Embracing this surprising feeling promotes a kinder workplace

All it takes is one rude interaction with a colleague or manager to sully a perfectly fine workday. Unfortunately, unsavory moments on the job are a fact of life for pretty much everyone at some point. No one is capable of maintaining a pleasant demeanor 24/7, and when a full-time gig demands at least 35 hours worked weekly, crankiness in the workplace is flat out unavoidable.

Now, however, noteworthy new research conducted by scientists at the University of Florida and Texas A&M University suggests embracing a surprising feeling on the job can actually help curb the rate of rude incidents among coworkers and promote a more pleasant office environment for everyone. Let’s take a closer look at their findings.

Guilt can be good

Guilt isn’t a fun feeling, and most people do their best to push away feelings of guilt as soon as possible. Interestingly, this latest report actually found that welcoming and even ruminating on feelings of guilt following a bout of rudeness directed at a coworker can help us return to the office with a more friendly, hard working demeanor come the next day.

“We found that anyone can be rude at work, because anyone can have a bad day. And you end up feeling bad,” says Klodiana Lanaj, Ph.D., a University of Florida professor of management in the Warrington College of Business and co-author of the new study, in a university release. 

“Because you feel guilty, the next day at work, you work harder, and you’re more careful not to be rude again. It’s self-correcting over time. Which might explain why some people are rude some days and not rude other days.”

Rudeness impacts both parties 

While this isn’t the first scientific study to examine rudeness in the workplace, most prior projects understandably focused on the effect crankiness and bad manners have on the recipient of said behavior. This latest work bucked that trend by choosing to analyze the impact of rudeness on the individual who is being unkind in the first place. 

We’ve all been there. Maybe your car had a flat tire on the way to work, or your favorite team lost the big game the night before. Regardless of the reason, you walked into work one day in a foul mood and ended up taking it out on an unsuspecting coworker. Few individuals reflect back on such incidents proudly, as most of us immediately feel empathy toward our fellow worker and desire to make things right. The research team behind this study set out to examine this dimension of incivility in the workplace; how do people react after being rude at work to others?

Rude today, rejuvenated tomorrow?

In search of answers, study authors conducted three separate experiments involving the tracking of participants’ daily habits at work and asking study subjects to specifically recall prior times they had acted rudely toward a colleague or coworker.

This approach revealed a number of noteworthy findings, recently published in the Journal of Business Ethics. To start, employees who had either yelled at or somehow socially excluded a fellow coworker usually felt guilty afterwards and ended up venting about the interaction to a loved one at home that same evening. By the next day, though, those same individuals tended to show more focus on the job, work harder, and were less likely to be rude in a similar manner. Researchers theorize this rudeness rebound behavior is likely an effort to repair work relationships and one’s own reputation.

“When you’re being uncivil, it comes back to hurt you as well,” adds UF doctoral student and study co-author Daniel Kim. “Guilt is this complex phenomenon. It’s burdensome, but it can also help us recover by reducing incivility and engaging more at work.”

Rudeness happens, just don’t make it a habit

In a perfect world, rudeness would never rear its ugly head in the workplace at all. Prior research tells us professional incivility has a way of spreading around offices and worksites like a nasty virus. More realistically, however, it’s key not to beat oneself up too much after spreading (or encountering) discourtesy at work. We’re all human, and everyone occasionally says things they’d like to take back. The big takeaway here is not to make rude behavior a habit. There will always be another opportunity to spread a little positivity around the workplace.

“But we can take solace in this idea that people have opportunities to correct their behavior by working harder, apologizing, and being more polite,” Prof. Lanaj concludes.