Employees Behaving Badly? It's Not Necessarily Who You Think
Companies Focusing on Workplace Civility as a Differentiator
Like many large companies, my Fortune 100 client annually selects a group of graduate students from the country’s elite universities for a summer program that culminates in job offers for the cream of the crop.
In recent years, however, program leadership has identified a disheartening trend among those potential recruits with almost perfect pedigrees: Shockingly little basic business etiquette and the requisite “soft skills” to recognize and exhibit appropriate workplace behavior. Among the issues witnessed are:
Repeatedly reporting late to work and oblivious to the impact.
Typing nonwork-related content on cell phones during conference room discussions.
Wearing sweatpants and hoodies to meet the company’s CEO.
Getting intoxicated while traveling for business on a company charter flight.
Telling highly inappropriate jokes to new or casual business acquaintances.
The problem was so acute that the client is considering attaching serious incentives to addressing it: 20%-to-30% of summer student-workers’ evaluations could be based on these competencies.