Civility Index
Q2 2026 Results
The Study Charge
Civility is a cornerstone of workplace culture that allows people and business to thrive. Civility fosters respect, empathy, and the productive exchange of ideas and opinions. SHRM believes everyone can play a role in transforming workplaces to be more civil, one conversation at a time.
To understand the current state of civility and its impact across the U.S., SHRM launched the Civility Index at the beginning of 2024. This ongoing exploratory research initiative aims to track trends in civility within U.S. society and workplaces.
Focus of the Study
The Civility Index focuses on two key areas:
- Society-Level Civility: This examines civility in everyday life, both inside and outside of work.
- Workplace-Level Civility: This examines civility specifically during or at work.
Objectives of the Study
Track Civility Trends
Monitor civility trends across workplaces and society, analyzing patterns, shifts, and behaviors over time.
Gain a Deeper Understanding of Civility
Understand how civility and incivility manifest, who engages in these behaviors, and the factors that contribute to them.
Dissect Today’s Uncivil Behaviors
Understand what specific types of uncivil behaviors occur most often in U.S. society and workplaces today.
Determine the Cost of Incivility
Analyze the financial burden incivility places on today’s workplaces.
Develop Actionable Insights
Provide practical takeaways that business professionals and organizations can use to promote civility within their workplaces.
Measuring Civility
The Civility Index is a pulse survey designed to gauge the prevailing levels of civility and incivility in the workplace and in society.
Survey respondents indicate how often they have personally experienced or witnessed uncivil behavior over the past month. These experiences are assessed from both a societal and workplace perspective. Scores from each perspective are calculated separately and presented on a 100-point scale. Further, respondents provide detailed accounts of the number of uncivil acts experienced or witnessed to determine an average per day. Reported acts of incivility include instances when respondents personally experienced or witnessed incivility either directly or indirectly, not just when they were the targets or perpetrators of uncivil behavior. Respondents later provide separate information on what types of uncivil acts they themselves have committed in their everyday lives and while at work.
Scoring Categories
When interpreting and scoring the Civility Index (both the society and workplace levels), it is useful to create categories that represent placement and positioning for Civility Index scores. These categories help transform a single score into a more actionable and insightful metric for businesses to understand and improve civility. These zones were created by analyzing the distribution of current scores, considering ease of interpretability, and ensuring the categories lead to differentiated outcomes. A five-zone system emerged as the most effective way to interpret and report Civility Index scores.
Q2 2026 CIVILITY INDEX RESULTS
Q2 2026 Civility Index scores
Beginning in 2026, SHRM transitioned the Civility Index from quarterly to semiannual reporting, with Q2 serving as the first reporting period of the year. On average, U.S. workers scored a 51.0 out of 100 on the Civility Index when asked about incivility they personally experienced or witnessed in their everyday lives (i.e., both in and out of work) over the past month (society level). Compared to the Q4 2025 society-level score, the Q2 2026 score saw an increase of 2.4 points on the Civility Index, crossing the 50-point threshold for the first time since tracking began.
U.S. workers scored an average of 41.9 on the Civility Index when asked about incivility they personally experienced or witnessed while at work over the past month (workplace level), crossing the 40-point threshold for the first time since Q4 2024 and marking the highest score since tracking began. The workplace-level Civility Index score nearly mirrored the change seen in the society-level score, with the workplace-level score increasing by 2 points since Q4 2025.
The Q2 2026 society-level score of 51.0 crossed over into Zone 4 for the first time, suggesting workers are experiencing frequent incivility in society. Despite a similar increase in the workplace-level score since Q4 2025, the Q2 2026 Civility Index society-level score of 41.9 remains in Zone 3, indicating that incivility continues to persist to a moderate degree, on average, at work. These scores highlight the continued need for organizations to take steps to curb incivility and prevent this upward trend from continuing.
Civility in Society Today
When U.S. workers were asked if they have personally experienced or witnessed any acts of incivility over the past month, three-quarters (76%) indicated that they had, with 21% saying they personally experienced incivility, 36% saying they witnessed incivility, and 19% saying they both personally experienced and witnessed incivility. Of these workers, 15% said they personally experienced or witnessed incivility daily, 50% said weekly, and 36% said monthly.
On average, U.S. workers continued to personally experience or witness more than one act of incivility per day in their everyday lives (average of 1.44), amounting to more than 10 acts per week (average of 10.08). Considering the U.S. active labor force of workers 18 years of age and older (as of April 2026), this results in U.S. workers collectively experiencing or witnessing a total of:
242,959,680
acts of incivility per day in everyday life.
10,123,320
acts of incivility per hour in everyday life.
168,722
acts of incivility per minute in everyday life.
2,812
acts of incivility per day in everyday life.
The average number of uncivil acts per day that U.S. workers personally experienced or witnessed in their everyday lives has increased from Q4 2025.
0%
76% of U.S. workers indicated they have personally experienced or witnessed acts of incivility over the past month.
Contributing Factors
The acts of incivility experienced or witnessed by U.S. workers in their daily lives during the beginning of 2026 continued to be driven by political viewpoint differences, racial or ethnic differences, differences in opinions on social issues, age or generational differences, and the state and direction of U.S. society today, which are many of the same contributors cited throughout the past year.
In Q2 2026, political viewpoint differences (45%) remained the most frequently cited contributor to incivility. Racial or ethnic differences (43%) held the second position. Differences in opinions on social issues (42%) followed closely behind. Age or generational differences (38%) as well as the state and direction of U.S. society today (36%) rounded out the top five.
