It's a fact that in this day and age, people spend more time with their coworkers than with anyone else. And studies show that people derive their greatest sense of belonging from the workplace. That means, you're like family, part of the human family.
Feeling like you belong and are safe also happen to be critical to human well-being. The psychological safety that comes with this sense of belonging is also critical to the effective functioning of teams.
"Our employees are our number one asset" means you start with treating your employees with respect and a duty of care and expect employees to do the same for each other. In other words, happy worker begets happy company, begets happy customer, begets happy community.
Of course we all know this intuitively. Why do we ignore it? There is always a reason - "the work has got to get done", "this is a workplace not a daycare", "you should see the way I was treated", "suck it up buttercup", "you're replaceable", "its business, not personal", and the list goes on.
On a personal level, you don't need an elaborate moral framework, detailed policy statement or collective agreement to know how you should treat others. It all boils down to one simple rule. Treat others as you wish to be treated.
~ Diane Kalen-Sukra | Speaker, Author, Save Your City: How Toxic Culture Kills Community & What To Do About It Local Government Edition of Save Your City, published by Municipal World.