How to Handle Unprofessional Moments in College

By: Cimmiaron Alvarez, PhD

While professionalism is the standard in a college setting, it is not possible to be perfect in all situations, sometimes there are going to be moments where you are less than professional. These moments are face-threatening, or they are acts that challenge a person’s face performance that might lead to embarrassment. To read more about face and tips to be professionalism, reference our previous article on the topic.

Facework to Handle Unprofessionalism

For example, you might run late to a meeting with your professor or ask a question that is answered on the syllabus. When anticipating or experiencing a face-threat, individuals use facework maintain or restore their performance. Individuals might use preventive, corrective, or future facework.  

Preventive facework comes before the face-threat. For example, if you know that you are going to be late for a meeting, you might use preventive facework to prevent the face loss that being late would cause. Students might engage in preventive facework through (a) avoidance, (b) disclaimers, or (c) politeness strategies. 

Avoidance allows individuals to avert face threats by avoiding situations or topics that will lead to face loss. For example, if you know a topic is unprofessional, you might avoid that topic when around your professor. Disclaimers allow you to distance yourself from a potentially face-threatening statement. 

Through the disclaimer of hedging, you might indicate that you are uncertain or open to suggestions; during a group project you might tell your group members: “I’m no expert, but…”  

Credentialing is a disclaimer in which you indicate that there is a good reason and that you have the appropriate qualifications for engaging in the unprofessional behavior. If you do not understand instructions for an assignment, you might tell your professor: “I know you explained this on Canvas, but I am still a little confused. Do you mind explaining this part of the assignment to me?” 

Finally, politeness strategies vary in how face saving they are. The least face saving is bald-on-record in which you bluntly state the unprofessional information, such as asking a question about the directions for an assignment when you have not read the instructions. 

Next, you might use positive politeness, where you state the unprofessional information but focus it on the receiver’s positive face, often by emphasizing shared goals. Knowing you are going to miss a deadline, you might emphasize that your goal is to learn what the assignment is meant to teach and ask your professor for feedback, even if you cannot earn any points. 

Additionally, you might use an off-record approach by hinting at or alluding to the unprofessional moment.  

Following an unprofessional moment, you might use corrective facework to acknowledge the face-threat and counter the face loss through (a) avoidance, (b) apologies, or (c) physical remediation. Following an unprofessional experience, you might use avoidance by pretending like the situation did not happen. 

Through apologies, you can demonstrate that you are sorry and acknowledge your behavior. For example, if you fail to read the syllabus and did not know about a course policy, you might acknowledge that you did not read the syllabus and apologize. Finally, physical remediation is when you correct the physical environment and/or yourself. If you wear an unprofessional outfit to a job fair, you might run home and change into a more professional outfit.  

Future Facework 

Future facework is corrective in the moment but preventive for future interactions and helps “change oppressive discourses and structures” (Romo et al., 2023, p. 167). 

Many aspects of professionalism are racist, sexist, and ableist. Future facework allows you to resist the oppressive structures within professionalism through (a) educating others, (b) advocating, (c) embracing difference, and (d) planning. 

Educating allows you to inform others about certain issues. For example, professional language upholds White male standards of communicating. Through education, you might emphasize the ways that non-White and non-male individuals communicate in professional ways. 

Advocacy focuses on eradicating systems, policies, or behaviors that frame White male professionalism as the gold standard. For example, in workplaces, women are often overlooked for promotions, raises, and responsibility because of their potential for childbearing. 

Through advocacy, you might work to eradicate such policies. Embracing differences occur when you reframe distinctions into advantageous characteristics. For example, women tend to be more relationally focused compared to men; yet such an emphasis can help them build and maintain professional connections. Finally, you might make plans to correct the unprofessional instance and prevent future face threats by asking questions of others.  

Professionalism is a skill that individuals develop over time. By starting to work on and developing this skill now, you will be more prepared for professional opportunities both during and after college. Again, I want to emphasize that these are general suggestions about what is professional based on my own experiences. Because face is situational, what is professional in one setting might not be in another. As such, I recommend being adaptable, understanding that face-threats happen to everyone, and that through facework, you can mitigate face loss.