WHAT’S AT STAKE

No matter what your job title is or what you are tasked to do at work, everyone should share a common goal to be respectful to one another.

WHAT’ S THE DANGER

• Raising Your Voice: While it is understandable that at times, you may raise your voice if you are excited or angry, it is important to minimize the amount of yelling you do each day. Yelling and raising your voice while utilizing a negative tone can ward off the connection between you and other coworkers.
• Berating Other Coworkers: Never berate or call another employee a derogative name, even if you were called a name or yelled at beforehand. Calling another coworker or employee a name is one way to quickly stir the tensions within a workplace. Additionally, name calling can and may be considered workplace harassment, which can result in suspensions or terminations. Always maintain a positive tone and attitude while you are working, especially when you are working with other coworkers.
• Being Overly-Critical: Working with individuals who are overly-critical and who belittle others is never fun, and it sure is not motivating. Avoid putting other coworkers down, belittling their efforts, or even patronizing them as they attempt to get their job done each day.
• Using Negative Body Language: Humans communicate mostly through the use of their bodies, followed by the language that they speak. With our bodies, we have the ability to show our emotions within seconds, even without saying a word. While at work, be sure to avoid negative body language such as extensively crossing your arms, sitting facing away from your coworkers, or even puckering your lips too tightly to dismiss a thought or comment a coworker has made.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

Respect, trust, and good communication go a long way in improving the safety at a worksite in a variety of ways.

1. Respect and good communication go hand in hand. When we feel comfortable going up to a coworker or bringing a problem to a supervisor, safety issues can be addressed quickly. In workplaces where there is a lack of respect many employees will adopt a mindset of “it is not my problem” when safety issues arise.
2. When we treat one another with respect, issues such as workplace violence are far less likely to occur. While many acts of violence in the workplace are committed by someone outside the company, many incidents occur between individuals within a workplace.
3. Employees who respect and trust one another can more easily focus on their work. When there is a lack of trust or respect, just seeing a coworkers that you view as negative can send your mind racing.

 CREATE A CULTURE OF RESPECT

1. Offer a verbal compliment

Try to give at least one verbal compliment a day. It could be to someone you see every day or even a stranger whose paths you cross only momentarily.

2. Address someone by name

It could be a co-worker you pass every day in the hall, the postal worker that delivers the mail or anyone else who you are trying to get the attention of. The act of recalling someone’s name demonstrates to others that you care enough about them to make the effort to do so.

3. Give your undivided attention

In our busy work culture, it is common to have our minds half focused on something else while simultaneously holding a conversation with someone. However, giving your undivided attention to someone is key to showing respect.

4. Show interest

When people respond to the question of what makes them feel respected is if someone shows an interest in not just their work, but also their family. When someone shows an interest in the things that are important to us, it boosts our self-esteem and feelings of respect.

5. Be on time

Demonstrate that you respect others’ time and develop ways to ensure that you will be on time when you say you will.

6. Do what you say you will

Until you start doing what you told yourself you’d do, you are not going to be able to keep your word to others either.

7. Seek someone else’s opinion

The next time you get stumped while working on a project, seek someone else’s opinion. This shows that person that you value their expertise enough to confide in them when you need help.

8. Give credit where credit is due

Every respectful leader knows how integral it is to give staff credit when good work is completed.

9. Recommend someone

Recommend them for a promotion, project, award, or a new position. Recommending someone will help to form a bond of mutual respect.

10. Give public recognition

The best kind of public recognition is often the unexpected praise that a supervisor or colleague gives in front of others.

FINAL WORD

Respect, good communication, and trust can be hard to fully quantify at times unlike certain safety statistics such as near misses or recordable injuries. A workforce that exhibits these positive attributes is more likely to enjoy being at work than their counterparts who work somewhere who do not experience the same type of work environment.