Benefits April 28, 2008

Watch Your Mouth! Foul Language Worst Employee Etiquette Offense

April 28, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Employees would do well to monitor what they say at work, since bad language and gossip were the top two etiquette offenses resulting in termination cited by managers recently surveyed.
Reported by

A press release said the poll of more than 2,000 executives conducted by TheLadders.com found that of managers who have terminated employees for office etiquette offenses, 38.4% cited bad language as the reason, and 36.5% cited workplace gossip.

Get more!  Sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters.

Other etiquette offenses resulting in termination reported by managers, according to the press release, were:

  • Drinking on the job (35.2%),
  • Leaving the office without telling anyone (33.6%), and
  • Too many personal calls (28%).

Almost all (98.7%) survey respondents said the idea of office etiquette does exist and the majority (69.7%) said they would fire an employee for bad office manners. The bulk of respondents (82.4%) have given an official warning for etiquette offences such as personal calls, loud talking, or revealing clothing.

Survey respondents had a different take on what behavior is most offensive from a colleague than from subordinates. While, 81.2% of senior execs said a foul-mouthed colleague is unacceptable to work alongside, other offenses ranked higher, including:

  • Eating someone else’s food from the fridge (97.8%),
  • Bad hygiene (95.6%),
  • Bad habits (88.2%),
  • Drinking on the job (85.7%), and
  • Wastefulness with paper (82%).

Also deemed unacceptable by survey respondents were cooking smelly food in the office microwave (74.1%) and sneaking peaks at the BlackBerry in meetings (63.5%).

«