Catherine Mattice's Blog, page 44
September 11, 2013
Perfect Email Etiquette: Tips on How to Improve
Opening an email can be like opening Pandora’s box. Poor grammar, incorrectly spelled words, and bad taste is all it takes to write a horrid email. Luckily, it’s not hard to have near perfect email etiquette.
Having Perfect Email Etiquette
Briefly introduce yourself. Especially if you are not sure the person receiving the email will know who you are. This is not to say that you need a biography of yourself, but let the intended recipient know who you are and why you are reaching out to them.
Avoid using exclamation points. In a business email, the maximum number of exclamation points you can use is one. Use exclamation points sparingly unless you want to come off as looking unprofessional.
No emoticons, jargon, or slang. When business people use word shortcuts like, “4 u” (“for you”), it has the potential to make you look less than professional. If you wouldn’t write this on a business correspondence, you shouldn’t be doing this in an email as well.
Don’t have a subject line that looks like spam. Avoid having a subject line that are in all caps or all lower case. Putting a URL on the subject headline will make it look like spam.
Watch out for the “reply all” button. Before hitting “reply all,” think about whether it is appropriate for everyone on the e-mail chain to know.
Include a signature. You don’t want someone searching for a way to get in contact with you. This is especially true if your full name isn’t on the company email. Include any social media information (if any are applicable), your full name, and the company.
In the end, your email is a reflection of who you are. If your emails are carelessly written and disorganized, it could be assumed that you, as a person, are careless and disorganized. In the business world, other people’s perception of who you are is related to your success.
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August 27, 2013
Workplace Bullying Happens on Colleges & Universities, Too
It’s clear that workplace bullies lack emotional maturity. They are known for being uncomfortable, threatening, or just plain intolerable. Workplace bullies frequently play favorites, and ignore others in return. With all of these behaviors and actions, its clear that workplace bullying will end up making your office or work environment extremely stressful, overwhelming, and unproductive.
How’s this for a troublesome statistic: sixty-four percent of those targeted by a workplace bully end up losing or quitting their job. Additionally, bullying costs employers around $250 million annually due to lower productivity, staff retraining, healthcare, and litigation. There is nothing good – economically or otherwise – about workplace bullying. This is an estimate based on cases discussed at the ACUHO-I annual conference.
Good news: workplace bullying CAN be stopped.
There are various tactics an employee can take to stop a workplace bully. Unfortunately, one solution will not solve all workplace bullying issues and combining multiple tactics is the best solution for dealing with workplace bullies.
IGNORE
Ignoring the bully may sound like its impossible, but its doable and necessary. Engaging the bully empowers and energizes them, with the bully thinking they’ve “got to you.” Some good ways to ignore the bully: walking away, changing the subject, or disregarding them altogether. The bully may get bored and simply give up.
CONFRONT
Maybe the bully is not aware they actually are a bully. You might just have to call them out on their bullying behavior. Remember to always speak to the bully in private, so they don’t feel embarrassed or defensive. Never say “you.” Avoid sounding like you are blaming the bully.
PROVE YOURSELF
Prove yourself through your work, and make sure your work is exceptional. Be committed to your organization, and show it clearly. There’s a chance the bully may look at you from a different, positive light. He or she may even look to you, as a leader.
DOCUMENT
Keep a record or log, noting when you are bullied, how it happened, and how you responded. Also, take note of possible witnesses, as they may be needed to present a case against the bully later. Better to be safe than sorry.
REPORT
It may be necessary to report bullying incidents to your Human Resources department. This is where your record or log of bullying occurrences becomes key. HR will better know how to respond based on the information in your records. Your HR department or manager can even issue an anti-bullying policy, or re-iterate and distribute it if one already exists.
STAY POSITIVE
Workplace bullying can be quite the negative experience. But don’t let it drain you of a positive attitude, which is essential for moving forward and succeeding. Don’t blame yourself as a target – the bully is insecure. As the saying goes, “keep calm and carry on.”
