What is workplace incivility?
Workplace incivilities are described as “low-intensity deviant behaviour with ambiguous intent to harm the target. Uncivil behaviours are characteristically rude and discourteous, displaying a lack of regard for others.” Incivilities might be more commonly known to some as micro-aggressions or micro-incivilities, though the difference between “aggressions” and “incivilities” lies more with associations of the two, the former said to often put people more on the defence.
Sometimes, workplace incivilities or micro-aggressions, may not have the intent to harm or offend and might come from a lack of understanding and cultural competence with regards to the victim’s identity. Although some might be “unintentional”, the intention doesn’t change the effects that these actions and statements have on people who are usually from marginalised groups. However, anyone can be the target of them just as anyone can be bullied or discriminated against and constant micro-aggressions can add up to harassment. Further, micro-aggressions are often thought to be intentional compared to incivilities.
In this post we hope to be able to help you understand a bit more about workplace incivilities and how to deal with them, best ways to educate people in work about them and how to support those who experience them.
Examples of workplace incivility
There are a multitude of examples that can be described as an incivility or micro-incivility. They can be subtle statements or questions, many of which do not necessarily harbour ill-intent, or borderline covert examples of bullying or discrimination where the perpetrator is careful to word what they say that may not then seem serious enough to others such as managers or HR. Others may not be direct words to people, can be perceived as incivilities due to the tone used or just actions. Here is a non-exhaustive list of examples:
- Banter where the joke is at the expense of someone
- Asking someone where they are “originally” from
- Touching or asking to touch someone’s hair
- Asking someone if English is their first language or not
- Making statements based on stereotypes
- Pronouncing someone’s name wrong
- Misgendering or deadnaming someone
- Asking invasive questions about people’s private lives
- Purposefully speaking over, ignoring or moving away from someone
- Thinly veiled insults or back-handed compliments
The causes and effects of workplace incivility
Some studies have shown that the causes of workplace incivility could actually be the result of an already poor or stressful working environment and organisational aspects that lead employees to direct incivilities towards their colleagues. For example, those who are already being treated badly, are under pressure or working long hours may take out their stress on others. In other cases, workplace incivilities may be seen as the norm and go largely unchallenged and checked, leading to an environment where people are afraid to speak up about it (organisational silence) and people may pass it off as “how things are” if the issue is raised.
Other reasons could be due to a mismatch of team members; while you may be unable to force colleagues to like each other, making sure everyone is respectful towards each other should be imperative.
Two of the most common causes are employees who know what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behaviour but still choose to exhibit the latter towards others, and those who do not know or what they say is not intentionally rude or offensive. The former type is obviously the most difficult to deal with as policing and changing people’s behaviours can be almost impossible, while the latter can often be easier to deal with as they may be more open to change and discussion to rectify mistakes.
Tackling absenteeism with the power of anonymous reporting
As they say, prevention is better than cure, but stopping workplace bullying and harassment is a task that should not be viewed as an impossible one and should not be dismissed as unnecessary if people within the organisation brush it off as it “being how things are”. This is especially important when the Equality Act 2010 holds employers responsible for preventing discrimination and harassment and they’re liable for any harassment suffered by their employees.
As well as following through on policies and procedures to investigate claims and deal with perpetrators, the analytics side of a system like ours can help identify trends of bullying, discrimination and harassment that is going on within your organisation. For example, you may see there are more reports where people are experiencing micro-aggressions, it is mainly happening within one area of the business or where a certain group of people are experiencing discrimination. This helps you take a targeted approach and prioritise actions such as implementing further education so everybody understands what micro-aggressions are and their effects, reviewing structures within particular departments or signposting to resources that help said group.
The effects of workplace incivility are numerous. Research shows that workplace incivility relates to stress, mental health and wellbeing, job satisfaction and productivity. This can have a knock-on effect on your organisation’s profitability and reputation. And for those who experience it almost daily and don’t speak up about it, it can really take a toll on them. This is because in many cases they can be so subtle that the victim is unaware of what was meant or doesn’t fully process it until much later, or because they don’t feel it is serious enough to report or don’t think it will be taken seriously. These are barriers to reporting we know exist.
How to deal with incivility in the workplace
Many experts will agree that early prevention is key to dealing with incivility in the workplace. Include definitions in policies and point employees to them, circulate resources for them to read, listen or watch, or hold training sessions. We did the latter at Culture Shift and have further sessions coming up soon; there’s so much to unpack with micro-aggressions or incivilities that it cannot all be covered in a one-off one hour slot, so conducting regular sessions that are also beneficial to people who were not present at previous ones is a good idea.
And we feel that no matter what organisation you’re in and whether you personally feel everyone understands the terms and the impact of the behaviours, it is always still important to make sure that is the case and aligning with your company’s values.
How Culture Shift can help
And above all, once people know how to define and realise what an incivility is, how can they speak up about it? Our anonymous reporting system is an integral way for end users to tell their organisation what has happened and allows you to track and analyse trends in behaviours to take action such as some of the above already mentioned. Or individual action if the person decides to make a named report or provide further information.
We are often asked how we differ from a whistleblowing tool and that can be done easily by saying that it allows people to report those “low-intensity deviant behaviours” we referenced at the beginning, not just overt acts of bullying, discrimination and harassment or even serious misconduct that might constitute whistleblowing.
However, we also believe supporting those who experience and report incivilities is of utmost importance. Many don’t report anything through fear of repercussions, not being believed or having their experiences downplayed. As several of the experts we have had join us on previous webinars about anti-bullying and racism, believe them and see how you can support them as well as ensuring it’s everybody’s job to understand the harms of incivilities and how they can be identified and prevented.
There are many ways our system and tailored, wrap-around service can help you improve your processes and shift culture at your organisation to reduce incivilities, contacting us below.
