Question

Is the Workplace Becoming More Uncivilized? Send in Miss Manners!

Examples of uncivil workplace behavior include making demeaning remarks, ignoring, and hostile looks. Results of public polls suggest that incivility at work is increasing, with four out of five employees viewing disrespect and a lack of courtesy as a serious problem. Nearly three out of five believe that the problem of workforce incivility is getting worse, and a poll of 800 workers found that 10% witnessed incivility daily and 20% said that they personally were the direct targets of incivility at least once per week. Another study of 603 nurses found 33% had experienced verbal abuse in the previous 5 days. The source of incivility can be supervisors, coworkers, or customers. The rise of incivility may be due to the increasing rates of change; people don’t have the time to be “nice” anymore. Another explanation is generational differences; the “me generation” is focused more on their own concerns and lacks respect for others. Workplace incivility has been linked to outcomes for individuals and the organization. For example, a study conducted in a large public-sector organization found workplace incivility is related to sexual harassment and that both were detrimental to female employees’ well-being.
When employees experience incivility, they respond in various ways, including losing work time to avoid the uncivil person, decreasing their effort, thinking about quitting, and leaving the job to avoid the instigator. Workplace incivility predicts burnout, which, in turn, predicts employees’ intentions to quit. In response to this growing concern, organizations are beginning to set zero-tolerance expectations for rude and disrespectful behavior at work. Others are even implementing training in proper etiquette for managers. A research study found that leaders can be proactive in reducing workplace incivility by taking actions such as describing the policies available in the organization for preventing aggression incidents between employees, encouraging employees to keep them updated regarding signs of potential coworker-initiated aggression, and assigning a victim of incivility to work with different coworkers. Workplace incivility needs to be addressed to reduce the personal and professional impact on employees, and leaders need to take a proactive role to prevent it.

Answer the following questions.

1. Provide an example of an incident that you have experienced that was rude and discourteous, displaying a lack of regard for others. This can be an example you or another person at work or school experienced.
2. How did the experience of incivility (previously described) make you feel? What did you do about it?
3. Which source of workplace incivility do you feel is most harmful and why (supervisors, coworkers, or customers)?

Answer 1

1. One of the examples of incivility at my workplace was when I joined an e-commerce organization after graduation. It was one week since I joined and the manager had said that the employees were allowed to come up to an hour after the start of the shift as a cushion. They could compensate for the one hour by working beyond the shift. Since I was a new employee and found it difficult to come early, I was arriving 30 minutes after the shift started.

On the third day, an employee from the department made some remarks about my arrival in the office and said that I was doing it intentionally. The employee was rude to me and was ignoring my submissions in the daily report which was affecting my performance. This was not right and the manager thought that I was not being productive. This was one experience of incivility in the workplace which I faced and it was not just.

2. This experience made me feel angry with the individual treating me that way. Since the manager did not have a problem with my office timings, I felt it was none of the other employee's business. Given that I had just joined the new organization, I felt unwelcome and treated differently. I wanted the older employees to understand my position and help me instead.

To avoid any conflict, I spoke to my team leader to clarify if there would be any problems in my office timings. My team leader informed me that I had nothing to worry about and asked me to send the daily report submissions to him directly instead. This way I solved the issue and did not let the indifferent treatment affect my performances further.

3. I feel the workplace incivility is more harmful since employees are competing to climb up the ladder. The competition might influence jealous and hostile employees to act differently and in a rude way. However, when considering the source, it is better to have a good boss, and having bad supervision is the most harmful. Employees normally quit because of bad bosses and the imbalance of power. Since bosses have more power they can abuse their authority over employees they are hostile to.