Civility Index
Q4 2025 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 quarterly 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.
Q4 2025 Civility Index Results
Q4 2025 Civility Index Scores
On average, U.S. workers scored a 48.6 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). This quarter’s score remained relatively stable compared with last quarter, showing a slight 0.1-point increase. Overall, the data indicate that levels of incivility remained elevated since Q4 2024.
U.S. workers scored an average of 39.9 on the Civility Index when asked about incivility they personally experienced or witnessed while at work over the past month (workplace level). In Q4 2025, the workplace-level score remained just below the 40-point threshold for the third quarter in a row after surpassing it for the first time in Q4 2024.
Despite a slight increase in the workplace-level score and very little change in the society-level score since Q3 2025, the Q4 2025 Civility Index society score of 48.6 and workplace score of 39.9 both remain in Zone 3, indicating that incivility continues to persist to a moderate degree, on average, in workers’ everyday lives and at work. These scores highlight the continued need to take steps to curb incivility before it escalates to more harmful levels.
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 (75%) indicated that they had, with 24% saying they personally experienced incivility, 36% saying they witnessed incivility, and 16% saying they both personally experienced and witnessed incivility. Of these workers, 14% said they personally experienced or witnessed incivility daily, 49% said weekly, and 37% 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 1.26) or nearly nine acts per week (average of 8.8). Considering the U.S. active labor force of workers 18 years of age and older (as of August 2025), this results in U.S. workers collectively experiencing or witnessing a total of:
212,333,940
acts of incivility per day in everyday life.
8,847,248
acts of incivility per hour in everyday life.
147,454
acts of incivility per minute in everyday life.
212,333,940
acts of incivility per day in everyday life.
The average number of uncivil acts per day that U.S. workers have personally experienced or witnessed in their everyday lives has increased slightly from last quarter.
0%
75% 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 Q4 2025 continued to be driven by political viewpoint differences, opinions on social issues, racial or ethnic differences, and age or generational differences, which are many of the same contributors cited throughout the past year.
In Q4 2025, political viewpoint differences (43%) continued to be the most frequently cited contributor to incivility, though it declined by 6 percentage points from Q3 2025, marking its lowest level of the year. Racial or ethnic differences (40%) held the second position. Differences in opinions on social issues (39%) followed closely as well as age or generational differences (36%). Meanwhile, concerns about current U.S. immigration policy (34%) rounded out the top five.
When U.S. workers were asked about their perceptions of civility today, about 6 in 10 respondents (59%) said they believe that, in general, people in society today are uncivil, meaning that 41% 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 in the past quarter and throughout 2024.
Civility in Workplaces Today
Of U.S. workers who said they have personally experienced or witnessed incivility in their everyday lives, more than half (54%) said at least one of the uncivil acts they observed occurred in the workplace or while they were at work. This trended slightly upward but remains roughly consistent with the Q3 2025 results, in which 51% of workers cited experiencing or witnessing incivility at work.
On average, U.S. workers faced less than one act of incivility per day (0.43 on average) in the workplace or while they were at work in Q4 2025 — relatively consistent with the average of 0.42 acts experienced or witnessed per day in Q3 2025. Notably, this figure marks two quarters in a row of either an increase or stable levels, and it is the highest since Q4 2024. Considering the U.S. active labor force of workers 18 years of age and older (as of August 2025), this results in U.S. workers collectively experiencing or witnessing a total of:
72,463,170
acts of incivility per day in the workplace.
3,019,299
acts of incivility per hour in the workplace.
50,322
acts of incivility per minute in the workplace.
839
acts of incivility per second in the workplace.
The average number of uncivil acts per day that U.S. workers have personally experienced or witnessed in their everyday lives has increased slightly from last quarter.
0%
54% 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, opinions on social issues, racial or ethnic differences, and age or generational differences.
In Q4 2025, political viewpoint differences (40%) remained the leading contributor to workplace incivility, continuing a gradual decline from earlier 2024 highs. Racial or ethnic differences (38%) followed closely, holding steady among the most cited sources of incivility. Differences in opinions on social issues (37%) and age or generational differences (37%) tied for the next most common factors, reflecting ongoing value and life-stage divides in the workplace. Rounding out the top five, concerns about current U.S. immigration policy (34%) were unchanged from Q3 2025, underscoring continued sensitivity around national policy discussions at work.
Cost of Workplace Incivility
In Q4 2025, U.S. workers who personally experienced or witnessed incivility at work reported an average productivity loss of approximately 34 minutes per act of incivility (34.4 minutes). This reported time lost per act of incivility is consistent with the 35 minutes lost on average in Q3 2025.
Using the average hourly pay rate of $32.62 per hour (based on self-reported wage information and weekly hours typically worked), this results in a loss of $18.82 per uncivil act. Considering the total number of collective acts of incivility occurring in the workplace each day at 72,463,170 (or an average of 0.43 per worker per day) scaled to the U.S. active labor force of workers 18 years of age and older (as of August 2025), U.S. organizations collectively lose approximately $1,349,264,225 per day in reduced productivity due to uncivil behaviors at work.
Regardless of whether U.S. workers have personally experienced or witnessed incivility at work, they are intentionally staying away from work to avoid incivility. U.S. workers, including those who did not experience or witness incivility at work, reported intentionally staying away from work an average of 0.7 days over the past month to avoid incivility. Focusing on just workers who have personally experienced or witnessed incivility while at work, U.S. workers reported that they intentionally took an average of about 1.9 days away from work over the past month due to incivility.
