Civility and Respect in the Workplace
Civility and respect are not just nice to have at work: they’re essential.
Establishing civility and respect within the workplace builds trust, psychological safety, and a culture where people actually want to show up, do good work, and grow their career where they are. Yet in many organizations these foundational values are overlooked in favor of productivity, speed, or surface-level harmony.
The result? Miscommunication, burnout, disengagement, and more, all of which chip away at the morale and effectiveness of your team.
Today we’ll review what civility and respect truly look like in action, why they matter more than ever, and how to create a workplace culture where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued.
What Is Workplace Civility, Really?
And no, it’s not just being nice.
When it comes to civility and respect at work, it goes a lot deeper than holding the door open or remembering someone’s birthday. Instead, it’s taking consistent, intentional actions and steps to communicate to your colleagues that they are seen, respected, valued, and appreciated.
How can we do that though? Well, civility shows up in the little things we do—for example, if we’re in a meeting and someone offers up an idea we disagree with or that won’t work, we’d aim to give constructive, deliberate feedback. We might even offer reasons that their idea may not work or ways to incorporate it into future projects or alter it in a way that makes it fit within the current scope of our work.
What else could we do?
Say good morning (even in Slack!)
Let people finish speaking before you jump in
Respect people’s time when it comes to meetings
Ask: “How can I support you?” if your coworker is overwhelmed
Acknowledge the contributions of others, especially quieter employees
All of these things help build trust and effective forms of communication with your coworkers. In turn, we also embed psychological safety into the workplace and organization as a whole by establishing empathy in all our interactions.
Day by day, interaction by interaction, respect and civility are built, improved upon, and grown between individuals.
Civility, Respect, and Discomfort
While civility and respect are crucial to the workplace, it's important to continuously work towards them. However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be moments of discomfort, especially when it’s something new for your employees and organization.
It’s possible to respectfully challenge ideas, express disagreement, or speak to someone about an issue without being rude or dismissive.
Here, we can demonstrate the difference between being “nice” and being “respectful”.
Nice = Smooth things over, but may not fully acknowledge issues
Respectful = Demonstrates honesty and safety
Civility, Respect, and Our Actions
Ultimately, civility isn’t just about what we say, but also about what our actions say about us.
For example, the following actions are, without a doubt, not civil or respectful:
Rolling their eyes
Making passive-aggressive comments
Sighing loudly or making dramatic gestures
Sarcasm and condensation
Actions like these tend to erode trust over time, and create a hostile environment for workers.
Additionally, if you witness these kinds of actions and don’t do anything about it, you could potentially contribute to an overall unpleasant and unprofessional situation for your coworkers. That doesn’t mean handling every upset personally, but rather taking it to the appropriate department or individual to be handled with care.
Remember…when civility is present, people feel heard, valued, and empowered to bring their whole selves to work. When it’s missing, even the most talented teams can start to fray.
What is Respect?
Respect is not just about politeness or being nice either. Instead, when we talk about workplace respect we’re talking about recognizing the value and the dignity of people you work with.
When we show up for people, when we give them space to speak, when we listen with intention…we are showing them respect.
It’s about how we treat others, ultimately—and even moreso, it’s about how we treat others when no one is watching. True respect therefore goes beyond titles and tenure and everything in between. It’s about creating space to be heard, acknowledged, and treated equitably.
In that way, showing respect at work is simply the minimum for not only a civil workspace, but for an overall healthier set of employees.
Why are Respect and Inclusion in the Workplace so Important?
The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) has been analyzing the patterns of civility and incivility within the workplace for years. And, unfortunately, according to their data things have gotten a lot worse in the past few years. They state:
Since Q3 2024, nearly 74% of U.S. workers report witnesses and experiencing acts of incivility in the months prior.
Included within this list are interruptions, rudeness, and more.
More recently, 4 in 5 workers have reported seeing and experiencing poor treatment, often due to political differences.
Workers also say that 86% of incivility is caused by leaders’ behaviour—and they don’t just mean within the workplace, but their communities as a whole.
