The quickest way to sabotage your career is not to care about your work. As a Civil Service employee working in the Unemployment office, I have heard just about everything that can possibly happen in a workplace to get you fired or make you quit.

That being said, you need to remember two things. First, you don't know everything. If you did, you'd be running the company. Second, even if the boss is an idiot, the boss is still above you and you should respect the position if not the person. No matter what company or business you are in, those two things must be first and foremost in your mind.

As I said previously, the quickest way to sabotage any job is to not care. Why? The job, any job, is important, if not to you, to the company, and possibly even to your coworkers. Ever walk into a place where all the workers look like they want to be somewhere else? There's a fast food place by my house and every time I go in there, it's dirty, the workers are standing around drinking sodas and talking about their weekends, and they all look like they have more important things to do. By contrast, I recently went to a different fast food place where the worker greeted me with a big smile, asked how our day was and joked with a coworker. That person is avoiding self-sabotage. He may not love his job, but he was having fun at it.

I once worked for a temp agency for 6 years with a promise of getting hired full time. I worked my hardest and learned everything I could, but when I found out the full time would never happen I left with a good reference and went to a different agency. I was hired full time by that company to which I was assigned and stayed there 13 years. It would have lasted longer, but when I couldn't get the promotions I thought I should get, I realized my boss was an idiot and I stopped caring about my job. When they downsized for restructuring, those 13 years of hard work didn't mean a thing.

It took me a while to learn how not to sabotage my career. I see others in my office who still need to learn that. Here are some tips based on that observation:

1. Don't shoot your mouth off at work. No one cares what you think of the boss, and it will only make you look foolish. Even if you hate the job, the people you work with don't deserve to hear it every day.

2. If you can do a better job in a different position, do a better job in the one you have now. Sloppy work only shows them you can't do the job you already have and probably will not be able to handle a higher position.

3. Ask for advice from coworkers as well as supervisors and management. They really are there to help you and some of them may even know more than you do.

4. Take notes in meetings or in training so you can refer to them later. It'll also make you look like you care, even if you don't. At the very least, it'll keep you awake, which is also a plus in your boss's eyes.

5. Instead of complaining about something, offer a solution. And if you offer a solution, don't be afraid to put it in writing so you get credit for it. I once made a suggestion to a supervisor who shot it down, then later proposed it to her boss who congratulated her for her brilliant idea. No one believed me when I told them it was mine in the first place.

6. If you get passed over for a promotion, don't whine, ask your supervisor what you did wrong and how you can improve for later consideration.

If you follow that simple guide, you can avoid sabotaging your career.

Learn more about this author, Liane Laskoske.
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