the first person can be a big turn-off for email recipients. “There is no faster way to say ‘This email is about me and what I want’ than overusing the words ‘I,’ ‘my,’ and ‘me.’ I call such emails me-mails,” Hausmann says.

The fix, though, is simple: “After writing a first draft always edit the email and rephrase by turning ‘I’s into ‘you’s,” Hausmann suggests.

Part III: See It In Action
Want to see a concrete example of what these recommendations might look like? Chavarro offered a couple of examples.

Bad Email

Subject line: opinions on this?

I’ve gotta put a report together and thought you could maybe help me out before tomorrow’s meeting. Sorry to bother you with this. I wrote some stuff but I’m not sure what to think of it yet. Thanks for your help.

“The subject line is far too vague to give the reader any context. What is ‘this’? Who are you? The body is in one long paragraph and doesn’t make any tangible request, with ‘help me out’ not giving any concrete specifics as to whether they want feedback, help actually writing it, etc.,” Chavarro says. “There’s also no mention of there being an attachment in the email, which would give readers pause as to whether they should even consider opening the file. Apologizing ahead of time only serves to further push them away from helping the sender. No mention of the sender or recipient’s name is made, which gives the message a cold, unwelcoming feel.”

Good Email

Subject line: Can I get your feedback on this report?

Hey Paul,

I’m working on my report for tomorrow’s 6 PM meeting and wanted to know if I could get your feedback before I finish it up.

I’ve attached the current draft to this email, feel free to ask any questions or make suggestions you might have.

Definitely appreciate your help on this!

Best,
Tim

“This email is good because it’s short, to the point, and its message is broken up into distinct, easily readable chunks of text. The subject line conveys the message so that the reader isn’t left guessing what they’re going to see when they open the email,” Chavarro says.

With all of this info, you have no excuse to keep sending out mediocre, hastily-written emails. So go forth and wow your colleagues with your impeccable communication skills!

The post The Ultimate Guide To Writing An Amazing Email appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

Whatever your chosen profession, we all have something in common: We’re trying to do the best we can in our careers.

Of course we aren’t going to gossip about our boss, fail to meet our deadlines or do anything else to jeopardize our jobs or careers… knowingly.

It’s that “knowingly” that’s the problem. We can easily avoid the professional pitfalls we know, but what about the ones we don’t? And even more important, could we be making major mistakes when we think we’re making the right move?

To keep from falling into that trap, we asked career experts to shed light on the missteps we make without even realizing, whether at the office or in the trenches of a job hunt. Are you making these mistakes?

1. Keeping Yourself Offline

Knowing that social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and even LinkedIn are rife with opportunity for career-damaging blunders, it’s understandable that you might want to lay low, leave your profiles dormant or even take yourself offline entirely.

But that’s the wrong move, according to Cheryl Palmer, certified career coach and owner of Call to Career. “According to recent data, the majority of recruiters now scour online sources for additional information on candidates,” says Palmer. “Positive online information about you will improve your job prospects, since that is what recruiters will be looking for to determine who they call for an interview.” She points out that since social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are some of the first results that show up on search engines, you’ll want to be represented — and represented well.

Palmer says that just having the profiles isn’t enough — you must have a dynamic presence. That means using these channels to promote yourself in a positive, professional way. Worked on a new ad campaign? Tweet it. Added to your photography portfolio? Facebook it. Come across a fascinating industry article? Share it on LinkedIn. When recruiters or interviewers look you up, they’ll find an engaging, productive individual.

(And if managing multiple networks seems like too much, you can always automatically link your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, so every post broadcasts to all three networks. Don’t worry, we won’t tell the recruiters.)

2. Bonding With Co-Workers

You’re right: It’s always a good idea to attend work happy hours, volunteer days and other forms of group bonding, because while these people are your colleagues, they’re also the people with whom you spend 40-plus hours a week.

