Civility or Incivility: Which Will Shape Your Organization’s Future?

In Q3 2025, U.S. workers experienced or witnessed over 70 million acts of incivility every day — an increase of more than 10 million compared with Q2 2025, according to the SHRM Q3 Civility Index. Companies lose over $2 billion each day in productivity and absenteeism as employees disengage or avoid work altogether due to incivility. Incivility poses a significant threat to organizational health and performance, according to a recent webinar featuring Tina Beaty, chief brand and marketing officer at SHRM, Jennifer Dulski, founder and CEO of Rising Team, and Ryan Starks, head of marketing at Rising Team. Together, they examined the forces shaping today’s workplace culture and the strategies needed to strengthen it.

Incivility doesn’t arise in isolation, the panel agreed, it grows from the same political and social divisions playing out in society. Understanding these root causes is the first step toward rebuilding trust and respect at work.

Toolkit: Managing Employee Performance

Knowing what drives incivility is the first step to addressing it. According to the SHRM Q3 2025 Civility Index, the same divisions that fuel societal conflict are also among the top triggers for rudeness, dismissal, and disrespect at work.

Incivility often isn’t fueled by malicious intent. “It’s not that there are hordes of horrible people,” Dulski said. “It’s that we all come from different backgrounds, with different values — and we’ve lost the skills to talk across those differences.”

Psychological safety is the key to navigating these differences, and it’s one of the clearest distinctions between civil and uncivil teams, SHRM data revealed. On civil teams, 74% of employees said people feel safe to openly disagree at work without fear of negative consequences, compared with just 44% on uncivil teams.  

The same pattern holds true for understanding — 83% of those on civil teams said people actively attempt to understand others’ thoughts and opinions, while less than half (47%) of workers on uncivil teams said the same.

Managers are the Front Line of Civility 

For civility to stick, it can’t be treated as an “extra” initiative. It has to be woven into the fabric of daily work. The role of managers in shaping workplace culture is critical, as their actions often decide whether teams stay respectful or become uncivil. 

Right now, too many managers are falling short of the role they’re uniquely positioned to own. Two-thirds of U.S. workers (66%) said their manager or supervisor could have done more to prevent incivility, and 63% reported that their manager has ignored uncivil acts  altogether.  

This may be happening because 70% of workers said their manager cares more about business objectives than about how people are treated. In reality, the two are inseparable, the panel said. When leaders fail to act against incivility, they’re undermining performance by increasing the likelihood of absenteeism and productivity loss. U.S. workers reported losing an average of 35 minutes for every act of incivility they experience at work, and they intentionally avoid work for an average of 0.7 days per month because of it.

For managers, embedding civility also means addressing hard situations head-on. One of the toughest challenges they face is when incivility comes from the top. In those cases, Dulski advised middle managers to create a “safe haven” within their teams and model the culture they want to see. When possible, they should escalate issues respectfully and strategically. “Managers can create cocoons where it feels amazing to come to work every day because the people you interact with most treat you well,” she said. 

Defining Civility Before You Can Teach It

Beaty emphasized that before organizations can effectively train for civility, they need to establish a clear definition of what it means within their own context. She noted that the specifics may vary from one company to another, but the key is taking the time to outline and communicate those standards to employees.  

Not sure where to start? Use these three simple behavioral shifts Beaty recommended for HR leaders:

1. Assume positive intent – Enter conversations believing the other person means well, even when you disagree. 
2. Pause before reacting – Take a breath before responding to prevent knee-jerk reactions from escalating tension.
3. Find common ground – Identify points of agreement, however small, to reframe discussions in a more collaborative light. 

These are cultural reset buttons. When they are applied consistently, they can turn tense exchanges into constructive dialogue, rebuild trust across teams, and set a new standard for how people show up at work. In a climate where incivility has become all too common, small, intentional shifts like these can be the catalyst for lasting change.

Training and Development: Civility

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Rebuilding civility is about listening to understand, respecting every voice, and remembering that behind every opinion there’s a person. 

As Starks put it, “We can begin to claw our way back to civility, starting in our workplaces and starting with ourselves.” The work won’t be easy. But the payoff — in trust, in productivity, and in human dignity — is worth it.