Source: HigherEd Jobs
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August 12, 2013
The Office Bully May Be On His Way Out – The Fiscal Times
Could the office bully one day become a horror and inconvenience of the past? It’s definitely possible. Catherine Mattice of Civility Partners recently spoke to The Fiscal Times regarding various things bullying victims can do to reclaim control and build the confidence needed to overcome office bullying challenges.
What Can Victims Do?
“Targets of bullying do have choices, says Catherine Mattice, author of a book on stopping bullies and founder of Civility Partners, which trains workers and supervisors on building a positive workplace. First they need to reframe the situation and start thinking of it as a challenge they can get past. “You have to recognize that you’re empowered,” says Mattice.”
Catherine also discusses setting up support systems with loved ones, and the importance of staying away from bringing co-workers into the fray. That could have adverse consequences and alienate you further.
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April 21, 2013
A Middle School Success Story
A Middle School Success Story Brought to You by Civility Partners & No Bully
Civility Partners is in the process of partnering with San Francisco-based No Bully. Their mission is to “bring innovative, sustainable solutions to bullying, harassment and violence in schools.” No Bully and Civility Partners make great partners because both organizations believe that a focus on eradicating bullying, or a no tolerance policy, is not the way to make effective change. Instead, both organizations help their clients build a safe and respectful culture. As No Bully puts it, “We envision schools where kindness triumphs over prejudice and intolerance.”
Here is their most recent success story - any organization, whether a school or business, can take a lesson from this.
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Middle School Story of Success
Civility Partners is in the process of partnering with San Francisco-based No Bully, whose “mission is to bring innovative, sustainable solutions to bullying, harassment and violence in schools.” No Bully and Civility Partners make great partners because both organizations believe that a focus on eradicating bullying, or a no tolerance policy, is not the way to make effective change. Instead, both organizations help their clients build a safe and respectful culture. As No Bully puts it, “We envision schools where kindness triumphs over prejudice and intolerance.”
Here is their most recent success story - any organization, whether a school or business, can take a lesson from this.
Kent Middle School in Marin County, California enrolls 530 students in 5th through 8th grade.
“We began our No Bully partnership in 2008″ says Skip Kniesche, Principal. “In the years previous, a variety of programs had been implemented at Kent around bully prevention, student discipline and conflict resolution, but there was little continuity to these efforts.
“No Bully began by coaching our leadership team how to articulate a Social Vision for our school. We knew we wanted to maintain our campus as a gathering place for the parents and children of the Kentfield community. Our social vision is for collegiality between staff members who look forward to coming to work; and to be a place where students learn to be good citizens by making good choices, respecting everyone on campus, and giving back to the community at large.
Everything we have done since has been grounded in making this vision a reality. With No Bully’s help we developed CODE RED as a core set of social and emotional skills that our middle school students need to learn if they are to live up to this vision.
R esponsibility: take responsibility for yourself
E mpathy: show awareness and care for others
D ifferences: value differences in others and dare to be different.
We use a broad range of programs to teach empathy and responsibility and to paint a picture of what it feels like to be different. CODE RED has become the rationale behind all the social and emotional programs that we bring in or teach. The question No Bully guided us to ask was this: how effective is each organization or curriculum that we were using in teaching our students the CODE RED skills. Did we need to adapt it to meet CODE RED, or did we need to let this program go?
No Bully also trained our teachers and staff in the No Bully System® for recognizing and responding to bullying when it occurs. In my fifteen years of being an administrator, Solution Team is the only thing I’ve found that consistently stops student bullying. Previously, we were not finding success with our disciplinary actions. Telling a kid, ‘Don’t be mean’ or having them stay after school didn’t have a lasting impact. With Solution Teams® we are able to resolve incidents in nearly every case.
There was one student in particular that benefited from Solution Teams. She had been bullied throughout middle school for being different for her “Goth” clothing. She was afraid to name the kids who were harassing her, and the bullies were careful not to do it under the teachers’ watch. In 8th grade, after three years of suffering, we convinced her to let us try a Solution Team approach and it was wildly successful. She left middle school feeling good about herself and better equipped to handle high school.
