Behaving rudely impacts workplace relations

The workplace can be a minefield. Quite aside from the need to maintain a generous rotation in your fashion roster and provide yourself with status-elevating lunches, there is the omnipresent challenge of dealing with the strange world of other people. In an ideal world people would treat each other with quiet respect but the reality is far from ideal and a new study has shown for instance that rudeness in the workplace can actually be contagious.

The study showed that people who behave rudely experience stronger social support which makes them less afraid of negative reactions to their behaviour.

For the study the researchers surveyed more than 6,000 people in the workplace. The subjects were asked about the social climate in the places they worked. For the study rudeness was defined as something that violates the norm for mutual respect but is not covered by legislation, as bullying would be.”Rude” behaviour would include excluding someone from information and co-operation, forgetting to invite someone to a communal event, taking credit for the work of others, spreading rumours, sending malicious emails, or not giving praise to subordinates. The most common form of rudeness, occurring in about 75 per cent of cases, was imitating colleagues.

The survey results showed that being subjected to rudeness is a major cause of dissatisfaction at work and that in turn leads to rude behaviour and so the cycle goes. Interestingly, and disturbingly, the study showed that people who behave rudely experience stronger social support which makes them less afraid of negative reactions to their behaviour.

This should be a warning to everybody to avoid rude behaviour in the workplace but it is also an empowering message; if you behave with politeness that that too will have a ripple effect in your workplace.