The speaker, Christine Porath (who is Associate Professor of Management at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University), begins her talk with this question “Who do you want to be?” stating that this question (and/or your answer to it), will define your success more than any other. Christine Porath studies the effects of incivility on people, and whilst we may not mean to make someone feel ‘disrespected’ however we do, and with that comes some consequences. Christine considered these consequences can lead to bigger problems such as aggression and violence… and in the workplace this could adversely impact on [employee] performance and the Company’s ‘Bottom-Line’.
A survey was commissioned to understand the [broader] effects of individuals’ experiences of rude, disrespectful or insensitive treatment in the workplace, what the treatment was and how they reacted. The results showed that 66% cut back work efforts; 80% lost time worrying about what happened and 12 % left their job. As a business owner, these statistics must be alarming, with one large American Organisation estimating that incivility in the workplace was costing them some $ 12m (US) per year.
I have long advocated that the cost of losing any employee has a heavy impact on the organisation (i.e. morale, productivity and profits). Of course incivility in the workplace isn’t reserved just for the recipient of such behaviour, as witnesses too feel the effects. The results of this identified that the performance of the witness reduced ‘quite significantly.
I recall being on the receiving end of a vitriolic dressing down from a Senior Executive, that was witnessed by my colleagues, and whilst I was able to handle the tirade, my (junior) colleagues felt very uncomfortable and from then on, were very wary of this Senior Executive, and when asked, they would complete tasks for him, in fear of a similar outburst if the results weren’t up to his standard. This Senior Executive was considered a good ‘Manager’ of the Business, however he could not be considered a ‘Leader’.
By chance I came across a report conducted by the Australian National University (ANU), entitled “How Humour Can Help Reduce Workplace Stress”. Lead researcher Dr David Cheng of the ANU College of Business and Economics said workplace aggression and bullying is a widespread problem which impacts the mental health of victims and the ramifications can be expensive for organisations. This report states that humour and (I feel) good nature can and does help employees deal with incivility.
Of course, it would be better to eliminate the source of the problem, i.e. remove poor behaviour (bullying, harassment, incivility) from the workplace, and I hope we strive to achieve that, however for the meantime, in instances where this occurs, the introduction of humour can alleviate the situation.
Companies should be committed to providing a workplace that is safe for its employees and free from such poor behaviour. Therefore they [Companies] should not condone any form of bullying, harassment, incivility in the workplace and they should acknowledge that it is their responsibility to take all reasonable steps to prevent this from occurring. Suffice to say, the company must create a confident environment and act promptly to resolve (any) all complaints.
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