Here at RespectfulWorkplace.com we often receive inquiries from managers requesting sensitivity training for their employees. Typically, there has been an ‘incident’ – someone has called someone else a derogatory name or otherwise been disrespectful toward other employees. In some cases, this leads to an EEOC investigation and, possibly, required intervention. At this point, a manager, HR Director, or C-level staff member seeks out a solution – possibly some form of ‘sensitivity training’ to remedy the situation. But is sensitivity training really what your organization needs? I did some quick research [...]

The first step is to allow myself to feel my emotions and examine them without judgment. I must trust that, while behavior can be labeled good or bad–all feelings are valid and acceptable. This is crucial since most of us learn, at a very early age, to judge emotions as good or bad. Then we dissociate from the “bad” emotions. We push them out of our conscious awareness and lose sight of our emotional impact on others. The next step is even more difficult–to determine if my emotional “data” reflects [...]

Laughter and work may seem like an oxymoron. Work is often associated with words like serious, dignified, and composed while laughter is associated with foolishness or goofing off. Granted, even good things can be bad if taken to extreme.  Laughter that is offensive or disrespectful is never funny or appropriate. However, laughter and work do not have to be incompatible, and work, without laughter is sad. Consider the positive effects of laughter. Laughter is a cheap cure for the office blahs and can do much to create a more positive environment. It has [...]

Chapter 2 of my book Road to Respect is entitled “Do You Know Where Your Culture Is?” I have no doubt that knowing the answer to that question is critical for success in business today. Workplace culture is the personality of an organization. It is the answer you get when you ask an employee, “So what’s it like to work around here?” Think about that for a minute. What would you want your employees to say? How would you like them to describe your workplace? Think about how it might [...]

I was recently playing a friendly round of golf with a gentleman for whom I have great respect for. We discuss my writing from time to time and, since he has a genuine interest in proper etiquette and protocol, he suggested a topic. In golf, we often praise others by saying, “good shot” or something equivalent. In my case, I’m happy to see the ball advancing in a forward direction, so “well, it’s getting closer” is better than “you’re still far away.” But the topic of praise and the appropriate [...]

In the first part of our interview with Lynn Taylor, author of Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant™ – TOT: How to Manage Childish Behavior and Thrive in Your Job (John Wiley & Sons), she offered us insights into managing up, TOT-proofing your organization and how all of this can also benefit bosses. Below, Lynn shares more advice for dealing with childish bosses and concludes with an inspiring successful managing up scenario. RW: In your book, you mention creating a “humanized workplace.” Could you please describe for our readers what that [...]

Last year I connected with workplace expert Lynn Taylor over our shared passion for respectful workplaces. Taylor is the author of the highly acclaimed book, Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant™ – TOT: How to Manage Childish Behavior and Thrive in Your Job (John Wiley & Sons), which I recently had the opportunity to read. Based on extensive interviews and research, Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant™ is not your typical boring business book. Instead, it is extremely engaging and relatable for anyone who has ever had a job – likely most [...]

“I’ve learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.” -Martha (Mrs. George) Washington Are some people just born optimistic—the old nature/nurture question?  How do I separate a healthy pessimism (Can I comfortably afford this car—maybe not….) from the soul-crushing negativity that drove me away from my last boss? Maybe you’ve wondered about these questions too in your professional or personal life. The good news is that there’s a rapidly growing body of knowledge emerging in the last [...]

Bringing another perspective to respect in the workplace, Nadia Nassif is a tireless advocate of language training and language learning. She has spent almost a decade teaching and coaching in Japan and the U.S. and is now the Principal and Principal Trainer with Springboards Language Training and Consulting, LLC. Don’t Wait Until Reviews for Language Based Feedback If performance measurement were straightforward, there would no longer be a need to showcase the discussion year after year at the Society for Human Resource Management conferences. Even among human resource professionals there [...]

Do you ever feel like you don’t have the time or energy to be available to others as often  as you would like to be? It happens to me more often than I care to think about. I find that time flies by so fast sometimes that it doesn’t seem like there’s enough time to accomplish what I have set out to do each day. Often I am left with little time for myself or anyone else. Is it poor time management, good old fashioned stress, or just life moving [...]