Rules of Work, 5th Edition

RULE 45

Only speak sense

To become successful and get promoted, you have to project the right image – the wise, mature, reliable, cool, sophisticated, trustworthy, experienced business person – and there are times when all the hard work can be devastated, destroyed, by a careless word or unguarded moment. Increasingly people are losing their jobs or being vilified for making inappropriate and ill-considered comments. They didn’t think before they opened their mouths or posted on social media, so they didn’t ‘speak sense’. Apart from these major gaffes, on an everyday level you need to guard your tongue against:

• •offensive jokes or remarks that alienate any section of the community
• •sexism in any form
• •homophobia and transphobia in any form ...