No question, the general level of civility in all phases of life seems to be dropping like a rock. So how do you keep your workplace from becoming an episode of “Workers Gone Wild”?

Industrial psychologist Dennis Davis, who works for the law firm Ogletree Deakins and is a regular speakers at the LEAP conferences in Las Vegas, has a plan for maintaining behavioral standards at work.

Dr. Davis’ recommended five-step process to restore sanity and civility to the workplace:

1. Tweak your violence policy

Surely it is already against company policy for any employee to engage in any acts of workplace violence.

Take the next step and also make it clear that all allegations of bullying and intimidation will be thoroughly investigated and dealt with as well.

Avoiding allegations of retaliation
Research shows that in most cases, the guilty parties in instances of bullying are supervisors. So some special training for managers may be in order.

A successful anti-bullying policy will also include a reporting mechanism, telling employees precisely where they can report incidents of bullying.

Since the complainants will likely be afraid of their immediate supervisors if they are the guilty parties, you need to tell people where they can go with their complaints: your HR department or another appropriate senior official. And since they will probably fear reprisals from supervisors for reporting them for bullying, supervisors also need training in how to refrain from retaliation. Lawsuits for retaliation are now the most common – and the most expensive – type of employment lawsuit, so you want to avoid any allegations of retaliation at all cost.

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