When I went to my first college reunion last year and peered in the window of the Residence Life office, a poster caught my eye.  As a business etiquette speaker, I loved seeing the message of civility hanging prominently.  On and off during the year, I thought I’d love to get a copy of that poster.

This year when I was invited to a Residence Life reunion as part of Homecoming, I took the opportunity to ask about the poster.  Many thanks to Megan Julius for researching it and sending it to me with permission to share.

This inspired me to share about a new book published this year, Mastering Civility by management professor Christine Porath. She makes a case quoting research studies that the workplace would be more effective with more civility rather than the tough and aggressive corporate culture our society often supports.

Multiple research studies demonstrate how rudeness and bullying have a negative impact on performance. After being belittled as a group, participants in one experiment had 39% fewer creative ideas in brainstorming and did 33% worse on an annagram-type puzzle. Another experiment showed that even observing incivility decreased performance on two tests, 20% and 30%, compared to a control group.

An excellent summary of the book and great links to research is in the article How to Reduce Rudeness in the Workplace at Greater Good Magazine.

I hope the art and research inspire YOU.  Please pass them on.  Goodness knows we need civility more than ever!  Thank you Duquesne for getting the word out. Makes me proud!

While hanging out on the porch of Angel House in Lilydale, I enjoyed striking up a conversation with Adrienne who was vacationing with her daughter.  While I naturally didn’t start the conversation with the typical “what do you do” somehow chatting led to her sharing a bit of her work history (I guess that’s not uncommon that a career counselor’s conversation goes in that direction).

It turns out she recently retired now in her mid-eighties. [Full disclosure is that although I wrote down some notes, in my unpacking I can’t find them, so some editorial license here.]

She had actually retired already as an office worker. Then through conversation at a church activity with the Catholic Daughters of America, she started up again part-time though she wasn’t actually looking to. (Remember NETWORKING happens at all ages, and actually is the best strategy if you have a challenge such as age or gap in work history.)

I think she said she had been retired for seven years when she went back to work. I asked her why she decided to come out of retirement: She said she likes to keep busy!  Well, maybe that’s what keeps her so active and alert!  We met as she was doing a crossword puzzle and shared that she does a 40 minute walk daily.  I think that was the answer to my question of what keeps her so young!

May you be inspired to stay active and young at heart like Adrienne! And if you’d like some help doing that happily at a job, please contact me.