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Helpful Hints on Getting Better Respect in the Workplace
Sometimes, an inhospitable work atmosphere can ruin the best job in the world. If you work in an office where
people don’t respect each other and you feel undervalued and taken advantage of, then you are likely to give up and
move on--no matter how much you love the work. When people work closely together, disagreements and problems are
bound to arise from time to time. There are, however, ways you can get more respect in the workplace, so you don’t
have to dread heading to the office every morning.
As the old adage goes, you have to give respect to get respect. Are you doing everything you can to treat your
co-workers with dignity and respect? Put another way, are you doing everything you can to avoid annoying everyone
in the office? There are a lots of little ways you can make the day more pleasant for everyone, including showing
up on time for work and for in-house meetings, not talking too loudly on the phone, keeping your personal cell
phone ringtone on silent or vibrate, and cleaning up when you use the common break rooms and kitchen area. Things
like spamming everyone in the office with incessant “funny” emails, sending political or religious emails (or
challenging everyone on political or religious issues), or invading privacy by looking at someone else’s emails,
phone messages, or mail are also not a good idea in the office setting.
Then there are the big ones – you should never take credit for someone else’s work, talk behind people’s backs,
lie, steal from other’s desks (even if it is just a post-it note or white-out), or have a general bad argumentative
attitude. If you are doing anything of these things, trying to correct your own behavior is the first step to
earning a little more respect in the workplace.
What happens if you are doing everything you can and you still aren’t getting the respect you feel you deserve in
the office? How you handle things may partly depend on who is showing you the disrespect. Are your subordinates
treating you like you’re not the boss? In this case, having a little one on one conversation might do the trick. It
doesn’t have to confrontational. You can simply point out that you are getting the impression that they may be
having a little trouble with your leadership style and offer them a chance to raise any problems. If they bring up
a legitimate problem, then there is something you can work on to make things go smoother in the future. If they
can’t point to any one thing, let them know politely, but firmly, what you will need from them going forward in
terms of respect. And then, stick to it and hold them accountable for their behavior.
If your boss is not respecting you, things can get a little trickier. If your boss has a bad attitude, being pulled
up on it by his subordinates is probably not going to do much to improve it. Your company may have a grievance
policy in place to deal with issues like this, and it is best to go down this path when dealing with a boss with a
respect issue.
There are some respect issues in the work place that can’t be resolved with the softly, softly approach. If you are
being persecuted on the basis of your gender, your race, your disability, or your sexual preference, you have a
right to demand a stop to that at once. If the abuse is coming from your co-workers, go straight to your boss. If
your boss is unresponsive, or if your boss is the offender, go right over their head, and keep going until you get
some satisfaction.
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