Changing the culture of a school environment is not something that happens fast or easily. Since putting CODE RED in place, we have seen a significant reduction in suspensions. Survey results show that over the past five years, there was a 15% increase in the number of students reporting that they feel ‘safe’ or ‘very safe’ at school, and 20-30% more students reported zero incidents of mean rumors or being made fun of. Students know that bullying behavior will simply not be tolerated, but even beyond that, they have developed social and emotional skills to handle situations to keep from being a bully or a target. These are skills that will serve them well beyond middle school.
We recently were awarded the title of being a California Distinguished School. One of our Signature Practices was Social and Emotional Learning and Code RED. Our partnership with No Bully is a big part of our success in this area.
Link to full story: http://www.nobully.com/stories-change/kent-middle-school
February 11, 2013
Cyberbullying in the Workplace: Facebook Friend Your Workmates?
The term “cyberbullying,” usually implies mean-spirited individuals using social media and the internet to intimidate others.
Cyberbullying in the Workplace: Menacing numbers
“The question of whether to Facebook friend our co-workers always arises in the workplace. Should we post photos from drunken work parties? It was reported that 11 percent of worldwide respondents have experienced some sort of embarrassment from photos or videos. These images are events at work that ended up in different social media platforms.”
No matter what company you work for, you should keep a set of rules for yourself. Apply these rules to whatever company you work for in order to set clear boundaries for yourself.
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Cyberbullying in the Office: The Politics of Friending Your Workmates
When we hear the term “cyberbullying,” many of us immediately think of mean-spirited kids using social media to intimidate other children.
But bullying survives long into adulthood and has migrated to the workplace, according to the latest installment of AVGs Digital Diaries series: Digital Work Life.
Digital Work Life examines the intersection – or rather collision – of social media and office politics. We found that most offices have a long way to go when it comes to creating awareness and educating their employees or putting guidance or policies in place about what’s acceptable to share on personal and corporate profiles. To set the stage, the study of 4,000 adults from 10 countries across the globe, found that more than half of the respondents believe social media has eroded their privacy in the workplace.
Menacing numbers
Should we be Facebook friends with our colleagues? Should we post photos from drunken work parties? In fact 11 percent of worldwide respondents have experienced embarrassment from photos or videos from a work event that have been uploaded to social media.
And if it’s a work event, who has the authority to decide whether photos can appear on a corporate Facebook page?
What strikes me about our Digital Work Life findings is just how blurred the lines have become for most people and just how conflicting our workplaces can be. For example, 15 percent of US workers have been the victim of a social media insult from a colleague.
Nearly one in 10 of worldwide respondents has had a manager use information gleaned from social media against them or a colleague.
What’s more, nearly a third of worldwide respondents accepted colleagues’ social media requests even though they did not want to.
Boundary time for Employers
When it comes to social media at work, there are a number of different forces at play and employers of all sizes should educate employees about social media etiquette. It is important for employers to create clarity around the responsibilities and accountability of employees in the use of company resources and social media in the work place. A good place to start would be to offer clear codes, guidelines or policies about the use of social media in the office, the sharing of information between colleagues or about the company and clear examples about what is and is not acceptable.
And it’s not enough to just create a policy; employers need to make sure workers are aware of it and how it applies to them.
Employees should Think ahead
Young workers – especially recent graduates – should think carefully about transitioning their student personas, where pretty much anything goes, to professional personas, where one indulgent evening can get them in to trouble and possibly curtail their career.
Regardless of the rules in any one company, employees should create personal guidelines for social media engagement and stick to them over the course of their career and from company to company.
Either you’re friends with your colleagues or not. You can create special circles or walled gardens for colleagues and restrict what you share with them or you can share everything with them.
It’s much easier than people think to simply say that you do not want to become “Facebook” friends with colleagues and, at least in my experience, this reaction garners a great deal of respect. But keep in mind that anything you DO share online about anyone, no matter how seemingly disconnected, can find its way into the wrong hands.
In a sense, the discussion begs a variation to that well known adage: Don’t tell anything to Facebook that you wouldn’t tell every single person you know.
