Last updated on February 4th, 2024 at 06:13 am
While you may not realize, but your strange behavior slowly destroying your reputation.
Take a look at these signs to know if you have a bad reputation in your group, workplace, neighborhood, or among the people who know you.
How To Tell If You Have A Bad Reputation?
Certainly, you do not want to sound toxic, negative, or rude.
No one wants to be ‘that one’.
However, you have gone too far in trying to be yourself and may end up damaging the reputation that you’ve built all these years.
And when your reputation is in the process of getting ruined, you won’t feel that in the first place because everything seems quite normal at the moment.
But, most of the time it’s because of ‘your’ unusual behavior which damages the image and identity that you have created among the people you regularly interact with.
Once people around get to know about your hidden side, the first thing they do is distance themselves… and for two reasons…
First, they feel intimidated by your behavior, and also do not want to be treated the same way as you are, because you have a bad reputation, and they haven’t.
However, there are some jealous people who may try to destroy your life, such as your envious friend or a backstabber colleague at the office.
Especially, when they get to know about your vulnerabilities, or you keep showing such adverse behavior which is simply unacceptable, unusual, and unforgivable, you let them ruin your happiness and life a lot easier.
It is ultimately you who destroy your own identity and reputation if you have no control over your emotions or are just drawn to external negativity more easily.
Even if jealous people are the culprits, people apparently see you doing it.
The best way to protect your reputation plus your identity is to start looking for the causes and signs of poor reputation early so that you don’t let it go out of hand before you have nothing more to do than just watch.
9 Signs You Have A Bad Reputation
1. You want to be ‘The Best’ among all.
When you’re too concerned about yourself, you end up being your worst.
Whether it’s to show off the power in your friend circle or fight for recognition and promotion at corporate culture, you’re the type of person who is too conscious about your reputation and image.
Eventually, other people begin to avoid you because of your competitive nature.
You are always presenting yourself ‘as the one and only’ and superior to others.
The problem is that you are overconfident in your own abilities.
You never listen to suggestions or advice from others who genuinely wish to support you.
When you pay no attention or care for others who are actually trying to help or do good things for you, it’s a sign that you are leaving a bad reputation among them.
2. You often show up with people who already have a bad reputation.
No one will see you as a good person in the wrong camp, they think you’re part of them.
As you have heard many times, you become like what you surround yourself with most. And that’s for a good reason.
So if you are in a group or a friend, and you mostly show up with them most of the time, you will be treated like everyone else in the same group.
In such a case, your behavior also reflects the same negative influence of the people with whom you spend the most time.
In fact, being a part of a toxic friendship or relationship eventually turns you into someone you aren’t.
That results in negatively influencing your way of thinking, speaking and behavior.
You may feel that your family and close friends are worried about your circle, and they may advise you to stay away from such people.
It’s actually early signs that you have a bad reputation, which no parent or family can accept or let happen.
Check other: Signs You Let Others Get Under Your Skin
3. You take everyone for granted.
Behave like you’re the only person on earth, and you’ll be left all alone.
The problem is that you believe you are perfect in every way, while showing no regard for others.
The majority of the time, you judge others based on your viewpoints and try to put them down.
You are showing no respect for people who are genuine in nature.
You make fun of others and are always being a critic who says something demotivating or negative for people around you.
Though you talk behind others’ backs, no one can stand such behavior because they know you can do the same to them as well.
If you treat everyone the same way and do not respect others’ boundaries or their unique self, these are signs that you leave a bad reputation on your back.
4. You seek attention in whatever way you can.
When being the center of attraction is your only goal, you’re being trashy who is ready to do anything for attention.
When all you want to achieve is to garner a greater amount of attention to your profile, there will not be any hesitation or logical thinking.
It’s like a fake or misleading social post that was created on purpose to get viral instantly.
Think about this for a moment, and then ask yourself:
Are you actually interested in such attention, and would you do anything for it, regardless of how irrational or regrettable the outcome may be later on?
When you try to gain attention no matter what the cost, you may end up making a lot of mistakes that could ruin either your reputation or your image.
In addition, if you are revealed and still haven’t learned from the failure to make the right choices and keep trying to cover it up, are signs that you already have a bad reputation and you can’t recover from it.
Check other: Signs You Should Say No At Work (Why & How)
5. You enjoy making people feel intimidated by you.
Love and respect come from the heart, not from threats.
