Recently, "The Danger of Disrespect - Bullying, Harassment and the Bottom Line" caught my eye. This article was written by Erica Pinsky. For more interesting articles and info from Erica - you can follow her on Twitter at ericapinskyinc or visit her website.
Disrespect is all around us. Turn on a television or start exploring the Internet and see the numerous examples of disrespect towards teachers, authority figures and parents, women, men, minorities, ethnic and/ or political groups. It seems the disrespect exhibited in our society is spilling over into the workplace.
Disrespectful behavior in the workplace is destructive and dangerous. Erica's article was very insightful and describes how these behaviors affects a company's bottom line. It made me realize behaviors like harassment and bullying are becoming more common. It seems our society has yet to fully address this problem. As we witness more of these behaviors outside of the workplace - its important that individual employees understand their responsibility to prevent at work.
Erica explains integrating respect throughout an organization translates into improved performance, profits and lower incidents of disrespectful behavior. Training on respect, diversity and tolerance can help employees understand their role in fostering an organization culture which promotes respect. Employees are experiencing diversity more now than at any other time in history. Understanding, tolerance and patience can go a long way promoting respect among employees, teams, and corporate divisions. Learning conflict resolution strategies such seeking a win-win resolution or 'agree to disagree' - without resorting to the respectful behavior that can accompany organization conflict.
I've often heard people say 'Respect is not given, its earned'. After reading Erica's article - I'm not so sure I agree with this statement. What's wrong with giving respect to others if there is no reason not to? We give smiles and hugs freely. How many times have you told someone they had to earn a smile or a hug or any nice gesture for that matter? I believe we can and should give respect freely when there are no extenuating circumstances. Give a little respect today and see what a positive difference it makes.
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Anita, I love your statement, "What's wrong with giving respect to others if there is no reason not too?" That's a great take on the traditional quote.
I think the generational dynamics is interesting too. At Christmas we were with my Veteran Father & Mother In Laws. They said, "That's the problem with young people today; they don't respect their elders. They speak to us as though we are their friends!" Classic! But there's a lesson there for us - we should respect other people the way *they* want to be treated.
Thanks bringing us a thought-provoking post!
Anita-
Loved this article, and your take on "What's wrong with giving resoect to others" People should treat others, just as they would like to be treated. I am a little troubled why bullying, harrassment, and respect/disrespect are becoming trending topics, Is it a generational thing? hmmm. Well Done!
Shennee
Great, thought-provoking question and perspective...
We generally think about this from the recipient's pov... Nice job reminding givers of their responsibility in the respect equation!
Anita, I really appreciate you sharing my article and your perspective on it. I agree that disrespect within society is becoming the norm, to a great degree because as we transition to a multi-cultural society, we have failed to engage in discussion about how we live together and what our common values are. As one reader commented, in our grandparents day there were commonly understood rules, "common courtesies" if you will. Respect is universally embraced as an ethical value. Regardless of our differences, we all want to be treated with respect. Thanks for helping to start the discussion, as it is only by talking about this that we can start to transition to a values based society where respect becomes the norm, both at work and in life.