Workplace incivility is on the rise, and a new study found that employees who experience or witness incivilities are more likely to be uncivil to others — a worrying trend that could intensify as people return to in-person work.

«People have gotten used to not having to engage in interpersonal communication as much and that can take an already distressing or tense situation and exacerbate it because people are out of practice of not having to have difficult conversations,» said Larry Martinez, associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology and co-author of the study. «These spirals that we’re seeing might be stronger in a post-pandemic world.»

Uncivil behavior at work can range from criticizing someone in public, rude or obnoxious behavior or withholding important information to more subtle acts such as arriving late to a meeting, checking email or texting during a meeting, or ignoring or interrupting a colleague.

Incivility can mean different things to different people, so it can be easily overlooked or missed.

«Incivility is typically ambiguous and not very intense, but it has harmful effects all the same,» said Lauren Park, a recent Ph.D. graduate in industrial-organizational psychology who now works as an HR research scientist.

Park and Martinez’s study is the first comprehensive review of its kind to analyze the factors that predict uncivil behavior in workplaces. They focused on the instigator’s perspective to better understand incivility and how to stop it at its source.

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Materials provided by Portland State University. Original written by Cristina Rojas. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.