Employers need to understand the causes of Workplace Incivility to really address it

Incivility in the workplace, such as eye-rolling and sarcastic remarks, might seem a ‘one off’ or ‘not worth making a fuss about’ but such behaviours can escalate into genuine psychosocial hazards if left unmanaged.

Managing such behaviour requires a two pronged approach: (1) dealing with individuals directly and (2) addressing the wider systemic issues.

Our Take

We continue to advocate that there is no better practical outcome we have seen in managing employee behaviour than through designated one-on-one discussion between an employee and their manager.

But, where the issue starts ‘leaking’ into the workplace culture, examining work conditions, leadership, and team dynamics is required. The effective employer needs to ask: How has the workplace caused, exacerbated or normalized the incivility?

Sometimes the issue can be intermittent such as a particularly busy period of work and this can be overcome by addressing the workload issues. Typical workload issues are caused by: Unrealistic Deadlines, Insufficient Staffing, Poor Task Management, Lack of Resources, Unrealistic Expectations. Address those and the incivility should start to abate.

Where incivility is ingrained however, it is more likely to be a problem caused by managers who either haven’t been trained in how to manage or have ‘lost their way’ for their own personal reasons which then impact on their teams. In such circumstances relying just on one-on-one conversations to address the incivility is likely to be unsuccessful. In such cases the only way to address the systemic issue is to train/retrain your managers. Increase one-on-one conversations with the manager’s manager and let staff know that is what you will be doing.

Action Items:

• Continue to train your managers in how to effectively conduct one-on-one discussions with their direct reports.

• Examine work conditions, leadership, and team dynamics to identify and address the root causes of incivility.

• Design work better to minimize overload issues and create better clarity.

• Instil supportive leadership to model appropriate behaviours and support well-being.

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