Incivility at Workplace

Experts have found out that Workplace Incivility is closely associated with employees who have to endure abusive behavior from their supervisors on a regular basis. In short, work-place incivility is a milder, more nascent form of the type of workplace aggression that we discussed earlier.

This abusive behavior includes but is not limited to supervisors ridiculing their employees, constantly berating them due to their past failures, ignoring them or avoiding conversation with them, not crediting them and praising them for their efforts and achievements, addressing them in bad mood or a fit of rage.

Many think that the easy solution to these kinds of work-related problems could be to either retaliate against such degrading behavior, or simply quit. However, with the employment situation being the way it is in this recession-hit world, more and more talented people are deciding to suffer the abusive behavior they face at the hands of their supervisors.

Such employees decide to weather out the stormy employment scenario so that they can quit the company when the time is right, however many of these don’t manage to see the bright side of this picture and deviate into destructive behavior. Instead of quitting or retaliating, they strike out against their employers by engaging in actions that are detrimental to the organization. This negative driving force is results in uncivil behavior.

When these employees are denied their due in the eyes of the management, they tend of think that the management owes them which leads to such abusing of office supplies. Because employees operate and utilize the majority of a company’s assets, they tend to direct their frustration and anger by abusing the company’s resources, using office equipment, even stealing them. They start reporting late, slacking in work, leaving early and delivering low quality output. This happens because their sense of commitment and obligation towards their employer is destroyed. When that line is breached, employees simply stop caring about the employer.

Worse still is the fact that these employees will gain approval from other equally-mistreated employees, snowballing the unproductivity and slackness even further into a huge loss for the company. Such behaviors are called acting out. This is the stage where people want to forget the cause of their unhappiness by taking part in destructive actions that they think justifies their ill-treatment.

Many employees who act out of anger cite not getting enough respect as the main reason behind their uncivil behaviors, closely followed by not getting enough recognition. While these two are the top reasons for minor offenses, they are not the reason behind severe offenses.

It is also found that while employees become less productive when they are not satisfied with their work or the work environment, the deviant behavior is not universal. Many organizations produce a sustained supply of quality output even if employees complain of longer hours, lesser pay and erratic schedules.