Want to find out more? Visit the AVG blogs here
February 6, 2013
Harvard Business Review: The Price of Incivility
by Christine Porath and Christine Pearson
Rudeness at work is rampant, and it’s on the rise. Over the past 14 years we’ve polled thousands of workers about how they’re treated on the job, and 98% have reported experiencing uncivil behavior. In 2011 half said they were treated rudely at least once a week—up from a quarter in 1998.
The costs chip away at the bottom line. Nearly everybody who experiences workplace incivility responds in a negative way, in some cases overtly retaliating. Employees are less creative when they feel disrespected, and many get fed up and leave. About half deliberately decrease their effort or lower the quality of their work. And incivility damages customer relationships. Our research shows that people are less likely to buy from a company with an employee they perceive as rude, whether the rudeness is directed at them or at other employees. Witnessing just a single unpleasant interaction leads customers to generalize about other employees, the organization, and even the brand.
We’ve interviewed employees, managers, HR executives, presidents, and CEOs. We’ve administered questionnaires, run experiments, led workshops, and spoken with doctors, lawyers, judges, law enforcement officers, architects, engineers, consultants, and coaches about how they’ve faced and handled incivility. And we’ve collected data from more than 14,000 people throughout the United States and Canada in order to track the prevalence, types, causes, costs, and cures of incivility at work. We know two things for certain: Incivility is expensive, and few organizations recognize or take action to curtail it.
In this article we’ll discuss our findings, detail the costs, and propose some interventions. But first, let’s look at the various shapes incivility can take.
Forms of Incivility
We’ve all heard of (or experienced) the “boss from hell.” The stress of ongoing hostility from a manager takes a toll, sometimes a big one. We spoke with a man we’ll call Matt, who reported to Larry—a volatile bully who insulted his direct reports, belittled their efforts, and blamed them for things over which they had no control. (The names in this article have been changed and the identities disguised.) Larry was rude to customers, too. When he accompanied Matt to one client’s store, he told the owner, “I see you’re carrying on your father’s tradition. This store looked like sh– then. And it looks like sh– in your hands.”
Matt’s stress level skyrocketed. He took a risk and reported Larry to HR. (He wasn’t the first to complain.) Called on the carpet, Larry failed to apologize, saying only that perhaps he “used an atomic bomb” when he “could have used a flyswatter.” Weeks later Larry was named district manager of the year. Three days after that, Matt had a heart attack.
The conclusion of Matt’s story is unusual, but unchecked rudeness is surprisingly common. We heard of one boss who was so routinely abusive that employees and suppliers had a code for alerting one another to his impending arrival (“The eagle has landed!”). The only positive aspect was that their shared dislike helped the employees forge close bonds. After the company died, in the late 1990s, its alums formed a network that thrives to this day.
In some cases an entire department is infected. Jennifer worked in an industry that attracted large numbers of educated young professionals willing to work for a pittance in order to be in a creative field. It was widely accepted that they had to pay their dues. The atmosphere included door slamming, side conversations, exclusion, and blatant disregard for people’s time. Years later Jennifer still cringes as she remembers her boss screaming, “You made a mistake!” when she’d overlooked a minor typo in an internal memo. There was lots of attrition among low-level employees, but those who did stay seemed to absorb the behaviors they’d been subjected to, and they put newcomers through the same kind of abuse.
Fran was a senior executive in a global consumer products company. After several quarters of outstanding growth despite a down economy, she found herself confronted by a newcomer in the C-suite, Joe. For six months Fran had to jump through hoops to defend the business, even though it had defied stagnation. She never got an explanation for why she was picked on, and eventually she left, not for another job but to escape what she called “a soul-destroying experience.”
Incivility can take much more subtle forms, and it is often prompted by thoughtlessness rather than actual malice. Think of the manager who sends e-mails during a presentation, or the boss who “teases” direct reports in ways that sting, or the team leader who takes credit for good news but points a finger at team members when something goes wrong. Such relatively minor acts can be even more insidious than overt bullying, because they are less obvious and easier to overlook—yet they add up, eroding engagement and morale..
The Costs of Incivility
Many managers would say that incivility is wrong, but not all recognize that it has tangible costs. Targets of incivility often punish their offenders and the organization, although most hide or bury their feelings and don’t necessarily think of their actions as revenge. Through a poll of 800 managers and employees in 17 industries, we learned just how people’s reactions play out. Among workers who’ve been on the receiving end of incivility:
48% intentionally decreased their work effort.
