Etiquette Today ?

शिस्टाचार / शिष्टता / सभ्याचार / सभ्यता / रीति

Have you ever really studied the people who work with you or indeed around you? If you have, you will probably come to one conclusion. That today's workforce can be compared to a well-mixed salad: of young and old, male and female, those that are highly educated and those that are less so. This diverse mix means that each person brings to the work environment his or her own set of beliefs, values and expectations. This also means that there is going to be more than one way of looking at a situation or tackling a problem — all of which make good sense.
But such variety in the workplace makes it imperative for supervisors and co-workers to be sensitive to different communication and working styles and this is where etiquette becomes so important.

Let's look at this whole business of etiquette another way. If you have a bunch of people who are constantly snapping and snarling at each other, you will witness company output suffering. If you are in the service industry, for example, you could find that most of your time is taken up soothing the ruffled feathers of some irate client who may have been talked down to by an unhappy employee! There's no doubt that employees are far more productive in a harmonious workplace where they coexist in a healthy environment.

But what is etiquette all about? Is it only about being polite or are there other parameters that come into play? “Etiquette is the stuff that makes work spaces civilised. It's tough because today's spaces are crowded and pressurised. Only constant doses of ingrained etiquette ensure that the workplace is tolerable”, Consulting Partner, Perfect Relations.

In the good old days, etiquette was all about the simpler things: holding the door open for a woman colleague, wishing someone the time of day, never being late for an appointment and so on. However, even though all of these hold good in today's working environment, we can't get away from the fact that things have changed. For starters, technology has altered the way we do business. Today, there's e-mail, cell phones and voice mail to cope with not to speak of a more relaxed working environment in terms of office timings, dress codes and so on. So isn't it time for an etiquette upgrade?

There are many Written & Unwritten Rules :

The most important thing to remember is to be courteous and thoughtful to the people around you, regardless of the situation. Consider other people's feelings, but stick to your convictions as diplomatically as possible. Address conflict as situation-related, rather than person-related. And most importantly apologise when you step on someone's toes.

Many organisations have a code of conduct that spells out some golden rules. “We should pride ourselves on the code of conduct which we have instituted for our faculty and staff members. The employees are expected to exhibit behaviour which is characterised by qualities such as courtesy, tactfulness, trustworthiness, empathy, consideration, etc. This leads to mutually satisfactory interactions between our faculty and the students on the one hand and with parents and visitors on the other.''

"We must encourage our employees to cultivate good manners. To use good manners entail quite a few habits like returning a voice-mail, responding to the e-mail even if you do not have much to say and setting your phone on the silent/vibrator mode during meetings."
The finer nuances of etiquette need to be “taught by companies to their employees”. Talking of rudimentary etiquette is quick to point out that “cell phones are very intrusive and seem to make most people forget their basic manners. Culprits come from all age groups and both sexes”.

“Even though there may be open cubicle offices, it’s good to ask for permission before walking into someone's workstation. The company should discourages its employees from talking loudly to each other across cubicles, wearing inappropriate clothing and taking calls during meetings”.
To work well with others in a congenial atmosphere, therefore, it is essential that we conduct ourselves according to established convention. The need for proper rules of etiquette, when, an organisation's culture develops, over many years and is deeply rooted in values to which employees are strongly committed. These values are reflected in the good etiquette displayed by the organisation's human resource”.