Workplace Civility. Can we get to a place where people feel valued?

What the heck is going on in the workplace these days? Has the idea of respect for people gone the way of shoulder pads in suits?

Here are a few examples of workplace behavior that’s wrong on so many levels.

Ghosting people who interview with your company. Someone you’re interested in speaking with to see if they’re the right fit for your company gives up their time to meet with you. Throughout the interview, you send signals indicating that you want to continue this conversation. In some situations, you tell this person you’ll be back in touch to either schedule an interview or to make an offer.

A week or more goes by, and the candidate doesn’t hear back from you, so they follow up. No response from you. They follow up again and again and again, and still no reply.

Now, imagine if this were to happen to you. How would you feel? What would your opinion be of the company you interviewed with? Would you still be keen on buying their products or using their services? Would you tell others how poorly this organization is run?

It takes less than one minute to email someone that an offer won’t be coming their way. So, what’s your problem? Why aren’t you able to do this? And please don’t tell me you don’t have time to email the candidates you speak with. We both know this is merely an excuse for rude behavior.

Performance and salary reviews that are months overdue. Many people are living paycheck to paycheck and rely on their annual performance and salary reviews to keep their heads above water. Timely performance and salary reviews may not matter to you, but this certainly matters to your employees.

You’ve got 364 days to prepare someone’s annual review, which means there’s no excuse for a performance review to be late.

Here are some tips to help you prepare for someone’s review (or your review) all year long. Start a performance file for each of your employees (or yourself). When you catch them doing something right (or terribly long), write a note and place it in the file. Ask your employees to submit a performance self-evaluation a month before their review date. This approach will help to ensure you haven’t missed items that should be included in someone’s review.

The matter of politics. There’s a time and place for discussing politics, which is why the workplace should be off-limits. Employees should have a safe space when they enter their workplaces, and they shouldn’t have to deal with someone’s rants about a particular political leader. Read the room if you or your people feel compelled to discuss politics at work. Have these conversations on your own time and outside the office.

Let’s commit to doing better in terms of civility in the workplace. Your employees and perspective team members will thank you for doing so.