10 examples of disrespect in the workplace

1. Phone use in meetings: Messaging while someone is talking or presenting signals that your time matters more than theirs.

2. Interrupting and talking over people: This bad habit signals that what’s in your head is more important that what someone else might be saying.

3. Credit theft: Taking ownership of someone else's idea or accepting kudos for someone else’s work is not only disrespectful, it generates anger too.

4. Micromanagement: The implicit message here is that ‘I don't trust you’, which undermines morale as well as ownership.

5. Exclusion from decisions: Making decisions that affect someone without involving them is gaslighting at its finest.

6. Dismissive language: ‘That's not how we do things here’ (a culture favourite) is a sentence that has probably killed more good ideas than budget cuts ever have.

7. Public criticism: Correcting or humiliating someone in front of their peers is disrespectful, demeaning and can be interpreted as bullying.

8. Ghosting people: Not responding to messages, blanking colleagues, ignoring meeting requests whilst hoping that the other person won’t notice. They always do.

9. Tone policing: Telling someone how they raised a concern rather than engaging with what they raised and seeking to resolve it.

10. Broken promises: Consistently failing to follow through on what you said you'd do. Disrespect doesn't always shout; sometimes it just quietly doesn't show up.

How many have you seen and what would you add to the list?