This week the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, as suggested by 15-year old McKay Hatch, will likely declare the first week of March cuss-free. Hatch, who runs a No-Cussing Club at his high school, started the group in response to the increase of swearing he heard from fellow classmates.

About the purpose of the group, Hatch declared:

It’s not about forcing anyone to stop, just to bring awareness,” he says of the movement. “If you can do a week without cussing, maybe you can do two weeks. And then maybe a month.

As for how adopting a week long country-wide ban on cussing will affect everybody, Tony Bell, a board supervisor representative said:
“It’s a good reminder for all of us, not just young people but everybody, to be respectful to one another and watch the words we use”

This story got me thinking about other ways we can demonstrate respect, not only in our daily lives but also at work. I typed “demonstrating respect at work” into a major search engine and came up with 22,400,000 results. The first link on the list was titled, How to Demonstrate Respect at Work.  In the article, the author suggests that respect is the preferred treatment people would like at work.

Similar to our own Rules of Engagement, the article also offers ideas on how to engage in respectful behavior in the workplace. Here are some of the suggestions:

  • Encourage coworkers to express opinions and ideas.
  • Treat people with courtesy, politeness, and kindness.
  • Use people’s ideas to change or improve work. Let employees know you used their idea, or, better yet, encourage the person with the idea to implement the idea.
  • Praise much more frequently than you criticize. Encourage praise and recognition from employee to employee as well as from the supervisor.

What tips do you have for treating other people at work with respect?