I am currently reading an article on workplace incivility for school and I can’t help, but directly match everything I am reading to my first 6 months at my current job.
What is workplace incivility?
Low intensity deviant behavior that violates workplace norms for mutual respect and may or may not be intended to harm the target.
The key here is the low intensity deviant behavior. It’s something that isn’t overt and thus can be explained away.
One experience with incivility
There was an incident where a co-worker that was unhappy about a proposal I created for them, declined to introduce me on a conference call. I was in a room with other co-workers when this happened and, in fact, the co-worker in question looked directly at me as if he was deciding then and there that I was not important enough to introduce. It was a tad embarrassing, but also downright mean. However, I had become accustomed to rude behavior at my place of work at that time and realized that nothing was likely to happen.
As for attempting to confront these types of circumstances, some employees have told us that they would be laughed out of the office.
I actually did tell my boss about this incident and his response was to go talk to the co-worker who had just treated me in a malicious manner and tell him that he hurt my feelings…Yeah, that didn’t happen.
But what did happen were the following noted results of workplace incivility
decline in job satisfaction
fading of organizational loyalty
loss of leadership impact
It’s so true. My boyfriend actually works at my office and he is quite loyal to our place of work and he doesn’t understand why I’m not. Incidents like those above have taught me that the place that I work doesn’t actually care about maintaining a civil workplace and that if I don’t like it, well that’s my problem.
I will close with this as a prelude to what is likely an eventuality for me.
It is important to note that departures driven by incivility may follow an incident immediately or they may come after some time has elapsed. This finding is critical to managers because, in regard to organizational memory, a delayed reaction will tend to disassociate the exit from the uncivil event.
(Later on I will talk about some of the reasons I don’t leave including the things I like about where I’m at right now.)
For Valentine’s Day, my parents got me a tin similar to the one above. Typically, I would plow through this tin in about a week, but there were a few things keeping me from doing so. Namely, buying Girl Scout cookies and being part of a Biggest Loser-style weight loss challenge at work. Currently, I am totally thinking about ripping open a bag of popcorn (I left the highest calorie ones for last) and eating it. The problem is that I am just under my maximum calorie allotment for the day which wouldn’t be such a big deal if it wasn’t for the poor food choices I have made in the past couple of days.
This is the point where a little give could totally spiral me back into weight gain mode. So, I am mostly writing this in an effort to shame myself into not being destructive. Since this is a blog that should be about technology of some sort, I will say that I have been using DailyBurn’s Tracker both online and as an Android app. Counting calories is certainly easier than it has ever been. If you’re looking to lose some weight, I highly recommend at least logging what you eat to see where you could be making better choices.
I was at the boyfriend’s house talking about some management issues: namely, that some of the managers at our place of work are not terribly mature or respectful in their dealings with their subordinates. His mother countered that people at work will be jerks and that’s life and you just have to deal with it. I didn’t say anything, but I feel pretty confident in saying that the U.S. in general is no longer immersed in that type of culture. People are important. The ability to deal with people is key to being the leader that many of us would hope to be.
I don’t believe that I mentioned this before, but I am back in school. Currently, I am taking a course in organizational behavior and management. The text has this really great quote from Ricardo Semler, CEO of Semco (a Brazilian company):
The purpose of work is not to make money. The purpose of work is to make the employees, whether working stiffs or top executives, feel good about life.
Many would say this is wrong, but I don’t how being completely profit-driven is at all moral. This is a big world and we only get to do this once, so make it better than when you arrived and give everyone else the same opportunity.
I decided to try Microsoft’s WebMatrix for the express purpose of checking out Umbraco, a .NET CMS that doesn’t cost a lot of money.
For some reason I decided that I didn’t want to use it for playing around with PHP CMSs even though WebMatrix does allow for that. But, when I tried to start up XAMPP, Apache wouldn’t start anymore. After countless internet searches that lead me down blind netstat alleys, I finally found the answer!
The answer
You must stop the World Wide Web Publishing Service.
Find out how to disable for various Window environments at Black Viper. No need to reinvent the wheel.
