Together Again
As organizations and businesses return to more routine, in-person settings, it’s important to remind ourselves of the importance of maintaining civility in our workplaces.
Civility: polite behavior in words and action.
When a workplace has a well-defined code of conduct that encourages and requires civility of its management and employees, its culture invariably benefits across all levels, from increased collaboration to high morale among a team.
Civil interactions produce a range of positive outcomes that will have a tremendous impact on a workplace’s culture. Perhaps just as importantly, they greatly influence employee satisfaction. Managers and supervisors must do their part to ensure their workplace is a cordial environment for employees to thrive in.
Civil Respectful Behavior Doesn’t Pick and Choose
Civility is about people using their manners and being courteous and polite. It is about people being generally aware of the rights, concerns, and feelings of others and going out of their way to extend gracious and respectful behavior to the people they work with day in and day out. We don’t have to like everyone or agree on important points or opinions (e.g., vaccine status, masking) to remain respectful of another’s right to disagree.
Benefits of Workplace Civility
For the next couple of weeks, we will identify some behaviors and share some examples of how you might implement or encourage civil behaviors in your workplace.
The list of benefits civil and respectful interactions bring to workplaces is extensive, but here are some for thought:
- High levels of company morale
- Greater sense of job satisfaction
- A more resilient and cohesive team
- Consistent levels of productivity
- Increased collaboration
- Motivated employees
- Low turnover and absenteeism
Well worth the effort, the investment we make toward a workplace of respect and personal dignity can return a big payoff for any organization.
