Top workplace manner is “respectful communication” while top worst workplace behaviour is “not cleaning up after oneself”

SINGAPORE: If you want to get along well with your workmates, this may be for you. After all, with more and more of us back to face-to-face work, how intelligently we get on with the people in the same office can determine our well-being.

Believe it or not, showing up on time is no longer at the top of employees’ lists of what they wish to see in those who work alongside them.

Last month, Monster’s workplace website conducted a survey called “BRING YOUR MANNERS TO WORK: Results and findings from recent research on ​the future of work and the evolving jobs market.”

It found that the top workplace manner is respectful communication, with half of the employees surveyed rating it as the most important.

Only 14 per cent of respondents considered punctuality the most important workplace manner, and a tiny proportion of those surveyed—2 per cent—cited dressing professionally as their number one workplace manner.

Now, let’s check out the other end of the scale and examine what workplace behaviours annoy people the most.

Number one on the list of rudest workplace behaviours is not cleaning up after oneself, with almost nine in 10 (88 per cent) respondents ranking it at the top. This was followed by gossiping (81 per cent).

Now, expletives may have become more and more common onscreen today, but the third-rudest workplace behaviour is, rather surprisingly, using inappropriate language (78 per cent).

The last two behaviours in the top five are not nearly as surprising as they are probably as annoying to you as to anyone who took the survey. Being unresponsive to messages (77 per cent) is in fourth place, and consistently being late to meetings (76 per cent) is in fifth.

But what about firms that are looking to hire? What qualities are they looking for from job seekers applying to their companies? Well, Monster’s 2024 Work Watch Report lists the most important soft skills they look for from candidates:

• Communication (39 per cent)
• Problem-solving/critical thinking (25 per cent)
• Teamwork/collaboration (8 per cent) /TISG

Read also: “Your colleagues are not your friends” — Woman laments after feeling betrayed by her ‘workplace friends’ who spread false rumours about her