A few months ago I wrote about whether or not Millennials lacked basic manners. I'm still thinking about that topic so I thought I would spend a little more time on it. I was having a conversation with one of my classmates this week and the subject came up about workplace etiquette. We concluded that people in a work environment sometimes just don't know how to act professionally. The same problems we had when we were in high school with cattiness, clicks, talking behind peoples back, and other childish behavior, still continue on into adulthood and into the workplace. What I found fascinating about this conversation is we concluded that it wasn't Millennials who were the problem. It was Babyboomers and Gen Xers who were the worst offenders. Imagine that...we blame Millennials and claim that they lack basic professionalism in the workplace and at times, we are worse than they are. Isn't that interesting.
One only need to turn on the news to see how far we have come in our willingness to screw other people to get ahead. People having their money stolen by "respectable" businessmen. Banks looking more at the bottom line than at their customers, and the full on "I care more about my pocketbook than I do this company's success" attitude that some CEO's seem to have. Why would we expect Millennials to know how to behave in the workplace when we don't even act professionally? So that begs the question...what is professional behavior?
I found one wonderful definition of professional behavior on the University of Chicago's website for medical students. Here is how they defined professional behavior (I have changed some of the wording to make it relevant for other environments)...
Integrity: Displays honesty in all situations and interactions; is able to identify information that is confidential and maintain its confidentiality.
Tolerance: Demonstrates ability to accept people and situations. Acknowledges his/her biases and does not allow them to affect personal interactions or contribute to threatening or harassing interactions with others.
Interpersonal relationships: Provides support and is empathetic in interactions with co-workers. Interacts effectively with "difficult individuals." Demonstrates respect for and complements the roles of other professionals. Is cooperative and earns respect.
Initiative: Independently identifies tasks to be performed and makes sure that tasks are completed satisfactorily. Performs duties promptly and efficiently. Is willing to spend additional time and to assume new responsibilities. Recognizes when help is required and when to ask for guidance.
Dependability: Completes tasks promptly and well. Arrives on time and actively participates in work activities. Follows through and is reliable.
Attitudes: Is actively concerned about others. Maintains a positive outlook toward others and toward assigned tasks. Recognizes and admits mistakes. Seeks and accepts feedback and uses it to improve performance.
Function under stress: Maintains professional composure and exhibits good personal and professional judgment in stressful situations. Identifies unprofessional conduct while recognizing the importance of maintaining professional behavior in the work setting, in spite of inappropriate action on the part of others.
Appearance: Displays appropriate professional appearance and is appropriately groomed.
What I find frustrating is, our best attempts to teach students professional behavior are completely undermined when they walk into many work environments and see behavior that is totally contradictory to what we try to teach them. They learn very quickly that how we teach them to act isn't the way everyone else is acting. Now maybe your reading this and thinking, "I'm totally professional. I would never think of acting unprofessionally at work." That may be true, but look around your office. I'm betting there are people there who do things that definitely are not professional.
Now my attempt here is not to chastise completely, but I do think we all have a LONG way to go before we can rest the blame for bad workplace behavior solely on the shoulders of Millennials who have recently entered the workplace. The truth is, Millennials don't seem to like that type of childish behavior. They want to work in teams and get along with their co-workers. They don't want to stab them in the back and climb over them to get ahead.
So here's the moral of the story and me standing on my soap box for just a moment...the workplace can at times be a very immature environment and that is not the Millennial generations fault. We have created this and we must clean it up. What happened to the manners WE learned as children. Respect those around you...if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all...and of course the grand-daddy of all the lessons we were taught, treat others the way you want to be treated!
Maybe it's time we re-learned how to behave at work and went back to the basics of treating people respectfully and with the kind of manners we should have learned as children!!
