Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/221514
Chuck Lauer 58 Why Workplace Incivility Isn't Just a Problem for HR By Chuck Lauer, Former Publisher of Modern Healthcare and Author, Public Speaker and Career Coach L ate last month Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau, Alaska, announced that its CEO, Christine Harff, had resigned just a year after taking the job. The president of the hospital board left little doubt that the parting was mutual, saying: "Juneau's community hospital was not a good fit for Ms. Harff." Her resignation came right after she was directed by the board to address allegations of a hostile work environment created by senior management officials. Hostile workplaces cost time, money and productivity, but that message doesn't seem to get through to the many organizations that seem to encourage competitive, tense and negative work environments. All of the articles and books that have been written about the benefits of treating employees well and empowering them to take risks and be creative in their work seem to have fallen on deaf ears. The old-fashioned way of dealing with employees was brought to light in a recent article in The Wall Street Journal entitled, "When Co-Workers Don't Play Nice." Too often, corporate leaders take the position of: "Look, these people are paid pretty well. They should be glad they have a job!" Or as Ray Dalio, CEO of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, is quoted in the Journal article as saying: "It is your job as a manager to get at truth and excellence, not make people happy." By the way, Mr. Dalio makes his comments in spite of the fact that more evidence has surfaced that positive workplaces not only increase productivity but profits as well. Hostile workplaces aren't some aberration in our society. We see a general decline in personal civility ranging from good manners such as holding doors for others to boorish behavior behind the wheel to cutting in line at stores to the craziness we witness at sporting events. Even at more civilized settings such as classical music concerts you see jerks on cell phones during the performance. And perhaps the best example is what we are witnessing in Congress today, when people seem to truly hate the representatives from the other party. Consensus seems to be outmoded in today's political climate. One major reason we see so much incivility in our society today is because people just do not understand the profound implications of not treating others with dignity and respect. For instance, some 96 percent of workers say they have experienced uncivil behavior in the workplace, while 98 percent say they have witnessed that behavior. Those figures come from an ongoing study by Georgetown University and the Thunderbird School of Global Management of nearly 3,000 participants. In a 2011 study, 50 percent of workers felt they were treated rudely at least once a week. Dish Network Corp., which has for two years has had the dubious distinction of being No. 1 on the financial news website 24/7 Wall St.'s list of "America's Worst Companies to Work For," is trying harder to be an enlightened employer. Chief Executive Joseph Clayton claims he has been pushing to lighten the firm's mood at the firm's Denver office. That means that summertime concerts for their employees and families are now in vogue and that the company no longer requires workers to scan in by fingerprint and gives managers more discretion to allow a parent to leave work to take a child to preschool. According to the Journal, no company comes as close to treating workers with respect and dignity than Southwest Airlines Co. It has an entire de- Sign Up Today! Hospital CFO Report Concise, practical information for hospital CFOs and financial leadership Current news, analysis and best practices on hospital revenue cycle issues, including coding, billing and collections, the transition to ICD-10 and Recovery Audit Contractors To sign up for the FREE E-Weekly, visit www.BeckersHospitalReview.com or call (800) 417-2035 partment devoted to sending employees supportive notes when a family member is ill or congratulations when they have a baby. Ellen Torbert, the company's vice president of diversity and inclusion, states: "We have people here who remember our birthdays when our family members don't." And what is the payoff of all this warm and fuzzy treatment of employees? Southwest for years has recorded customer service scores second to none in the airline industry. It's also the one airline that has stayed profitable for the last decade when others were either losing money or right on the edge of doing so. It is one of the great success stories of how to treat employees well and be successful in a dog-eat-dog industry. Christine Porath, who studies incivility at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, says that workers in toxic environments have difficulty concentrating and processing information. They dial back their work and more than likely lash out at fellow employees. Think of a healthcare institution where this kind of thing goes on, and what is the result? Slipshod attention to vital details that leads to medical errors and preventable deaths. Luckily, most healthcare executives appear to be more enlightened than their counterparts in other industries and truly care about their people and the patients they serve. For example, at Louisiana's Ochsner Health System, employees are required to follow the "10/5 rule," making eye contact with anyone within 10 feet and greeting anyone within five feet. There is also a "no venting" rule; a nurse upset about a missing chart or a doctor having difficulty with the computer system has to retreat to a "safe zone" such as a private nursing-manager's office to express frustration. Still, the situation at Juneau's Bartlett Regional shows that nothing should be taken for granted, especially when the industry you are talking about is healthcare and people's lives are at stake. n