When U.S. workers were asked about their perceptions of civility today, more than half (57%) said they believe that, in general, people in society today are uncivil, meaning that 43% of U.S. workers believe that people in society today are generally civil. These findings remain relatively consistent with past findings of workers’ perceptions of civility in society throughout 2024 and 2025.
Civility in Workplaces Today
Of the U.S. workers who said they have personally experienced or witnessed incivility in their everyday lives, more than half (61%) said at least one of the uncivil acts they observed occurred in the workplace or while they were at work. This trended upward from the Q4 2025 results, in which 55% of workers cited experiencing or witnessing incivility at work.
On average, U.S. workers faced less than one act of incivility per day (0.62 on average) in the workplace or while they were at work — higher than the average number of acts experienced or witnessed per day at work throughout 2024 and 2025. Considering the U.S. active labor force of workers 18 years of age and older (as of April 2026), this results in U.S. workers collectively experiencing or witnessing a total of:
104,607,640
acts of incivility per day in the workplace.
4,358,652
acts of incivility per hour in the workplace.
72,644
acts of incivility per minute in the workplace.
1,211
acts of incivility per second in the workplace.
0%
61% of U.S. workers said at least one of the uncivil acts they observed occurred in the workplace or while they were at work.
Contributing Factors
Incidents of incivility experienced or witnessed by U.S. workers continue to be linked to political viewpoint differences, differences in opinions on social issues, racial or ethnic differences, and age or generational differences.
In Q2 2026, political viewpoint differences (41%) remained the leading contributor to workplace incivility, though it shared the top spot — for the first time — with differences in opinions on social issues (41%). Racial or ethnic differences (36%) and age or generational differences (36%) tied for the next most common factors. Rounding out the top five was concerns about cost and affordability in the U.S. (27%).
Cost of Workplace Incivility
In Q2 2026, U.S. workers who personally experienced or witnessed incivility at work reported an average productivity loss of approximately 33 minutes per act of incivility (33.80 minutes). This reported time lost per act of incivility is consistent with the 34 minutes lost on average in Q4 2025.
Using the average hourly pay rate of $37.83 per hour (based on self-reported wage information and weekly hours typically worked), this results in a loss of approximately $21.31 per uncivil act. Considering the total number of collective acts of incivility occurring in the workplace each day scaled to the estimated U.S. active labor force of workers 18 years of age and older (as of April 2026), U.S. organizations collectively lose approximately $1,016,800,000 per day in reduced productivity due to uncivil behaviors at work.
Among those who have personally experienced or witnessed incivility while at work, U.S. workers reported that, on average, they intentionally took about 2.2 days away from work to avoid incivility.
Based on the average hourly pay rate of $37.83 per hour (per self-reported wage information and weekly hours typically worked) and the U.S. active labor force (18 years of age or older, as of April 2026), this results in U.S. organizations collectively losing $49,899,928,153 in absenteeism caused by incivility over the past month, or $1,640,527,605 per day due to absenteeism caused by incivility.
In total, U.S. organizations collectively lost $2,657,402,031 in productivity per day due to uncivil behaviors in the workplace and absenteeism caused by incivility.
This represents an average daily increase of about $350 million compared to Q4 2025.
$0B
U.S. organizations collectively lost $2,657,402,031 in productivity per day due to uncivil behaviors in the workplace and absenteeism caused by incivility.
Value of Removing Incivility at Work
Over 1 in 4 U.S. workers (44%) said they would take a reduction in their current pay if it meant they could eliminate all forms of incivility they experience in their jobs — an increase of 7 percentage points from Q4 2025. Accordingly, 56% said they would not take a reduction in pay to eliminate incivility.
Of the U.S. workers who said they would take a reduction in pay to eliminate incivility from their job, the maximum reduction they would accept was approximately 16.18% of their current pay, on average. This translates to an average pay reduction of $11,256 based on average self-reported annual income.
Across all workers, including those who would not take a pay cut, U.S. workers would accept an average maximum pay reduction of about 6.1% of their current pay to eliminate all forms of incivility they experience in their jobs. This would result in workers sacrificing, on average, $4,244 from their own annual pay to eliminate all forms of incivility at work.
0%
44% of U.S. workers said they would take a reduction in their current pay if it meant they could eliminate all forms of incivility they experience in their job.
Role of Managers
Perceptions of how managers and supervisors handle workplace incivility remained mixed in Q2 2026.
While 32% of U.S. workers agreed or strongly agreed that supervisors actively helped guide employees through acts of incivility, more than 1 in 3 said their managers ignored acts of incivility (36% agreed or strongly agreed). Similarly, 30% agreed or strongly agreed that their managers encourage employees to address incivility through conversation. Yet, a significant portion still felt their managers could have done more to prevent incivility (44%).
Q2 2026 Civility Index methodology
A sample of 1,543 U.S.-based workers was surveyed between April 29 and May 9, 2026. For the purposes of this study, participants were required to be employed by an organization and be at least 18 years of age. Those who were self-employed, retired, or independent contractors did not qualify to participate. The data was weighted to reflect the U.S. working population as of April 2026 on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, age, full-time/part-time status, and location derived from U.S. Census divisions.
How to cite this research: Q2 2026 Civility Index, SHRM, 2026.
Don’t stop at the findings. Find practical tools and the latest guidance on our Civility at Work topic page.