Rudeness at work: common and costlyANN ARBOR—Rudeness and bad manners have become alarmingly common in the American work-place, according to a University of Michigan researcher who found that 71 percent of workers surveyed have been insulted, demeaned, ignored, or otherwise treated discourteously by their co-workers and superiors.

The study, conducted by U-M psychologist Lilia M. Cortina, is one of the first to identify both the prevalence and the impact of work-place incivility. It also analyzes the emotional and social costs of either speaking up or keeping silent about boorish, impolite behavior.

Employees who experience uncivil treatment report lower job satisfaction, the study shows. They are also more likely to withdraw from their jobs by being tardy repeatedly, taking unnecessary sick days, or simply not working very hard.

“When employees speak up about rudeness from their superiors, they experience both social and professional retaliation,” says Cortina, who presented the study findings on the dangers of speaking out on June 17 in Toronto at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society. Cortina is affiliated with the U-M Institute for Research on Women and Gender.

“When they are silent, they experience a higher level of psychological problems, including depression and anxiety. So there’s a real dilemma about how to respond.” For the study, Cortina and colleagues Vicki Magley of DePaul University, Jill Williams and Regina Langhout of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign surveyed 1,100 employees of a large federal court system, which funded the study. Participants were mainly white females with at least some college, and were employed in jobs ranging from mail clerks and secretaries to data analysts, attorneys and unit heads.

“This work-place is representative of many U.S. organizations with similar gender ratios and power structures,” notes Cortina. “Women are in the numerical majority, while men dominate at the top of the structure.”

In an article published earlier this year in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Cortina and colleagues reported that 71 percent of employees had some experience with work-place incivility in the previous five years. About 40 percent said they had experienced rude or uncivil treatment once or twice, 25 percent experienced incivility sometimes, and 6 percent endured such behavior often.

“This kind of behavior is pervasive,” says Cortina. “Since we asked about rude treatment in the last five years, the incidence rate is, if anything, an underestimate. Also, we didn’t ask about rudeness from the public, delivery people, or others from outside the organization, just from co-workers and superiors.”

The researchers found that women were slightly more likely to be targets of incivility than were men, with sexually harassing comments often a part of the boorish, bad-mannered treatment women experienced. Unsurprisingly, the researchers found that the more powerful people in the organization were responsible for a disproportionate number of the incidents.

Cortina and Magley also analyzed what happened to employees who either spoke up against rude treatment or chose to keep silent, telling themselves to just ignore the rudeness or to forget about it. Speaking out included confiding in colleagues, to seek support and sympathy for rude treatment they had received, and directly confronting the rude person, to demand an apology or assurance that the behavior would stop. For a few employees, speaking out involved a complaint or grievance to the organization.

The impact of speaking out was strongly related to the social position of the target and the instigator, they found. When lower-status employees voiced opposition to incivility by higher-status colleagues, both professional and social retaliation were likely. Professional retaliation included denial of promotions or training opportunities, unfair discipline, and less desirable job duties. Social retaliation involved slights, ostracism, and gossip. When the social status of target and instigator were similar, objecting to rudeness was much less likely to trigger these negative consequences.

But Cortina and Magley found that the cost of keeping silent was also high. Those who said nothing did not experience professional or social retaliation, but they did report significantly more psychological and health complaints such as nervousness, sadness, or frequent minor illnesses.

“Given these patterns,” notes Cortina, “it’s clear that organizations need to establish climates that empower employees to speak up and ensure the safety of doing so.” Meanwhile, employees who are being treated rudely should be aware of the repercussions of speaking out as well as the costs of keeping silent. If it isn’t possible to confide in colleagues, Cortina says, consider talking with family and friends who don’t work in the same place.

Lilia M. CortinaAmerican Psychological SocietyVicki MagleyJournal of Occupational Health Psychology