But bonding becomes problematic when you become very close to some co-workers… and not others. “It’s a mistake to align yourself with one person or one camp,” cautions Marian Their, founder and C.E.O. of coaching, training and consulting firm Expanding Thought. “While it’s tempting to align yourself with a strong person or group, in doing so, you separate yourself from everyone else. Then what happens when personnel changes occur, someone falls out of favor, or you need support from someone not in the chosen group?”

To keep from getting in too deep with some colleagues over others, Their advises people to take some simple steps to keep things friendly across the board: Go to lunch with a group of people, or different people each day; sit next to people who aren’t your deskmates already at meetings; mix up your routine a bit — stop by the kitchen or watercooler for a brief chat at different times of day, to run into different people.

“The higher up in the organization you go,” reminds Their, “the more important it is to be observant and prudent. Remember that while having allies is extremely important, so is having people who will challenge you.”

3. Championing Make-Ends-Meet Jobs

We don’t need to tell you that there’s no shame in taking a gig unrelated to your ultimate career path (think: waiting tables) to make ends meet while hunting for other opportunities, or to make a little extra money on the side. Plus, your scrappiness will show future employers that you’re hardworking and ready to hustle, right? Not exactly.

“As a job hunter, you should be looking at yourself as a candidate through your potential employer’s eyes,” advises Robert Meier, president of Job Market Experts. “And to an employer, a side job is a distraction from your primary position. A Fortune 500 company simply isn’t going to appreciate your time as a night manager at 7-11.”

Instead of trying to bulk up temporary jobs by explaining how they taught you “tenacity” and “reliability,” Meier recommends minimizing such positions down to only a line on your résumé — or eliminating them altogether while bulking up your more relevant past positions. “The only time you should include a job like this on your résumé is if it furthers your career objective,” he says. For instance, a job on the sales floor in a clothing chain may be valuable if you’re applying to be a buyer for J. Crew; your time as a fitness instructor may be relevant if you’re applying for an operations position at Under Armour.

If you spent six months scooping ice cream and are now applying for a completely unrelated corporate job in ad sales, Meier recommends eliminating your make-ends-meet job from your resume altogether. If your employment gap should come up in an interview, he says, explain that you were devoting your full attention to finding the right job in a difficult economy — an understandable excuse if it’s been 12 months or less.

4. Relying on a Pros and Cons List

Raise your hand if you’ve ever made a pros and cons list about a potential job or project. It’s the sensible move — you’re laying out all the reasons you should and shouldn’t take on a new venture in order to make an informed, rational decision.

But informed and rational isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. “If you are getting a bad gut feeling about working for a certain boss, a ‘pit in the stomach’ sensation about a dicey work environment, or are self-rationalizing over taking a major pay cut, you should never ignore the little voice in your ear warning you that something is wrong,” explains Cheryl Rich Heisler, founder and president of career-consulting site Lawternatives.

If you’re getting a bad feeling about an opportunity that seems promising on the surface, says Heisler, it’s time to get more information. “Dig deeper, and either reassure yourself that your impressions are wrong, or back away from the offer. This is true even for choosing your first career track — trust yourself.” That’s not to say that a few nerves means you should bail on a second-round interview, but if you can’t shake your anxiety and can’t alleviate it with more information, it might be time to take a step back.

“If,” says Heisler, “after doing your research and networking, the career, industry or job you’re exploring doesn’t feel right to you, reconsider. The happiest employees are working in areas they enjoy within industries they love.”

5. Being Perpetually Available

Chances are, your current employer values face time — that is, how much time you’re in the office, working away at your desk. And when you aren’t face-to-face, you’re accessible by phone, email, text or carrier pigeon, whether it’s midnight, midnight on Saturday, or midnight on Saturday during your trip to Ibiza.

“When you’re refusing to delegate responsibilities it shows that you aren’t a teacher or mentor, and certainly not a supervisor, which is criteria for promotion,” says Bruce Hurwitz, executive recruiter and author of “Success! As Employee or Entrepreneur.” And when you don’t take vacation, he says, it can create an air of superiority — like you feel nothing can get done without you.