Everyone deserves respect and love, but not by putting another under pressure.
No amount of power or position can make others respect you, when you are not adding any positive value to their life or the surroundings.
Whenever you speak threateningly to your employees, because you’re the boss of the business or a cocky person with pride, expecting others to bow down to you, you turn out to be a bully to them.
It may seem that an actually weak person will accept you to not get into trouble, but slowly and gradually you’ll have a bad reputation that may take years to reverse or not change at all.
6. You are mostly used to creating controversy.
When they know you have no self-control or confidence, they will use you.
Someone could easily use you and cause chaos in your name and enjoy watching it from behind if you’re easily drawn to negative things.
Basically, you’re their soft target with poor emotional control, also because you always have time for such negative things.
Such jealous or backstabber friends will pick the weaker one as a pawn and use them to start trouble in which they are interested, but consider removing their name from it.
Whenever something negative happens, people turn to you for more information or for your controversial responses, these are signs you have a bad reputation which they would like to use to their advantage.
Check other: 13 Signs You’ve Lost Yourself ‘The Real You’
7. You make false promises or break them.
When you keep running away from your responsibility, no one will count you in.
It’s your responsibility as a team player to put in the best effort you can.
In contrast, if you don’t put in your best effort or ignore the responsibility that is truly yours, such an approach gradually harms your reputation.
Moreover, you can be regarded as a lazy employee, a difficult boss, or a bad leader.
Because you want to get the credits for the work, but avoid taking any responsibility if things are not working out.
It won’t help you if you play the blame game or run away from your role forever.
When someone doesn’t trust you, they keep ignoring you from giving important tasks or plans… these are signs that you don’t have a good reputation at your work.
8. You have gotten famous through shortcuts.
Shortcuts can be two-way, bringing you back to the same spot at an even faster pace.
It takes a long time to become famous and successful in a real sense.
It always takes hard work, passion, and dedication every single day towards a single goal and even without thinking about the potential results, till you reach there.
In contrast, if you are one of those who want to skip this hustle phase and directly land on the outcome phase, you will not hesitate to take any path, no matter how wrong, misleading, or risky it might be.
The lust for becoming instant famous drains you of your morals, and you make some bad choices in life that will ruin your reputation and life, if and when they find out.
If you achieve such popularity and success following a wrong path or misleading others, the people now admiring you will treat you as a fake person, and you are left with nothing but your bad reputation.
Check other: 12 Signs You Are Not Likeable In Your Group
9. You are overly worried about your reputation.
The more you try to hide your weaknesses, the more they’ll use it against you.
It’s no surprise that when you get a famous and known personality, hate comments and negative remarks will be there.
No matter whatever field of work you are in, the haters will be there forever.
People like these are only interested in spreading negativity and damaging someone’s reputation or taking advantage of it, at the expense of others.
Though you cannot control their actions, the way you respond to such behavior that ruins your reputation also can definitely affect other people’s perception of you, in a lot of negative or completely positive ways.
Instead of being part of the trash talk, when you prefer ignoring your haters and focusing more on giving great work, you are eventually able to win the trust of your followers and those who actually believe in you.
Because you are a confident person who is self-made and has no fear.
In the other case, when you lose control over yourself because someone is trying to ruin your reputation, you are more likely to behave in the haters’ voice, and that way you ruin your reputation by yourself.
When you realize that you’ve ruined your reputation…
In the event that you find that most of the signs we discussed here are closely connected to your present situation, such are signs that you have a bad reputation.
The reason can directly be you alone or someone else who is jealous, toxic, and self-destructive.
However, the best thing you can do is sit back and check whether you have any role to play in all of this…
Could it be directly or indirectly you, or could there be someone else whose bad intentions were to blame?
When it’s only due to you, you can make some positive changes in your life and behavior which help you to recover your reputation, when you have a bad reputation.
Start accepting responsibility for your actions and words, and apologize when you have to.
When you present yourself as a confident and responsible person, the people who know and follow you will keep loving and respecting you…
Because they closely know who you are and are not that ‘jealous or insecure’ someone who is trying hard to ruin your life.
With a strong belief in universal signs and positivity, Ketan P. started ‘Signs You Are‘ to shed light on the daily signals we miss. Every article on this site reflects his experiences, learning, and reflections over the years.