PEOPLE HAVE FORGOTTEN HOW TO BE CIVIL AT WORK

Researchers from Portland State University say now that people are returning to work after a long pandemic break, workplace incivility is on the rise and office bickering could spiral out of control if employers don’t handle it properly. Study author Larry Martinez, associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology, says, “People have gotten used to not having to engage in interpersonal communication as much and that can take an already distressing or tense situation and exacerbate it because people are out of practice of not having to have difficult conversations.” Uncivil behavior can include many things, from criticizing people in public, to rude or obnoxious behavior, to simply arriving late for a meeting or interrupting a co-worker. The study notes that incivility can often go unnoticed on, say, emails or a conference call or a Zoom meeting, when people can’t see a remote worker’s full body language or the tone in their voice.
* People are being obnoxious? Who does this jerk think he is?
* The study is published in the August issue of Up Yours Monthly.
* Yeah, you tell someone “Hey, you’re not working at home anymore, you shouldn’t be wearing your pajamas,” and they bite your head off.
* Remember when Rodney King once asked, “Can’t we all just get along?”, and obviously the answer is no.
* PHONE TOPIC: What’s the worst case of bad office behavior you’ve ever experienced? (Morning Sidekick once worked at a radio station where a co-worker would perform “armrest pushups” in his chair, then break the armrest and switch his chair out with someone else’s. This went on until all the chairs were broken.)