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Toward more civil workplaces

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On Tuesday, I joined other community leaders to formally launch the Workplace Equity & Civility Initiative. This collaborative effort will bring together San Diego employers of all sizes to adopt and enforce policies that promote pay equity and civil workplaces, characterized by respectful speech, language, and conduct — places where employees feel safe to speak up and report concerns.

The incivility that is seemingly pervasive in society has infiltrated our workplaces. A study in the McKinsey Quarterly (December 2016) reported that the share of employees who report being treated rudely by colleagues at least once a month has risen by 13 percentage points since 1998, to 62 percent. This is an unacceptable reality. After all, we spend one-third of our lives working — 90,000 hours over the course of a lifetime.

Left unaddressed, workplace incivility exacts a huge cost. A quote from the McKinsey study rings true: “Nearly everybody who experiences workplace incivility somehow settles the score — with their offender and the organization.” In a poll of 800 managers and employees, those who didn’t feel respected performed worse, intentionally decreasing their time at work (47 percent) and intentionally decreasing the quality of their work (38 percent). Seventy-eight percent said their commitment to the organization had declined. Dissatisfaction due to incivility can also be projected onto customers, impairing relationships.

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It’s easy enough to speculate about the reasons for growing incivility. Today’s workplaces are more diverse than ever, not just racially and ethnically but generationally. Technology has heightened, rather than aided, the pressure to perform. We can say with certainty that most on-the-job conflict occurs when communication breaks down. Even unintentional lapses can leave employees feeling disrespected.

Change cannot happen without education. Managers need the tools to become effective communicators and coaches, engaging employees in problem solving and creating an atmosphere in which all ideas and interests have value and are considered. And employees must be trained to ensure more successful workplace interactions, especially when faced with complex or challenging situations. Often, self-discovery is key: learning how personal identity relates to communication style — and how it’s sometimes the root of a communication breakdown.

When people feel respected in the workplace, it fosters collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing. Employees are engaged, committed and motivated to contribute to what is viewed and valued as shared success.

While the Workplace Equity & Civility Initiative asks for a commitment from employers, each of us has a responsibility to make our workplaces more civil. The employees of law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner generated and adopted a Code of Civility for their workplace. It took them just one hour. Here are its 10 tenets:

1. We greet and acknowledge each other.

2. We say please and thank you.

3. We treat each other equally and with respect, no matter the conditions.

4. We acknowledge the impact of our behavior on others.

5. We welcome feedback from each other.

6. We are approachable.

7. We are direct, sensitive, and honest.

8. We acknowledge the contributions of others.

9. We respect each other’s time commitments.

10. We address incivility.

Are some or all of these principles in place where you work, even if not written into a formal code? If you adopted and practiced just one, how would it change your workday? You could be on your way to making one-third of your life more satisfying.

Steven P. Dinkin is president of the National Conflict Resolution Center (NCRC), a San Diego-based organization that is working to create innovative solutions to challenging issues, including intolerance and incivility. NCRC is nationally recognized for its conflict management and communication strategies. To learn about NCRC’s programming, visit www.ncrconline.com.

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