By Philip Evans, Company Secretary at NCA Ltd
In response to member Douglas King’s recent query on the place of language in the workplace, HRZone contributor Philip Evans has compiled an opinion piece which examines the issues in further detail.
Last year brought a situation I thought I might never see, someone lost their job due because they used inappropriate language.
This was a first to me, perhaps there have been others but since it happened in a sport I have an interest in, football, I took notice.
The ‘off air’ racist comment about a black Chelsea player by football pundit Ron Atkinson became a media hot potato last year. His faux pas forced his resignation at ITV and as a writer for the Guardian but he is not alone in making gaffs of this kind.
Atkinson’s fall from grace could easily happen to other professionals and leave an organisation with a damaged reputation and poor morale.
I have no intention of taking a politically correct stance and to list to you all the words that you now can no longer use – one because I have a word count, two it would be almost immediately out of date and three someone would accuse me of leaving something vitally important out or putting something trivial in, that itself, would cause offence – something I am loathe to do.
The chief issue with dealing with inappropriate/appropriate language is that those on both sides of the debate often come from the perspective that they must not cause offence.
Not offending in principle sounds laudable, however, it is not achievable. You can never reach the point of not offending.
Tackling the issue from a different perspective is a better approach. Instilling the right culture in the workplace is a start via procedures, adopting the right management styles and promoting respect.
How do we make ‘respect’ practical and not just a platitude, something working and not just an addition for the mission/vision or strategic statement?
Ensuring ‘respect’ permeates organisational policy and practice is not easy and certainly isn’t a tick box exercise, but an ongoing process that needs to keep on being addressed on an individual and corporate basis.
Benchmark your position:
1. Deal with company/cultural myths – try to find out if any exist in your company. Are their views of particular groups; even customers that pervade your organisation? Use confidential surveys to assess this.
Measuring perceptions may yield some surprising results. It is important to know what your staff really think of customers, since this will shape how they treat them and if there is a negative undercurrent, this could impact on the bottom line. Furthermore, cultural myths may prevent your organisation from recruiting and retaining the best staff while keeping the business out of lucrative markets.
2. Avoid fashionable phraseology – the problem with fashions is they change and it is hard for people to keep up with them, if at all. Following it may mean that your language can sound disingenuous.
3. Banish tabloid phrases – ‘Political correctness gone mad’ for example, and try to encourage a culture in which employees ask themselves the question: ‘Am I treating this person with respect?’ ‘Am I giving them my best?’
4. Treat people as individuals and not groups. Doing the reverse is often the problem underpinning inappropriate language. It can dehumanise situations and risks the trap of stereotyping. This is what leads individuals and organisations down the path to inappropriate language. You must sometimes allow staff room to respond in human ways to customers and to each other not just mechanically following a script or filling in a form.
To deal with inappropriate language we have to dispense with the idea of ‘not trying to do something’ such as offend. Instead we should seek to do something positive, which is to treat people with respect and as individuals.
To paraphrase the words of Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding et ’all of us just want a little RESPECT.’
What we have to keep in mind is that everyone has something to be respected for if we can instil this into our everyday approach we are prevented from adopting inappropriate language in the workplace.