Using the average hourly pay rate of $32.62 per hour (based on self-reported wage information and weekly hours typically worked) and scaled to the U.S. active labor force of workers 18 years of age and older (as of August 2025), this results in U.S. organizations collectively losing approximately $957,838,572 per day due to absenteeism caused by incivility.
In total, U.S. organizations collectively lose approximately $2,307,102,797 per day in reduced productivity and absenteeism due to incivility. This represents an average daily increase of about $164 million compared to Q3 2025.
$0B
U.S. organizations collectively lose approximately $1,349,264,225 per day in reduced productivity due to uncivil behaviors at work.
Value of Removing Incivility at Work
Over one-third of all U.S. workers (37%) 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 — an increase of 3 percentage points from Q3 2025. Accordingly, 63% 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, workers said that they would accept a maximum reduction of approximately 10.6% of their current pay, on average. This translates to an average pay reduction of $6,783 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 4.6% of their current pay to eliminate all forms of incivility they experience in their job. This would result in workers sacrificing, on average, $2,948 from their own annual pay to eliminate all forms of incivility at work.
0%
37% 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.
Contributors to Civil Behaviors
Understanding the contributors to civility is just as important as identifying the drivers of incivility. Research often focuses on what leads to negative behaviors, but recognizing the factors that promote respectful interactions provides actionable insights for building a positive work environment. This section examines how individuals, teams, managers, and organizational practices contribute to civility, as well as which areas employees believe would most strengthen respectful interactions at work.
Among those who personally experienced or witnessed acts of civility in their workplace, the top reasons cited were that someone expressed appreciation or gratitude (43%), a co-worker offered help or support when it wasn’t required (40%), and someone actively listened and allowed others to finish speaking (37%). Notably, these top three highest contributors fall under the individual category, meaning these were behavioral interactions between individuals at work.
Among all U.S. workers, the top areas identified as opportunities to improve workplace civility were accountability for individual employees (33%), managers addressing conflicts respectfully and constructively (27%), and leaders consistently modeling civil behavior (26%). Notably, these top three opportunities span different levels of the workplace — individual, managerial, and organizational. This suggests that while civility often begins with individual actions, employees see meaningful improvement as requiring commitment and reinforcement from managers and organizational leaders alike.
U.S. workers most often cited teams and co-workers (51%) as having the greatest influence on civility in their organization, followed closely by managers and immediate supervisors (50%) and individual employees themselves (48%). Notably, the fourth-highest response was respondents’ own actions (46%), suggesting that many workers view civility as a personal responsibility and hold themselves accountable for maintaining respectful behavior in the workplace.
These findings suggest that civility in the workplace is shaped by both collective and individual actions. While teams, managers, and organizational systems play critical roles in setting the tone for respectful interactions, many employees also recognize their own responsibility in fostering a civil environment. Ultimately, strengthening civility appears to depend on a shared commitment — where personal accountability aligns with supportive leadership and organizational practices.
Generational Differences
This section explores how perceptions of civility vary across generations in the workplace. Employees were asked to rate their perceptions of common workplace behaviors and to reflect on how closely their expectations for civil conduct align with those of colleagues from other generations, offering insights into where generational norms and communication styles may differ.
Across generations, there is broad agreement that behaviors such as interrupting others, belittling colleagues, and ignoring new ideas are highly uncivil. Baby Boomers generally rated behaviors as more uncivil than younger generations, at times by 10 percentage points or more. Despite these differences, the results suggest there are shared perceptions of civility across generations.
The chart illustrates how workers perceive alignment in civility expectations across generations. Alignment tends to be strongest within generations or between adjacent generations, with 58% of Millennials reporting high alignment with Generation X and 62% of Generation X saying the same of Baby Boomers. In contrast, perceived alignment is notably lower between younger and older generations — only 16% of Generation X and Baby Boomers reported high alignment with Generation Z. Overall, few workers feel there is strong alignment across generations, yet the research showed that most view specific workplace behaviors similarly. This suggests that perceived differences in civility expectations may be more about generational assumptions than actual differences in what people consider civil or uncivil behavior.
Role of Managers
Perceptions of how managers and supervisors handle workplace incivility remained mixed in Q4 2025, showing modest shifts from the previous quarter.
The share of employees who said their manager ignored acts of incivility remained steady (35% agreed or strongly agreed), while those who felt supervisors actively help guide employees through such situations increased notably (31%, up 11 percentage points from Q3 2025). Agreement that managers encourage employees to address incivility through conversation also rose slightly (30% versus 27% in Q3 2025). Meanwhile, the portion who felt their manager could have done more to prevent incivility remained high and largely unchanged (42% versus 44% in Q3 2025).
Efficiency Over Civility
Four in 10 employees (40%) said they sometimes see efficiency prioritized over civility in their workplace, while about 1 in 3 (35%) reported this happens often or always. In contrast, roughly 1 in 4 (25%) said it rarely or never occurs, indicating that while civility is generally valued, productivity pressures remain a common challenge in maintaining respectful workplace interactions.
Q4 2025 Civility Index Methodology
A sample of 1,543 U.S.-based workers was surveyed between Oct. 1 and Oct. 13, 2025. 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 an independent contractor did not qualify to participate. The data was weighted to reflect the U.S. working population as of August 2025 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: Q4 2025 Civility Index, SHRM, December 2025.
Don’t stop at the findings. Find practical tools and the latest guidance on our Civility at Work topic page.