Having good manners in the office doesn’t need a policy

Some behaviors should be zero-tolerance offenses, but let's not make minor interpersonal differences an HR issue

Excuse my ignorance, but I thought etiquette guides had gone the same way as spats and suspenders. An anachronistic relic of a bygone era. Well - and I apologize - I was wrong. Manners matter.

According to a survey from the job search site Monster, almost a third of workers think that their workplace isn't a respectful environment where manners are valued. They think it's bad manners when their work colleagues don't clean up after themselves, gossip, use inappropriate language, don't respond to messages or are consistently late to meetings. Some 70% of them said they would consider leaving their jobs if their employers didn't have policies in place to enforce workplace etiquette.