The Decline Of Civility Within The Workplace

When we discriminate, disrespect, gossip, bully and intimidate can be viewed as being uncivil. Our behavior can threaten positive relations with our co-workers and an unhealthy workplace. We all must take action for our behavior and practice civility. Civility creates a healthy and productive workplace if everyone fosters positive relations, treat everyone with respect and kindness, and promote civility in the workplace.

In the article “Civil Rites” by Caroline Miller, she stated that civility has become a more or less elusive proposition. Although I am not sure whether I over-react about certain etiquette that I find uncomfortable, or if there is really a general dissolution of civility in today’s modern world. I’d like to think not, but in reality of this may be true; civility has been long gone in today’s modern world, and some of the older ones that still exist, are either offensive or confusing.

Unlike aggressive, violent, and abusive workplaces, where the intent to cause harm is apparent, incivility takes on more ambiguous forms, where the perceptions of the instigator, target, and observer(s), must factor together to determine intent (Andersson, 1999). General incivility, as a primary precursor to a toxic workplace, can be described as rude behavior, or a disregard for others within the organization, stemming from a lack of recognition, or ignorance, of co-workers emotions and values, often taking form in deviance as a protest of dissatisfaction (Kelloway, 2010), and leads to a downward spiral of malcontent. Pearson classifies Incivility as “Low-intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm” stemming from “Anti-social behavior in violation of workplace norms for mutual respect”.Despite the intent, or lack thereof, the effects of incivility in the workplace are strictly damaging, and as such, must be addressed before spiraling out of control. Examples of workplace incivility include ignoring advice and belittling ideas, lack of active listening, taking credit for shared work and public criticism or insults (Johnson, 2001). Even negative

One individual who believes civility is very significant is P. M. Forni, who wrote the essay, “What is Civility?” to validate his opinion. As a teacher, Forni believes when teachers choose not to teach their students basic civility components, they are failing and that his students should be kind people when it comes to other peoples’ feelings. Also, he believes teaching his students civility is very important and only a positive outcome for them. He first gives each of his students the opportunity during a workshop, to state what they believe civility is and some gave answers like care, consideration, justice, tolerance, etiquette, and tact (Forni 455). He states that doing even the simplest things like saying “please” and “thank you”, and

Rudeness is indeed a growing problem and it is only getting worst. As you mentioned, rudeness comes in a variety of ways, such as, annoying behavior, intolerable actions, sarcastic and degrading remarks, shouting and even the use of swearwords. "Rudeness breeds more rudeness and metastasizes into social ugliness" (Hama, 2011). Rudeness can become a domino effect where people feed off that negative energy and retaliate rather than be an employee or customer. I personally been on the receiving end of rudeness as an employee and as a customer and I sometimes been a victim of feeding into the negativity. My biggest pet peeves is respect me as long as I am respecting you. I do not care if you do not like be because of my race, gender, height, or nail color, but as long as I am treating you like a human being, I deserve to be treated in that same manner.

Poor communication is often responsible for the hostile work setting, therefore it is preeminent of the employee to start with a respectful confrontation about the present work environment in a face to face meeting. In cases where respectful confrontation does not resolve the situation Robert Sutton suggest limiting contact with the jerk as much as possible.

It shows respect to other people and a lack of manners is often interpreted as a lack of respect. Manners will influence on children’s behaviour therefore practitioners will need to be good role models.

Hatred in the work environment breeds various issues for workers. For example, representatives working in a negative situation will probably discover issues with confidence and low profitability. Also, a negative work environment can prompt high representative turnover rates. To build energy in the work environment, workers must to make a positive workplace and do what it takes to maintain and cultivate this culture. According to Yoder-wise (2011), “the definition of violence includes overt and covert behavior ranging from offensive threatening language to homicide” (Yoder Wise, 2011, p.498). Violence can be noted as the general term that represents lateral aggression,

Judge Paul Heath Till’s essay “Morals, Manners, Customs, and Public Perception” has a very unique structure that helps the effectiveness of the authors argument. He starts off by giving reasons why people are lacking manners in everyday life. He also gives definitions of the words manner, manners, moral, and customs and then goes further to discuss the true meaning of these words. He also relates his life experiences and his personal beliefs to the topic at hand.

RESPECT: Golden Rule - Treat others the way you want to be treated. I will always treat you with respect and courtesy; therefore, I expect that you will treat me, and your classmates, with respect and courtesy. Disruptive and unkind behavior will NEVER be tolerated in this classroom.

Civility in the work place, or the lack thereof, has been identified as a growing problem within many professions in today’s society. Often referred to as lateral violence, this occurrence is no exception in the nursing profession. It is also known as ‘horizontal violence’ or ‘workplace bullying (Coursey, Rodriguez, Dieckmann, & Austin, 2013). In this evidenced-based paper, information will be provided in an effort to identify causes of lateral violence in the workplace and how to encourage civility.

Civility in the work place, or the lack thereof, has been identified as a growing problem within many professions in today’s society. Often referred to as lateral violence, this occurrence is no exception in the nursing profession. It is also known as ‘horizontal violence’ or ‘workplace bullying (Coursey, Rodriguez, Dieckmann, & Austin, 2013). In this evidenced-based paper, information will be provided in an effort to identify causes of lateral violence in the workplace and how to encourage civility.

Washington, George. Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation. Miami, FL: BN Pub., 2007.

The research of aggression in the work place is the focus of this paper. Taking an advanced look in how these behaviors can affect not only the employee but also that employee’s family.

There is a mass of different ways to show rudeness to other people. One main thing that’s happening that shows rudeness is on the rise is children being disrespectful to their parents.