47% intentionally decreased the time spent at work.
38% intentionally decreased the quality of their work.
80% lost work time worrying about the incident.
63% lost work time avoiding the offender.
66% said that their performance declined.
78% said that their commitment to the organization declined.
12% said that they left their job because of the uncivil treatment.
25% admitted to taking their frustration out on customers.
Experiments and other reports offer additional insights about the effects of incivility. Here are some examples of what can happen.
Creativity suffers. In an experiment we conducted with Amir Erez, a professor of management at the University of Florida, participants who were treated rudely by other subjects were 30% less creative than others in the study. They produced 25% fewer ideas, and the ones they did come up with were less original. For example, when asked what to do with a brick, participants who had been treated badly proposed logical but not particularly imaginative activities, such as “build a house,” “build a wall,” and “build a school.” We saw more sparks from participants who had been treated civilly; their suggestions included “sell the brick on eBay,” “use it as a goalpost for a street soccer game,” “hang it on a museum wall and call it abstract art,” and “decorate it like a pet and give it to a kid as a present.”
Performance and team spirit deteriorate. Survey results and interviews indicate that simply witnessing incivility has negative consequences. In one experiment we conducted, people who’d observed poor behavior performed 20% worse on word puzzles than other people did. We also found that witnesses to incivility were less likely than others to help out, even when the person they’d be helping had no apparent connection to the uncivil person: Only 25% of the subjects who’d witnessed incivility volunteered to help, whereas 51% of those who hadn’t witnessed it did.
Customers turn away. Public rudeness among employees is common, according to our survey of 244 consumers. Whether it’s waiters berating fellow waiters or store clerks criticizing colleagues, disrespectful behavior makes people uncomfortable, and they’re quick to walk out without making a purchase.
We studied this phenomenon with the USC marketing professors Debbie MacInnis and Valerie Folkes. In one experiment, half the participants witnessed a supposed bank representative publicly reprimanding another for incorrectly presenting credit card information. Only 20% of those who’d seen the encounter said that they would use the bank’s services in the future, compared with 80% of those who hadn’t. And nearly two-thirds of those who’d seen the exchange said that they would feel anxious dealing with any employee of the bank.
Read the rest of the article on the Harvard Business Review website.
Sodexo Workplace Trends Report: 12 Key Issues and Solutions for Business Leaders
Sodexo Workplace Trends Report identifies leading marketplace indicators focusing key people- and community-centric workplace practices that create competitive advantage for organizations and value for employees
The 2013 Report* identifies 12 significant Workplace Trends:
The Built Environments Crucial Role in Organization Performance
Superstar Recruitment – the Power of Community
Inspiring a Connection to People, Community and Brand Through CSR
A Contemporary View of Inclusion and its Effect of Psychological Health
21st Century Mentoring
Thriving in the Cloud
Ushering in the New Era of Recognition
Facilities Management: A Strategy, Not a Tactic
Data Reporting OUT; Predictive Modeling IN
International Design and Construction; a Shifting Paradigm
The Changing Office…Literally
Integration as THE Solution
The 2013 Workplace Trends Report combines insight from clients, academia, principal research, and leading facilities management and human resource trade organizations. Sodexo’s researchers used mixed-method research to monitor and collectively examine trends that affect the quality of life of their consumers in the workplace. This approach included traditional quantitative measures such as end user satisfaction and preference surveys, psychographic analysis at client sites, social media monitoring and a literary review consisting of consultant reports, academic and trade journals, and information from industry associations. The 2013 Workplace Trends Report represents a sample size in excess of 1,000 end users.
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Workplace Trends Report: 12 Key Issues and Solutions for Business Leaders
Gaithersburg, Md., January 28, 2013 – Sodexo released its annual Workplace Trends Report today, noting among dozens of findings key trends such as 86 percent of Millennials entering the workforce now say they would consider leaving an employer whose values fell short of their expectations, clearly indicating that the emerging workforce is motivated by positive, people- and community-centric workplace practices and initiatives. In fact, the report shows all four generations in the workforce see corporate social responsibility as a potential motivating factor at work.
