Uncommon Courtesy

Studies show that difficult relationships have more negative impact on work morale than anything else. Conversely, people who work well together and enjoy being part of a professional team find more job satisfaction. A major contributing factor to a pleasant work environment is common courtesy. In today’s workplace, courtesy is not always the norm! I bet you’ve had to deal with some of these issues on a regular basis: People who don’t return phone calls…The bum that takes the last cup of coffee and doesn’t make more…Petty gossip mongers…The manager that never offers a word of thanks…The peer who tries to take credit for your idea or work…Rude or confrontational email…Unrealistic demands…Team members who don’t do their share of the work…That person that’s always late for meetings… Hey, I was in the corporate world for almost 30 years – I could go on with real life examples of rude and thoughtless behavior. The lack of common courtesy is annoying in itself, but there are insidious side effects. Employees who experience uncivil treatment report lower job satisfaction. They start avoiding their jobs through repeated tardiness, unnecessary sick days, and reduced productivity. The office battlefield takes its toll. A culture of courtesy can be established by laying simple groundwork. Senior management must establish policies. Management should be role models and consistently set a good example. Performance evaluations should address a worker’s ability to operate effectively and courteously in the workplace. Unfortunately, many managers today don’t know how (or are afraid to) confront an employee exhibiting bad behavior. Without coaching there will be no improvement. Years ago, I worked on a senior-level team fraught with behavior problems. We finally had a come-to-Jesus meeting with our boss (a former Army sergeant) who confronted us as a group, “You don’t have to be friends or even like each other. But you will respect each other as human beings and behave accordingly, or you will no longer be part of this team.” It wasn’t pretty, but it had to be said. What’s interesting is that things actually got worse and, within months, two of the executives resigned and moved on. Then things got better! My advice to you is to do your part to create pleasant surroundings as part of the norm in your office. Politics can get ugly – you can rise above it. People deserve recognition when they do good work – be sure they get it. When faced with rudeness – respond with grace. The more people yell – the more softly you can reply. We can all strive to set the proper example. For those of us with naturally aggressive spirits, it can be a challenge not to respond in kind to offenders. Consider this… The secret to the Japanese martial art Aikido is to blend with the motion of the attacker and redirect the force of the attack rather than facing it head on, allowing practitioners to defend themselves while protecting their attacker from injury. That seems a wonderfully wise form of uncommon courtesy.