Proverb: Familiarity breeds contempt.

We all have a behavioral blind spot—or two—and we might not realize that our lack of awareness may inadvertently cause some contempt toward us. As a career coach, I want you to have a successful and thriving career, and that is much easier to achieve when the people you work with like and enjoy their interactions with you—or at least don’t despise you. While this article is meant to be a little bit funny, it’s also meant to make you aware that some of your habits may be causing your co-workers to dislike engaging with you:

1.  You interrupt when others are talking.

The secret to stopping the habit of interrupting is simple in concept, but very hard to implement. If you want to cut back on your interrupting, you have to become a better listener. This starts in your head. Stop thinking about your response and just pay attention to what the other person is saying.

2. You can’t keep a secret.

This is another tip that is simple as a concept but very hard to implement. Keeping the confidences of others is like saving money—it’s an investment in your future at the cost of some pleasure today.

3. You pound on your laptop during meetings.

It is one thing to bring your technology into a meeting, but it’s another thing entirely to be completely unaware of how you engage with your technology. If you cannot even pretend to pay attention during meetings—or at least type quietly—you might need to re-think your habits in meetings.

4. You never, ever get back to people.

Of course, most of us are busy and have too much to do; however, if you have become the bottleneck for your co-workers and projects, then you might need to revamp your time management and workflow process. Being unresponsive creates a quiet resentment that will not help your career.

5. You copy (CC) people for political reasons, or overuse “reply all”.

Everyone on that email chain knows what you are trying to do and why you are doing it, and they know that you are consciously wasting their time to make your point. As tempting as it may be, your strategy is better played out above board; pick up the phone, schedule a meeting or file a complaint, but don’t create an email “war” that everyone else has to witness.

6. You are late, late, always late.

Shifting from being a person who is always late to one who is always on time is like quitting smoking; it may take many attempts to succeed, but when you finally kick the habit, it has a life-changing impact.