When speaking with managers and leaders, you will learn that nothing is more off putting, less professional or career limiting than having a bad attitude. You may be the most competent person in your department, the smartest person in the room... but if you are difficult to work with, you are essentially limiting your options and sabotaging your own career.
An example:
Anne recently hired John, whom she knew peripherally from a previous company. She knew that he was hardworking and smart. However, he turned out to be a passive aggressive complainer. Because the majority of his criticisms had validity, Anne made every effort to hear him out and respond to the issues. However, after 6 months of working with him and giving every benefit of the doubt, she came to the conclusion that John wanted "what he wanted, when he wanted, how he wanted." And even if he got everything, he still found a way to bring negativity into the conversation. There was always a reason to be upset and indignant: someone messed up or something was not set up right. He did good work, there was no doubt about that, but there was a lot of whining and complaining that came with it.
His team found him exhausting to be around and senior management was not interested in hearing what he had to say even when he brought up valid points and good ideas. After he was let go during a reorganization, Anne declared that she would never hire John again and when he asked her for a reference, she declined. "I never want to work in the same team with someone like that again and I would not want to ruin my own reputation by endorsing him to anyone else."
You may be competent, you may be hardworking, you may even be smarter than everyone else around you. Understand this: a reputation for having a bad attitude is going to hurt your career. Recovering from bad word-on-the-street about you is a very difficult thing to do. So, if you think that you may ever be out of work (and in this day and age, no one is immune), you may want to keep your attitude in check.
