Office Etiquette - Common Sense, Unpleasant Scents, and Dollars and Cents

Earlier this week I attended a half-day workshop entitled “Living in (and around) Shared Workspaces”. The idea for the workshop grew out of upcoming amalgamations of librarian and support staff office space as part of renovations to our library’s largest branch. Although each librarian will have his or her own office, the offices are located around the perimeters of larger rooms filled with support staff in cubicles. As this represents significant work space changes, it was felt that the ‘movees’ would benefit from a refresher on office etiquette.

As with most workshops of this nature, there were group activities around personal ‘hot buttons’, communication styles, positive vs. negative comments, and professional demeanor. The facilitator, Lew Bayer from The Civility Group, walked us through a number of down-to-earth suggestions and provided us with humorous insight into how the slightest and most innocent of things might sorely offend -- the missing tuna sandwich that caused a major rift between co-workers, the belly-button ringed, midriff exposing bank account manager whose ‘casual Friday’ attire almost cost her a client.

The main message she brought to us was that as employees we should be focused on the business priority of the workplace, not on personal needs. Office etiquette goes beyond comportment in the immediate office area; it extends its reach to the workplace at large, interactions with patrons and other business partners, meetings (including those at the institutional and professional association level), conferences (yes, you are an ambassador for your institution), etc.

Her most often used phrase during the workshop was “grow up and get over yourself”. Some of her other words of wisdom (with her permission to share them with you) are noted below.

- do not fall into the double standard of ‘do as I say, not as I do’ - set high standards for your own behavior and stick to them
- regularly ask yourself “Will my doing/saying/wearing ‘X’ advance the business priority in a positive way?” If not, then don’t do/say/wear ‘X’!
- watch your NOISE levels - noise is the most often stated rudeness issue, followed by interruptions and lateness
- crying and bursts of physical or verbal aggression will only earn you disrespect
- ‘Office rage’ and ‘hurry sickness’ are becoming commonly accepted terms to describe certain unacceptable behaviors
- physical representation of space reflects emotional need for space (‘close talkers’ beware!)
- in communicating, the sender of the message bears the bulk of the responsibility of ensuring that the receiver understands the message the way it was intended (we’ve all experienced those email miscommunications)
- do not assume that people have the same framework of knowledge, the same understanding, etc. that you have, especially in today’s multicultural and multigenerational workforce
- as co-workers, we can be friendly, but we don’t have to be friends

The 4 E’s of workplace etiquette? Everyone in Every situation gets Exactly the same respect and consideration Every time.

Blog readers, although you are all mentally pointing fingers at one or more of your former or current colleagues whose office behavior is less than stellar, I encourage each of you to spend a few moments in self- reflection about your own workplace behavior. Although becoming an Emily Post-Ite (sorry for the near pun) is not a burning aspiration of mine, this workshop did flag for me a few things that I could be more cognizant of in my new work environment and beyond.