“Know your surroundings.”
the workplace
The workplace has been for the longest an environment where you could grow to have a relationship with the people you work along side. But as time progressed, we had to create more and more of an environment where people felt safe. And that means that certain workplace etiquette was enforced so that people wouldn’t feel threatened. Not only were there rules implemented for the workplace for how you should behave, but also laws were enacted that gave people rights that otherwise wouldn’t be allotted to them by the organizations or institutions that employed them. And just to name a few, I have rules below that were put in place to make us as workers feel safe.
protocol
There were policies that were put into place to make the worker feel good about coming to work each day.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT
The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) has a strict guideline for the protocol that must be taken when in the workplace. And this is a form of discrimination that stems from the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Harassment does not have to be of the opposite sex, nor does the person accusing have to be the one harassed. And that can be an interesting circumstance especially if the person and the other being spoken to have a mutual relationship. That means someone just in the vicinity can be uncomfortable just by your comments that have nothing to do with them. So you have to be careful now in that regard.
POLITICS
On jobs, especially right now in this divisive country, we are a lot of times strictly prohibited from having political discussion in the workplace. With the right and left battling it out to see whose side is better, you can really have a breakdown in the workplace with all this political talk. And not just talk about the presidents, it has crept into our sports and entertainment as well. So to keep things very simple, some workplaces don’t even allow people to talk about the fact that they are going to vote period. Because that in itself has caused problems just the idea of your vote
counting. So no discussions about politics, only work.
INCOME
A rule that has stood for so long, even longer than the previous two, and that is we don’t talk about money in the workplace. We don’t discuss who makes what and how they got the money they have on the job. That only creates even more problems when that takes place. Because now you have people who feel this person does not deserve to make as much as this person over here. And now, the workplace breakdown causes a lack of productivity. Since this person makes this much, they should be doing this or that. So we leave income to the person who makes the income.
RELIGION
Please, please, please keep your religious beliefs to yourself in the workplace. Yes America is a place to practice what you believe. But knowing that this is a diverse country where even in Christianity, we practice so many different sects, there are even more issues through other beliefs. So IO don’t even want to spend much time on this one. You will save yourself a lot of paperwork and lawsuits.
efficiency
The overall goal of any workplace is to maintain the productive nature of the job. We want everything to be effective, efficient, and productive. Once that leaves we are all in jeopardy of losing out.
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