Incivility thrives where accountability doesn’t.
According to the Harvard Business Review:
🔹 98% of employees have reported experiencing uncivil behavior
🔹 62% of employees report being treated rudely at least once a month
📊 According to SHRM’s latest Civility Index, acts of incivility have increased 21.5% since 2024. See SHRM Q1 2025 Civility Index, March 2025.
⚠️ The index also shows that 71% of employees do not think their managers or supervisors did enough to address the incivility.
In our charged environment, differences of opinion are inevitable. What matters is how those differences are managed.
Incivility flourishes in cultures where how people feel does not matter.
Suppress the incidence of incivility in your company by embracing a culture of respect.
It is not enough to issue a policy requiring that all employees treat each other respectfully. Rather, respect must be a core value, a top‑down belief that informs every decision that affects employees.
✅ Design policies and practices with the employee experience in mind.
✅ Insist that managers model expected behavior.
✅ Train employees on how to communicate across differences.
✅ Immediately (but respectfully) address anyone, at any level, who acts inappropriately.
In an environment where people matter, where employees feel valued, respect is the norm.