SHRM’s Civility Index research found that U.S. workers collectively experience 208 million “acts of incivility” each day, a figure that rose sharply around the 2024 election season and remains near record highs. (It’s also up from 198 million in the last quarter.) This nonstop stream of disrespect—from subtle slights to overt hostility—translates into costly absenteeism, sagging morale, and lost output.
SHRM says the spike in office incivility is fueled by broader socio-political tensions, pandemic-induced stress, and what Link calls “digital bravery,” a phrase that conjures up the “keyboard warrior” of the social media era. Simply put, people feel emboldened to say things online that would never fly face-to-face. Differences in political views, social issues, and even immigration policy are leading to workplace friction, as employees struggle to navigate heated debates and cultural divides.
“Digital bravery is this idea that you can say whatever you want, about whomever you want, on any given topic from the safety and security of your screen,” Link told Fortune, adding that he sees it having an impact on American communities, society at large, but also that particular person and, maybe, the workplace. “If people are exercising this right of digital bravery, then perhaps it’s leeching or leaking its way into our workplaces, into our communities, into our society. We think it’s certainly possible.”
SHRM’s research found the effects of office incivility reverberate well beyond hurt feelings. Managers report uncivil workplaces have lower psychological safety, weaker team cohesion, and poorer outcomes across inclusion and diversity metrics—factors that CEOs care about because they directly affect bottom-line results.
Link offered the particular example of one bit of perceived incivility: an email. He told Fortune he personally read the email in question and viewed it as a bit direct, but “part of a normal business conversation.” To be sure, it wasn’t “flowery,” but “I’m sitting there thinking, okay, what’s uncivil about this?” Link said when people report acts of incivility, SHRM asks them what that actually means. The bulk of things are terseness in an email or snippiness in oral communication. Fortunately, he added, there aren’t too many examples of physical violence.
But there was a key learning for him: Acts of incivility are “more tied to things which relate to the culture of an organization than they necessarily do to whether that in person intended to be uncivil or not.” He urged companies to be intentional about their culture and how they set expectations around it. He said SHRM calls this “cultural clarity.” Then, acts of incivility are clearer, or less open to interpretation.
“Culture matters in this idea of civil behavior and civil expectations, as does leadership,” he said.
This doesn’t mean that the culture itself is necessarily civil. Expectations are key, Link said.
“When a leader, particularly a CEO or an executive team says, ‘These are the components of our culture, whether you like them or not,’” then there’s less room for interpretation,” he said.
