Workplace Incivility: where are your manners?
What is it?
Incivility is being rude, discourteous and showing a lack of regard for others. The behaviour harms the target, whether intentionally or unintentionally. It may also occur in the cyberspace, such as not replying to email or sending terse emails.
Incivility at work can appear in numerous forms. Some examples might include:
- Taking credit for the work someone else has done
- Unwanted familiarity
- Poor work etiquette
- Inappropriate conversations or excessive swearing in the workplace
- Discrimination on the basis of gender, race, religion or sexuality
- Excessive and unreasonable pressure
- Unreasonable blame
- Disregard for other peoples’ time
- Gossiping and public ridicule
- Constantly interrupting someone
- Excluding co-workers or giving them the silent treatment
- Creating unnecessary controversy
It’s worth remembering that incivility may not have an immediate impact on others, but instead be considered discourteous. An example might be not refilling the photocopier with paper when it runs out.
Some factors which may increase levels of incivility include:
- Low employee morale
- Mismatched team members
- Workplace stress
- Bad employees who choose to engage in rude behaviour consciously
Why Should It Be Dealt With?
Researchers estimate that between 75% and 100% of employees encounter workplace incivility. In one survey, half said that they had experienced uncivil behaviour in the last week. Nearly everyone responds in a negative way.
This behaviour compounds over time, and may result in:
- Lowered commitment to the workplace
- Higher burnout rates
- Strain
- Decreased psychological wellbeing
- Lower creativity (in one study, employees provide 25% fewer ideas when encountering incivility, and those provided were less original)
- More people leaving the workplace
- Reduction in team spirit
- Increased absenteeism
Furthermore, a poll of 800 managers and employees in 17 industries found that of those subjected to incivility:
- 48% intentionally decreased their work effort
- 47% intentionally decreased the time spent at work
- 38% intentionally decreased the quality of their work
- 80% lost time worrying about the incident
- 63% lost time avoiding the offender
- 66% said their performance declined
- 78% said their commitment to the organisation declined
- 12% left their job due to the uncivil treatment. In another poll, this was 26%
- 25% took their frustrations out on customers
It was also found that people exposed to incivility were less likely to help out others, even when the person needing help had no connection to the uncivil person.
For workplaces, it may result in:
- Employee withdrawal
- Decreased employee satisfaction
- Decreased performance
- Customers are less likely to purchase products from companies whose employees are perceived as rude, whether or not it’s directed at them. People don’t like to see other people treated badly.
People also tend to reflect behaviours. If someone is seen to be uncivil, they may choose to behave the same way in return. This can spiral out of control in retaliation, increasing in intensity. It may increase to the point of engaging in hostile acts such as verbal aggression or violence.
A study of 1000 firms found that managers and executives spend 13% of their time mending employee relationships and dealing with the aftermath of incivility. That’s the equivalent of seven weeks per year.
How can it be prevented?
The most effective method is to build a respectful work environment, with the example set by management. If managers violate the social norms around courtesy and respect, employees may begin to do the same. This applies whether the interaction are in person or via electronic communications.
During the recruitment stage, the recruiters should set the stage for these interactions, as well as looking for indications of poor past behaviour in the people they are looking to hire. This can be done though reference checks and exploring personality traits.
During the induction program, expected workplace behaviours should be made clear. It should be emphasised that employees should never be too busy to be nice, with a reiteration of this throughout the employee’s time at the company.
Congeniality should also be a consideration in performance reviews. Most companies only look at outcomes and often overlook damaging behaviour which can impact entire organisations. There should be a focus on teamwork over individual achievement.
In the workplace, rewards can be used to encourage civil behaviour. This can prove to be cost effective in the long term.
Conducting post departure interviews can be useful to gather information and to reflect on the experiences of employees who leave due to incivility. Interviews conducted at the time may only offer vague results, however interviews six months after their departure may be far more open and honest about their experiences as they have settled into their new environments.
How can it be dealt with when present?
Listen fully – Complaints about incivility might sound trivial when spoken aloud, but don’t brush it aside. Only 9% of targets ever complain about it.
Discourage bad behaviour - take complaints seriously and follow up. If managers simply move the employee behaving badly into another location, their behaviour is likely to continue. Sometimes the best path is to let someone go. It doesn’t pay to harbour habitual offenders, even if they have strong results.
Chronic offenders – Sometimes the incivility is out of character, but when there appears to be a pattern of behaviour in play, they need to be spoken to about it and managed accordingly. Do not excuse bad behaviour even when committed by the powerful.
Increasing levels of morale in the workplace and lowering stress factors may help to decrease workplace incivility.
RESOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_incivility
https://hbr.org/2013/01/the-price-of-incivility
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/opinion/sunday/is-your-boss-mean.html?_r=0
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140401-how-rude-why-polite-pays
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21157243
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/causes-incivility-workplace-10700.html