How to Address Workplace Incivility and Manage Conflicts in the Workplace

As a human resources professional, it’s your responsibility to keep your workplace free from drama. After all, no one wants to work in a negative culture. Negativity in the workplace can reflect poorly on your company and make your job harder – especially when it comes to hiring and retaining employees. 

That’s why it’s important that you keep things as civil as can be.

Unfortunately, managing so many different personalities can be difficult. It’s normal for disagreements to happen, but when workplace incivility rears its ugly head, your workplace can quickly become a toxic environment that’s hard to escape. 

But what is workplace incivility, what causes it, and how can you prevent it from happening? Let’s find out.

What Is Workplace Incivility?

Workplace incivility is what happens when two or more employees ignore normally accepted workplace protocols, such as respect, open communication, and accountability. Often, workplace incivility presents itself as rude and discourteous behavior. 

You may find that your employees are standing at odds with one another. They may act passive-aggressively as a result. However, workplace incivility should not be confused with harassment, bullying, and more severe forms of misconduct. 

For example, you might find that your employees are answering questions shortly and bluntly or making negative faces when speaking with coworkers they’re having issues with. Another form of incivility is for employees to ignore their coworkers’ input altogether.

Other ways workplace incivility might show up include: 

• Eye rolling
• Negative or sarcastic comments
• Checking emails while someone else is talking, thus not paying attention
• Belittling remarks 
• Hiding important information or keeping it to oneself
• Sabotage 
• Gossip

Workplace incivility can cause the following problems: 

• Decreased productivity 
• Higher turnover rates
• Increased absenteeism
• Lower employee morale 
• Poor team collaboration
• Loss of customer satisfaction
• Damage to the company’s reputation 

But what causes workplace incivility? A few things. Poor communication and misunderstandings can lead to frustration and conflicts, as can unclear expectations, passive leadership, and high workloads. If these conflicts linger without a resolution, they can become long-standing problems. 

Another cause of incivility in the workplace is politics. And as we head into election season, workplace incivility may be on the rise. According to our 2024 State of Online Recruiting Report, 17.1% of candidates are concerned about political discourse in the workplace impacting their job search or career growth in the coming year.

5 Ways to Manage Conflicts in the Workplace

If you’re looking for tips on how to manage conflicts in the workplace, here are five steps to follow. 

1. Set Clear Policies and Expectations

Your policies and expectations need to be clear and straightforward. There shouldn’t be any room for confusion or misinterpretation. Your policies should outline acceptable behavior, conflict resolution best practices, and consequences for incivility. 

Across the board, employees should treat one another with respect and courtesy at all times, and your employees should use professional and polite language across all forms of communication.

2. Provide Conflict Resolution Training

Conflicts happen – it’s a part of life, and it can enable growth and improvement if handled constructively. However, unresolved conflicts have a way of boiling over and affecting not just those involved but also everyone around them. So instead of trying to avoid conflicts altogether or pretending they don’t exist, you need to implement conflict resolution training at your company. 

Conflict resolution training can happen during the onboarding process or regularly throughout the year. Feel free to update your techniques as time goes on and you learn new and better ways of handling conflicts. Include things like communication skills and empathy exercises to help your employees understand different perspectives.

3. Build a Positive Work Culture

Nobody wants to come to work and be subjected to a negative environment. It can feel like a daily struggle, draining your motivation and enthusiasm. When dealing with a negative work environment, you may notice that your employees feel stressed and anxious. You might get these feelings, too. It can affect both your personal well-being and your professional performance. You may even find that your employees no longer want to show up to the job. 

If you want to prevent this from happening, you need to work on building a positive work culture. You can do so by promoting open communication and psychological safety, recognizing and rewarding employees for their hard work and achievements, and supporting their work-life balance. Other ways include hiring for emotional intelligence and keeping in mind the best soft skills to look for when hiring, which include collaboration and communication.

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4. Address Issues Promptly

Instead of letting issues fester, you should work to address them as soon as they pop up. If there’s an argument between two employees, do your best to remain neutral and listen to both sides. You definitely don’t want to show favoritism, as that can make conflicts worse, and you want to be as fair as possible in helping your employees come to a resolution. Help facilitate a constructive conversation between the parties involved and help them work toward a mutually acceptable solution. 

You’re not done yet, though. It’s important that you follow up with all parties involved to make sure that the issue has been fully resolved and there’s no remaining tension. 

5. Lead by Example

You’re the leader, so you should lead by example to improve your relationships with your employees. Take the conflict resolution training yourself, address any issues you have with your coworkers immediately, work on your own team-building skills, follow the policies and expectations of your company, and put in the work to build and maintain a positive work culture. 

Above all else, support any engagement from your employees. Your employees are looking up to you and will follow your behavior. Lead by example and set the standard for your whole team. 

Navigating Workplace Challenges 

Doing your best to avoid and squash workplace incivility before it becomes a long-standing issue will keep your employees happy, keep your company afloat, and make your job that much easier. 

If you’re looking for more ways to make your workplace the best it can be, check out iHire’s employer resources. Our guides will give you insight and tips on how to improve your workplace and your employees’ satisfaction.