Essay Sample on Respect in the Workplace

Introduction

Respect among employees is crucial for the wellbeing of an organization. With respect, employees have admiration and regard for each other and believe that each person has qualities and capabilities that are worthy. Feeling respected brings awareness that an employee's contribution to the organization is appreciated and recognized. An employee can show respect to co-workers by respecting space and time in the workplace, staying professional, participating in team initiatives and empathizing with co-workers.

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One way of showing respect to employees is to respect space and time in the workplace. This can be achieved by avoiding monopolization of time with gossip and cheap talking (Vulcan, 2018). It is important to prevent poking nose into employee's issues and not to interrupt when they are on the phone or with a client. A shared workplace should further be kept clean and functional-looking. While it is important to look decent and smart, the strong scent should be avoided in the workplace. Most importantly, noise should be prevented by not talking loudly, not eating food randomly, humming or allowing music to interfere with others in the workplace.

Staying professional in the workplace is another way of showing respect and regard to employees. Professionalism ensures that personal life does not inappropriately interfere with work. This can be achieved by refraining from giving nicknames to employees or nicknames, avoiding physical contact that suggests intimacy and misconstrued intentions. It is also important to talk nicely to employees without placing them in subservient roles. Misunderstanding should be handled professionally. The problem should not be dealt with publicly through confrontation. Instead, it is important to let colleagues know how valuable the working relationship is and when the problem persists, supervisors should be called in to assist.

Participating in team initiatives is an excellent way of showing respect to employees. Contributing to the work team and becoming part of shared goals is enough to show of respect for work and colleagues. This means committing to discussions and debates in the workplace, sharing credit, supporting those on leadership roles as well as acknowledging unique ideas and achievements (Melanie, 2015). Acknowledging and praising co-worker for doing something excellent makes them feel appreciated and competent. Parsing them makes them know that their job is appreciated. However, praise should focus on job-related issues and not personal things like their looks.

Another effective way of showing respect for employees is to empathize with them. Empathy refers to the ability to experience and relate to the feelings, emotions, and experiences of others. It is the ability to step into people's shoes and show awareness of their beliefs and needs. It is easy to respect people when you can empathize with them. Empathy drives connection and provides a way of avoiding hurting people. Taking responsibility of one's mess, greeting people, assisting when help is needed, giving people their space and being kind are enough efforts of showing respect. It is good to have a patient with other employees in the workplace. One should understand that co-workers have unique learning abilities and their adaption to new tasks, perseverance and engagement vary form one employee to another. Having patience will demonstrate confidence and empathy in co-workers, and help them expand their knowledge and skills. People respect those who show them empathy, treat them well, and become open to them when they have problems or questions. This means that co-workers should be respected all the time even if you do not like them.

Displaying self-confidence at the workplace is another way of gaining respect. Co-workers need to be shown passion and commitment to the goals and objectives of work. This requires the maintenance of individual identity by not allowing the job to become a distraction. Employees must know that you are happy working with them and not afraid of losing the job. To get respect from supervisors and managers, tasks should be completed on time and efficiently. This will show a sense of responsibility as a person capable of sticking to promises and expectations. This also helps to win trust and demonstrate a sense of responsibility. If the deadline is not reasonable, a logical and tactful explanation should be provided to pass this message to the person who set the deadline.

Employees may have a different cultural background that creates diversity in the workplace. It helps a great deal to learn something about the cultural and religious beliefs of colleagues in the workplace to avoid offending them unintentionally. Beliefs and values vary from one co-work to another one and form an open religion to another. The first step of showing respect is to understand something about other's culture and values in an open and friendly manner. Asking questions as well as conducting research to understand their culture can lead to more understanding and respect.

All people enjoy being praised for their efforts and commitment. Praising workers improves their confidence in their skills and enhances productivity. Praise encourages them to not only work harder but also learn new skills and knowledge. Criticism should be crafted carefully and be combined with praise for what workers perform well. Mistakes should not be publicly blamed on anyone but should be handled carefully. Knowledge should be shared with all workers to avoid isolating one group in the workplace. Sharing knowledge and resources shows that you have all the confidence needed to solve complex problems and that you respect them enough to provide this information. Praise should be targeted to specific observations and should be genuine and quick. Timely praise has more reward and brings satisfaction to the person. This means making specific praise that focuses on details. To be more effective, praise should not be predictable but should be provided when least expected. It should be done to reinforce behaviour and therefore periodical, irregular rather than predictable.

Conclusion

Finally, people do not respect those who do not deserve respect. Respecting oneself is the sure way of demanding respect for others. This means marinating ones dignity and values at the workplace by not getting drunk at the company's social functions. All work-related activities must be done professionally. Showing respect starts by being neat and organized to create the impression that you have regard of the organization. Descent clothing indicates the idea that you value professionalism. Additionally, good language like a simple 'thank you' can bring a lot of satisfaction to the person. Using appropriate words like 'May I', 'please', 'kindly', and 'excuse me' may seem common sense but they affect relationships at workplace.

References

Melanie Sklarz (2015). Five Tips for Respectful Interaction in the Workplace. Legacy Business Culture. Retrieved from: http://legacycultures.com/five-tips-for-respectful-interaction-in-the-workplace

Vulcan, Nicole (2018). How to Treat People with Respect in the Workplace. Retrieved from: https://woman.thenest.com/treat-people-respect-workplace-5795.html