Workplace rudeness takes toll: researcher

Incivility on the job places a heavier burden on its victims than most would expect, says a University of Calgary researcher.

The fruits of nasty office politics and rudeness can linger for an average of three days and even negatively impact productivity, said Sandy Hershovis, an associate professor of organizational behaviour at the U of C’s Haskayne School of Business.

That’s especially true when that rudeness is coming from the boss, she said.

“It is bad management ... when it was the boss the effect was stronger than if it was from a coworker,” said Hershovis, adding it infects other workers.

“It adds to the embarrassment and people look to the powerful for understanding on how others belong.”

Hershovis and her colleagues conducted two separate studies on the issue, one involving 50 people who claim to be suffering abuse at work who filled out a short survey every three days for three months.

The other one involved 300 people who were asked to recall workplace rudeness over the past three months.

Of those 300, “60 per cent had recalled an incident of incivility over the past six months.

“It’s definitely prevalent, nearly 100 per cent of workers have experienced it sometime in their lives,” said Hershovis.

What shocked her was the deep and lingering impact that rudeness has on those at its receiving end.

It resulted in symptoms like sleeplessness, headaches and stomach problems that would often last three days or more.

“People were still ruminating on things like job security along with health effects, still feeling embarrassment because they felt they didn’t belong,” said Hershovis.

“They took it home to their families and it affected their partners.”

It’s important for managers to regulate those situations, she said.

“Negative feedback is not the same thing as incivility, it’s how that feedback is delivered,” said Hershovis, adding supervisors can reinforce employees’ sense of worth.

“Managers really need to be attentive to how they treat employees and they can do a lot to counter-act that.”

The study was done through collaboration with the London School of Economics and Wilfrid Laurier University and published in the Journal of Organizational Behaviour.