The 2013 Workplace Trends Report from Sodexo, global leader in services that improve Quality of Life, offers fresh insight into drivers affecting the people, workplace environment and community impact issues faced daily by leaders and discussed and debated in Board Rooms across the U.S. and around the world. Among its 12 leading trends, the Report takes a deep dive into issues ranging from recruiting and mentoring talent to the corrosive effects of workplace bullying, and from the distinct benefits of sustainable working environments to integrated people and facilities solutions that deliver increased individual and organizational performance.
“It’s a volatile world; economic factors, social issues, even naturally occurring events such as severe weather, place pressure on organizations to consistently deliver innovative, integrated solutions to complex problems,” said Michael Norris, COO, Sodexo North America and market president, Corporate. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s when—the time when an organization is presented with the opportunity to do the right thing for their employees, their communities and the environment.”
The 2013 Report* identifies 12 significant Workplace Trends:
The Built Environments Crucial Role in Organization Performance
Superstar Recruitment – the Power of Community
Inspiring a Connection to People, Community and Brand Through CSR
A Contemporary View of Inclusion and its Effect of Psychological Health
21st Century Mentoring
Thriving in the Cloud
Ushering in the New Era of Recognition
Facilities Management: A Strategy, Not a Tactic
Data Reporting OUT; Predictive Modeling IN
International Design and Construction; a Shifting Paradigm
The Changing Office…Literally
Integration as THE Solution
Leading indicators from the Report cite, for example, that the way the marketplace engages with prospective employees today is vastly different than it was just five years ago. Today, social media and mobile communications dominate over traditional e-mail campaigns. In fact, a recent study released by Jobvite found that 92 percent of U.S. companies used social media networks in 2012 as part of their recruitment efforts. Additionally, seven out of 10 employers report having successfully hired a candidate through social media – up from 58 percent in 2010.
While significant time and resources are spent on recruiting top talent, the Report notes that once onboard, 35 percent of the U.S. workforce report being bullied at work – defined as repeated, harassing behavior that is deliberately intended to cause harm to individuals and prevent them from excelling at work, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute. This emerging issue is at the forefront of human capital management and represents a real workplace psychological health concern that can truly hurt a company’s bottom line.
The Report notes that facilities management is essentially now a strategy and not just a tactic, or worse yet, an afterthought. Sustainability – an office feature once considered distinctive – has become table stakes. Whether it’s economics, environmental consciousness or both, must-haves from clients, even those with no interest in green building, now include recycled products (including buildings), locally sourced and sustainable materials, energy-efficient HVAC systems, and better indoor air quality. The trend is an unmistakable shift toward offices designed to attract and retain top talent while emphasizing productivity over cost savings and quality of life per square footage.
“The workplace, and the environment it creates, is now a key tool for supporting work, for shaping the experiences of the workforce, and for producing competitive advantage,” added Norris. “Facilities management has evolved and is simply no longer about just managing the facility, but rather it’s now about engaging and enabling people to be productive, and creating value for the organization and its communities.”
Integration 2.0 is another forward-looking concept identified by the Report. The needs of the current working generation are significantly more complex and dynamic, and creating efficient, effective, and flexible work environments that take into account total well-being has become a critical decision point for organizational leaders. The Report finds that progressive organizations are now understanding and solving for human needs when developing workplace services and solutions in unique ways, such as designing strategic Life/Work Ecosystems and evaluating the impact of these ecosystems on improved service and people effectiveness and well-being.
The 2013 Workplace Trends Report combines insight from clients, academia, principal research, and leading facilities management and human resource trade organizations. Sodexo’s researchers used mixed-method research to monitor and collectively examine trends that affect the quality of life of their consumers in the workplace. This approach included traditional quantitative measures such as end user satisfaction and preference surveys, psychographic analysis at client sites, social media monitoring and a literary review consisting of consultant reports, academic and trade journals, and information from industry associations. The 2013 Workplace Trends Report represents a sample size in excess of 1,000 end users.
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