Workplace incivility is on the rise, and the Alexandria, Virginia-based Society for Human Resource Management thinks it is time for companies to pay attention to it.
A recent SHRM survey found that 66% of U.S. workers have experienced or witnessed incivility in the workplace over the past month, and those who rate their workplace as uncivil are three times more likely to express job dissatisfaction and twice as likely to quit.
It may not get better, with 33% expecting workplace conflict to increase over the next 12 months.
Some Americans may be disregarding age-old workplace guidelines about keeping work and personal opinions separate.
“Things that would typically be at home in your personal life are now entering the workplace. And we see an overall dissatisfaction with life, so many people are not happy,” Emily Dickens, head of public affairs at SHRM, said.
SHRM has launched an initiative called “One Million Civil Conversations” challenging people to engage in purposeful civility. Part of the initiative includes providing human resource professionals with tools, research, resources and guidance for integrating awareness of civility in their workplaces.
“We’re requiring courses on workplace safety, on inclusion, requiring courses on using new tools and AI. But you wouldn’t often see companies requiring courses in the workplace on being civil,” Dickens said.
SHRM, with nearly 340,000 members in 180 countries, will meet with professionals across the country through pop-up events over the course of the next year. It is also developing a “Civility Index,” which will serve as a regular survey gauging the prevailing levels of civility in the workplace.
The tools, research and guidance on workplace civility are available online.
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