With growing dissent and increased violence in the workplace, anti-bullying measures are all the rage in companies big and small and with good reason! According to a Zogby poll in August, 34% percent of workers admitted to being bullied on the job. What Is Bullying in the Workplace? A Schoolyard Phenomenon Haunts the Workplace is an article by Valerie Cade, one of the experts featured, we recently added to our website. Have you been bullied in the workplace?

What would your city look like if it instituted a Respectful Workplace Resolution? Well, that is exactly what the Santa Fe City Council recently proposed as a preventive measure against escalating incidents of workplace violence and abuse.  According to the member of city council who proposed the resolution, she sees the measure not only as a health and wellness issue but also a “fiscal imperative.” If this resolution passes, it will be the first of its kind in the nation. Such resolutions have been adopted by organizations but never by [...]

Not too long ago I came across a blog post – My Passion for Great Workplaces Comes from Hellish Boss Experience – that resonated with me. Kevin Kennemer of the People Group, LLC wrote a deeply personal account about how he got into the business of championing great workplaces. It got me to thinking about my own story, and how I ended up promoting respectful workplaces.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

One danger of not understanding our own feelings is attributing them to others. According to Encyclopedia Britannica: Projection is a form of defense in which unwanted feelings are displaced onto another person, where they then appear as a threat from the external world. A common form of projection occurs when an individual, threatened by his own angry feelings, accuses another of harboring hostile thoughts. I saw this definition play out at work, yesterday. My boss, Jan, asked Kathy about a recent sales call. I watched as my colleague’s face turned [...]

Did you know that Random Acts of Kindness Week officially kicked off on Monday? This annual event, sponsored by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, is intended to inspire kindness with a “pay it forward” mentality. In today’s society, and especially workplace culture, kindness, it seems, has fallen by the way side. People simply believe they don’t have the time, money, or energy to extend even a small amount of kindness, but times like these are exactly when we need a friendly smile or an unsolicited compliment the most. Studies have shown [...]

October 18 was Persons Day in Canada. It marks the date when women were recognized as persons under Canadian law. A lot has changed for Canadian and American women in the past eighty years. Our rights and our ability to access those rights have increased. The question is, have our workplaces adjusted to reflect those changes? According to the recently released Shriver Report, the answer to that question is a resounding no. The report, authored by First Lady of California Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, documents the fact [...]

When I moved from working in the theatre to working in an office, I was astounded by the difference in attitudes and norms. My new organization and the workplaces of my clients seemed filled with unhappiness and dysfunction. Could I use my theatre training to help transform the malaise I saw everywhere? While my clients constantly sought to improve their competitive advantage, I was amazed to see that they often ignored the most glaring personnel challenges. Companies were spending thousands of dollars streamlining their processes through Six Sigma or Lean [...]