“Unvaccinated Healthcare Worker”: 43 Signs That Give Away Someone Is Bad At Their Job

It might sound surprisingly like common sense, but in order to do your job well, you need to know what the heck you’re doing. Then again, common sense isn’t all that common.

If you lack the experience, skills, and knowledge base needed to perform well, there’s no real reason for your clients to trust you. All you can do is put in the effort to upskill, improve, and grow as a professional.

Well, either that or pretend that you’re better than you are… until your customers eventually catch on to the lie. Then, your profits and career take a hit. The smarter (not to mention the more ethical and, in the long term, more sustainable) strategy is to strive to be good at what you do and build trust in a genuine way.

As Reader’s Digest points out, untrustworthy individuals often lack integrity. They’re often dishonest, prioritize their gain over honesty, and aren’t accountable.

What’s more, they are manipulative. For instance, they might apologize to you for their bad behavior, but they won’t change their behavior to match.

On top of that, untrustworthy individuals often don’t trust others, have a history of being unreliable and inconsistent, don’t care about rules, and lack empathy.

“They are like slot machines. They know exactly how much they can get away with, and just when you are about to walk away, they do something wonderful so you will stay,” etiquette expert Jodi R.R. Smith told Reader’s Digest.

Other signs of untrustworthiness include a person’s unwillingness to respect your boundaries, their tendency to dominate the conversation, trying to one-up you, hogging the spotlight, and blaming others instead of accepting responsibility for their actions.

“Trusting your instincts and previous experiences is an important tool for spotting red flags and choosing whom to spend time with. Life is hard enough on its own. It’s important to seek out trustworthy folks who you can consistently rely on for emotional and practical support, who can be honest with you and help reduce your stress,” psychologist Jeff Temple, PhD, explained to Reader’s Digest.

We were very curious to find out the inspiration behind the thread. The author opened up about their recent experiences. "I think a few things came together to form that question. I started a new job two weeks ago, and was sick both of those weeks. I didn't want to take any time off so early into a new job, so I took medicine, went into the office, and sat at my desk, even if I couldn't get anything done," u/ShapingTormance told Bored Panda.

"When I was talking to a couple of friends about how the new job is going, I said I did this rather than take time off to recover, because I wanted to start off the new job by building trust. So trust was on my mind anyway—specifically, how to build trust right away at a new job," they said.

"Later, I was talking to my mom about her job, and she is very frustrated at work because those around do not often follow through on what they say they are going to do, which creates a low-trust environment. I'd heard the saying 'don't trust a skinny food critic' at some point in the past, so it occurred to me to ask the question in that way."

According to the author, one of the most impactful books they've ever read is 'The Speed of Trust,' by Stephen M.R. Covey. "[It] helped me much better understand the importance of trust in any organization, how trust is lost, how it can be built, and what the cost of living or working in a low-trust environment is. So I'm inclined to apply the lens of trust to work situations anyway, and it just so happened that those life circumstances brought trust to the forefront of my thoughts again," u/ShapingTormance shared.

Bored Panda also wanted to get the author's perspective as to why their question resonated with some internet users so strongly. "First, I asked in a lighthearted way. Second, it was a different kind of question from what often gets asked on r/AskReddit. A lot of the questions about relationships and conspiracies get recycled every week in slightly different language, and this is an important question that differs from that. Third, people gave really good answers, which kept others coming back for more. It's a question that gives folks a platform to dispense some bit of wisdom they've learned. I might theorize that it is probably helpful for a principal to have been a teacher, but I wouldn't have known how essential it is."

According to u/ShapingTormance, their favorite answer in the thread was written by user u/Appropriate_Sky_6571: "Don’t trust an agreeable QA."

This really resonated with the author because they work in tech. "I appreciate the truth of that response, but I would not have thought of it myself, which also shows the wisdom of it."

They added that this answer really fit the 'don't trust a skinny food critic' saying. "We usually think of being skinny as an asset, but for a food critic, it's a liability. In the same way, we usually think of being agreeable as an asset, but for someone in QA, it's a liability. That's interesting to me! The answer is also short and snappy, yet recognizably true for many who have worked in tech."

From the author's perspective, we live in an era of low trust. "Almost every institution across the board has lost trust at a societal level: churches, the government, universities, sports leagues, big companies, etc."

According to them, based on what they read in Covey's book 'The Speed of Trust,' trust can be broken down into issues of character and issues of competence. "Character itself has to do with integrity and intent, and competence has to do with skill and results. You need those four things in order to establish trust. If your intent is bad, I don't trust you, regardless of how skilled you are and the results you deliver," u/ShapingTormance explained.

"If you're a great guy, with good integrity, and you really intend to help me, and you even have the skills to help, but I know you don't always do what you say you're going to do, then I don't trust you. The book outlines thirteen behaviors you can work on to build trust, that fall into these categories."

We’d like to hear about your work-related experiences, dear Pandas. What industry do you work in? What are the biggest, brightest red flags within your field of expertise that someone isn’t trustworthy at all?

On the flip side, what are some subtle or overt signs that a professional actually knows what they’re doing and talking about? Share your thoughts in the comments below.