“People make the mistake of being too available because they don’t know how to say no,” says Hurwitz. “They think the person they are rejecting will be mad at them, and it will affect their relationship.” But, he adds, this isn’t necessarily the case. If you’re perpetually available and looking to break the cycle, Hurwitz recommends starting with a “conditional yes,” where, upon hearing about a new assignment, you reply, “I’d be happy to. Just let me get this job done, and if you still need my help, I’m there for you.”

Of course, no one is recommending you skip out on your work, and it’s likely that there will be occasions you’ll have to be available outside the office. But delegating tasks to be completed without your direct oversight, or even in your absence, is a skill every manager — or would-be manager — should have.

The post Help for 5 Common Career Mistakes appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

We spend a lot of time at work. Forty hours a week for forty odd years adds up to a whopping 70 percent of your life spent in an office, says millennial career expert Jill Jacinto. And as such, “it’s only natural to become friends with your coworkers,” she points out. But Heather Huhman, a career coach and founder of Come Recommended, says, “in any relationship, it’s important to have boundaries,” and Jacinto agrees.

In other words, as Jacinto puts it, “at the end of the day, they are your coworker first and friend second.” And there are just some things you should never, ever tell them.

Here, according to our career experts, are six things you need to keep to yourself.

1. “That presentation totally sucked,” or any other unconstructive criticism.

It’s not always easy, but according to Huhman, you should never give a coworker unconstructive criticism. “When you’re friends with a coworker, it can be tempting to just tell them like it is. But this isn’t always helpful.” Instead, Huhman says, “It’s better to discuss what mistakes were made and offer solutions to the problem.” A friend will appreciate your help — and your office will be better off for it, she says.

2. “I hate our boss,” or anything else derogatory about your employer.

You may loathe the person for whom you work and need to vent — but Jacinto warns you should not share your boss-related frustration with your coworker. “You never know what they might say you said about that boss to another team member, HR or worse, the boss you have been complaining about,” Jacinto points out. “A vent session could then be misconstrued that you were badmouthing your employer.”

3. “You’re the best salesperson in the office,” or whatever they want to hear.

Giving a coworker a compliment may seem harmless, but telling a white lie because it’s what your coworker wants to hear is never a good idea, warns Huhman. “When someone in the office is also a friend, it can be tempting to tell them they did a great job when their performance was actually subpar,” she admits. “But that does neither you nor them any favors, because they’ll continue to do below average work because you told them it was excellent.” The truth, however, will help everyone.

4. “You’ll never guess this about my client,” or any sensitive client details.

“It’s a given you should never badmouth a client to a coworker,” Jacinto says, “but you also need to make sure you are not releasing any of their private information across departments.” Jacinto recalls a client who was “burned badly in this situation when her work friend asked to see a client event list — which was highly classified,” she says. “Except, it’s against the rules to share that type of information and both of the people ended up getting fired for that incident. Do not let a simple file upload or email share put you in this situation.” Keep confidential information exactly that.

5. “Did you hear about what Amy did last night?” or any other office gossip.

Spreading office mates’ business — even with your work BFF — is never a good idea. “Chances are, you have more than one friend at work,” points out Huhman. “But that doesn’t give you the right to talk to one about another’s personal life. Even if the info seems harmless, it can negatively affect how your friend is perceived in the office.” So try to stick to facts and figures, and save the gossip for your out-of-office friends.

6. “I totally screwed up,” or any other admission of a big mistake.

Of course, mistakes happen. But, Jacinto warns, “do not publicize your mistakes to your work friends. Whether it’s an email that didn’t go out, a presentation that had the wrong data or negative client feedback, try not to spill the beans to your work friend.” Why? Because even though you grab coffee and catch up on your weekend plans, “you are still coworkers and competitors,” Jacinto says. “You never truly know how someone could use this information against you. They might not even realize it themselves until it’s just you and them up for the coveted promotion, raise or client.”

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