Given these facts, you can see that incivility has become a major problem for workers. And it doesn’t stop there: when workers rate their workplace as uncivil, they are three times more likely to say they are unsatisfied with their jobs and twice as likely to say they want to leave their jobs within the next year.
That’s definitely a problem. The more employees are eager to leave their jobs and seek psychological safety elsewhere, which leads to increased costs due to the process of putting out new job postings, reviewing an influx of resumes, interviewing candidate after candidate, onboarding, and more.
Those costs add up. And they add up fast.
The Business Case of Civility
While it’s tempting to think of workplace civility and respect as simple or even soft skills, in reality they form the foundation to a healthy, high-performing workplace When respect and civility are part of the culture, teams get along, can disagree without sewing discontent, and thrive overall.
1. Psychological Safety = Higher Innovation
Teams that feel safe to speak up without fear or ridicule are more likely to share ideas, admit mistakes, and collaborate without strife.
2. Civility = Retention
When employees are respected, they are more engaged and satisfied, which leads to being twice as likely to stay in their current role.
3. Respect Improves Collaboration
When employees feel respected regardless of their background, position, and ability, they find it easier to work with their colleagues, trust leadership, and contribute positively to team culture.
How to Foster Workplace Civility and Respect
Creating a culture of inclusion and respect at work doesn’t happen without intention.
Whether you’re leading a large or small team, contributing as a colleague, or working with a client, there are plenty of small ways to build a culture where civility and respect are the norm, not the exception.
But how do you get started?
✅ Model the Behavior You Want to See
People tend to mirror behaviour. Creating policies to work against toxic work cultures are important, but more important is the follow through: show up on time, listen fully and intentionally, acknowledge the contributions of others, and own your mistakes.
When you show that you are comfortable doing so, others will follow.
🗣️ Encourage Open, Respectful Communication
Have you ever felt uncomfortable asking questions or presenting your ideas out of fear of repercussions? Or maybe you knew your words wouldn’t lead anywhere, so you didn’t bother.
Situations like these are deeply uncomfortable, and tend to stick out in our mind. It’s important to encourage and lead respectful discussions and disagreements, as well as leaving space for ideas and questions—without fear of ridicule or shutdown.
This helps build trust and overall psychological safety amongst employees.
🧰 Offer Training and Tools
It’s important to understand that learning civility and respect in the workplace is not something we instinctively know, but rather something we learn. In that respect, it’s important to offer opportunities to educate employees on emotional intelligence, inclusive communication, and navigating workplace conflicts.
For example, hosting a Lunch & Learn can be a great way to spark positive change through discussion and open dialogue.
🔄 Respond, Don’t React
Take a breath before hitting “reply all.” Reflect before responding in meetings. Civility often lives in the 2-second pause between reaction and intention.
Conflicts are going to happen; in fact, they can even be a good thing, as they give us room to learn, adapt, and work with others. However, this is entirely dependent on how conflict resolution is managed. With that in mind, when conflict inevitably arrives it’s important to take a breath before responding to disagreements (or hitting the dangerous “reply all” button!).
Reflect before responding. Civility often lives in the pauses between reaction and intention.
💬 Create Feedback Loops
As you move through towards inclusivity, there will be a lot of change, both good and bad, both forward and backward—that’s simply part of the journey towards a positive work culture, and the process of learning in general.
To help ensure you don’t experience huge setbacks, shift goals as needed, and meet the expectations of employees, invite honest feedback on how they experience the culture you’ve cultivated. Anonymous surveys, check-ins, or regular “temperature checks” can highlight patterns you might miss.
Start Small, Speak Up, Stay Kind
Workplace civility and respect are not about one-time trainings or feel-good posters in the break room. They’re daily practices, and small but powerful ways of saying: You matter here.
Organizations that invest in these values, the payoff is clear. You get stronger teams, better communication, and a culture of inclusion where innovation thrives. So, the next time you’re tempted to brush off that awkward interaction or let a dismissive comment slide, pause and ask:
What would a culture of civility do here?
