Your reputation lessens with the people you associate yourself with, so if you feel the people you associate yourself with aren’t up to scratch, either find a way to change those people, or find other people to associate yourself with.

This is quite obvious when you teach a big range of students. There are some students who take on their work seriously, and some who don’t. When the majority of people in your class work seriously, the average individual reputation goes up. Likewise, when the majority of people in your class don’t work seriously, the average individual reputation goes down. If you find yourself in a situation where your reputation is going down, it’s probably best to get out.

There are a few good students in my classes where the majority of students aren’t the best, so I have to be aware of them, and I even have to do the class for them. It’s not their fault that they were put into that situation, and they shouldn’t have to lose out because of it.