Disrespect for others in the workplace creates an atmosphere of negativity, which leads to suspicion, hostility, harassment, bullying, malpractices and frustration. Find out the barriers, constraints and ways of achieving respect at the workplace.

Photo Source: Rana Sinha

We spend a lot of time in the workplace. Most adults spend more hours awake with their colleagues than with their spouses and children. The atmosphere at work can poison your life or make you a proud achiever. Disrespect for others creates an atmosphere of negativity, which leads to suspicion, hostility, harassment, bullying, malpractices and frustration. Disrespectful people start behaving as paranoids and much of their energy and efforts are eaten up by negativity. This in turn undermines the efficiency of the working environment, and the destructive spiral accelerates.

If we do not feel respected and appreciated at the workplace, we usually take that bad feeling with us and dump it on family members. If this feeling continues getting worse, there could be much substance abuse, domestic violence and misery for everyone in the family and eventually families can break up.

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Respect is not instant. Respect is earned over a long period of time. Personal attributes like honesty, integrity, diligence, steadfastness, kindness, fairness, decency, professional success, or involvement in social affairs are usually seen to be characteristics that earn an individual the respect of the work community in different cultures all over the globe.

Barriers to Gaining Respect in the Workplace

What are the barriers to achieving respect in the workplace? In any workplace with an atmosphere of disrespect, you’ll find these problem areas.

  • People are Disillusioned – Nothing uplifting or inspiring ever happens, it’s just drudgery,
  • Conflicting Morals – People only care for their own interests because the management does so
  • Conflicting standards of Honesty, Diligence and Fairness – Top managers get multi million dollar bonuses, always travel first-class to fancy conferences, underperform, seldom bear responsibility and then take away your coffee in a cost-cutting spree
  • Low Self-Respect – Hard to respect anyone if you don’t respect yourself
  • Too much Stress causing frayed tempers – Everyone is frustrated and angry because you are constantly told to perform more and more with nothing to show for overworking yourself to death

Every organization should have some techniques and measures for addressing difficulties at the workplace and for improving the workplace conditions, ways of working and general atmosphere. This is not so easy to achieve in organizations, and we have a zillion dollar industry of consultants advising organizational development. But, what can an individual employee do to gain respect in the workplace?

Measure Your Respect Expectations

The first thing is to analyze why you don’t feel respected in the workplace. In order to get ahead, you need to measure your expectations.

  • Why should people at the workplace respect you?

Is it because you’re so good in your job, in some particular area of expertise, you have superior skills, earn a lot of money, are a good talker, or you are a good person?

  • How would others notice these superior qualities in you?

In many workplaces, the most skilful employees or the best performers may not even get noticed. People who can talk smoothly and highlight themselves may steal the show and get favoured by superiors. So, learning to communicate effectively is a vital skill to gaining respect. This doesn’t mean that you need to brag or advertise yourself non-stop. Self-advertising is a real bore. You need to have a shift of view and look at things from the other people’s point of view.

  • Do others feel valued and respected when dealing with you?

Two Kinds of Respect

There are two kinds of respect, normative and earned. If you claim respect from others because of your high job title, seniority, or high salary, you might get normative respect. This is the kind of respect we have for status, for the law, for following speed limits. It comes from duty or because we want to avoid negative consequences for ourselves. This respect may not involve emotions like pride and admiration.

The other kind of respect is earned respect. This always involves emotions like admiration, love and respect.

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Method of Earning Respect in the Workplace

To earn respect in the workplace, you need to

  • Demonstrate areas of excellence in skills, competence or professional conduct
  • Strive for excellence without insulting others or making them feel inferior
  • Give examples of moral conduct like honesty in practice rather than big talk about how honest you are
  • Show courage in facing difficult issues and even admitting own mistakes
  • Use good communication skills, so that people at the workplace get to know you and about you
  • Maintaining your vision consistently and involving everyone positively

Most importantly, you need some mechanism for sustaining hope when things otherwise look sour. Rather than moan about every setback, you take problems as learning opportunities and strive towards the positive vision. This is a sign of maturity. Humane qualities and genuine maturity always earn respect.