Incivility rising in the workplace

A phone conversation ends with a loudly slammed receiver and hissed epithet.

Someone drains the office coffeepot or empties the copier paper, then walks away without refilling.

Day after day, a boss blows by without so much as a nod to members of his staff.

Sound like where you work?

Probably. Consensus says workplace civility is in fragile health.

For some reason, the unruly mob that trashed Woodstock `99 invited comparisons with the rise of incivility in the workplace. Three decades ago, at the original Woodstock, people were mad about the lack of facilities, too. But they just crawled under blankets, blew dope and had sex. This summer, they upended cars and burned merchants' booths.

This summer -- and don't blame the 100-degree heat -- we rarely make a half-hour commute without witnessing finger flipping or other acts of traffic discourtesy. And then we run into work rage.

There always have been boors and bullies. There always have been testy retorts, raised voices and egotists who think their needs outrank everyone else's. But in the last two years, workplace chroniclers say, there is a nasty growth of rudeness at work.

Web sites and consulting businesses have emerged to nip the trend. Meanwhile, the July cover story in Training magazine, a publication about "the human side of business," spotlights "Mean Streets and Rude Workplaces: The Death of Civility."

It's a depressing wallop for those who think, as management guru Peter Drucker said, that civility is "the lubricating oil of our organizations."

Christine Pearson, a researcher at the University of North Carolina, surveyed hundreds of workers and found that the lubricating oil is running low. Reports of demeaning harangues and snippy exchanges far, far eclipsed violence and overt harassment when workers told her what bothered them at their jobs.

Similarly, Bob Rosner, author of the book Working Wounded, set up a Web site to find out what bugs workers. His No. 1 finding: food stolen from office refrigerators.

Training traced the incivility surge to changes pointed out by Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam in a seminal essay, published in 1995. Bowling Alone detailed Americans' flagging participation in all kinds of group activities in favor of solo pursuits (TV and computers, particularly).

Since then, Rosner contends, ignoring the rights and feelings of others has become a workplace epidemic.

Some people blame two-career families. Some blame a loss of God- centeredness. Some blame President Clinton. Others blame the Clinton haters. Others blame the media.

Whatever the cause, too many workers act unaware and unconcerned about the effect of their words and deeds on others. Unfortunately, the effect goes beyond the intended target of the rudeness, if indeed there was a specific target.

More than nine out of 10 targets told the North Carolina researcher that they describe their unpleasant encounters to others. Clearly, incivility sends out ripples, polluting organizations, if not civilization.

Copyright 1999
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