I got to drive home in quite the downpour today. It was one of those drives where you’re afraid that or someone else will do the wrong thing and spin out or something. It was so hard to see anything. I was just happy to make it home safely.
I’ve been sitting here listening to the thunder and rain outside of my window while I wash my running clothes using this Tide Sports formulation that I am hoping will help to get the embedded funk out of these bad boys. I never had this problem with any other washing machine, normal detergent used to be enough.
One of the managers of my group officially left for a new position within the department today. That kinda blows. I need to work on leaving, if I still even have that option considering how long I’ve been sitting on this code challenge. I have such a mental block when it comes to that thing.
Tomorrow is going to be extremely busy. Oh, but I had pasta tonight. It was really nice to eat something different. Plus this diet edition should really help with the low energy levels I am concerned about for this coming weekend.
So given my jaw situation, I have found myself eating soup from all kinds of places. Here are my short reviews of the soups from various chains.
Baker’s Square
Their tomato basil option tasted like butter and grease. I couldn’t even force myself to eat more than 6 spoonfuls of it. I was noticeably queasy after. Never again.
Quiznos
Their broccoli cheddar was surprisingly tasty! And the chunks of broccoli were super tiny so I didn’t have to chew at all.
Applebees
A dud. Not disgusting, but also not at all tasty. Oh, I had the tomato basil.
Eddington’s
All they do is soup and you can tell. I had a tasty bowl of something Wisconsin and cheddary.
Welp, it’s that time again: the end of the weekend. I did manage to exercise quite a bit. However, my run was super short and felt like ass which has me frankly terrified of how this weekend’s Ragnar Relay is going to go. I think I just need to fit in more calories, I know I haven’t been eating enough on this restricted diet, I just need to get better about keeping myself properly nutritioned (nope, not a word).
I am happy that this will be a short work week. This is my second vacation day of the year, I wish I could take more vacation like at a rate of once day per week.
BUT, I need to start looking on the bright side:
I can pay my bills!
I can pay for my food!
I can watch movies and surf the Internet!
I have a job!
I am happy to be employed for sure. I just need to find more ways to keep myself in a glass half-full mentality.
It feels like the struggle of the rich and the poor is something that will always be present in our society. Something I find rather unfortunate. Reminds me of a few tracks on this Killer Mike album I’ve had on serious rotation lately. Check out That’s Life II if you have a moment, peep the verse about Beck and Hannity especially.
The boy and I’s anniversary was last week. Previously when I would mention our anniversary, he would get all huffy because according to him we hadn’t been dating for long enough to be celebrating anniversaries. For the record, I think that is a crock of shit, but still eventually, I just stopped caring. But, ever since I broke up with him for a weekend, he’s been doing just about everything he can to keep me happy which, in this case, included getting me anniversary gifts. One of which is this kinda cool Levenger notebook that I used today for an interview I conducted (for my company’s newsletter).
But, I bring this up because I am soon heading to the boy’s place to watch his favorite movie…The Notebook. That is right, his favorite movie is one that most men absolutely hate and call a chick flick. Ironically, I am so over movies about love that I have no desire to see this movie and I am hoping I don’t end up laughing. I mean I might actually really like it…but uh, I guess you’ll find out tomorrow.
Often times I have a song in my head, but I can’t recall the name of it. But for whatever reason as I was sitting here thinking about my blog post, this song came into my head. I would like to justify this by saying oh yeah the lyrics are so hot, but after reading them, it doesn’t appear that there is a cohesive story or meaning or perhaps I’m just not seeing it. Anywho, the flow and beat are tight and I am okay with that.
Follow-up appointment with the doc tomorrow! It feels like something good is happening to my jaw: It doesn’t hurt as much although I still can’t open my mouth very wide. Solid (but likely still nothing certifiably hard) food is going to be so awesome (hopefully) a week from tomorrow.
I got to drive home in quite the downpour today. It was one of those drives where you’re afraid that or someone else will do the wrong thing and spin out or something. It was so hard to see anything. I was just happy to make it home safely.
So, research proves it: 