We’ve been studying incivility for a decade, and we’ve found that common (and generally tolerated) antisocial behavior at work is far more toxic than managers imagine. Berating bosses; employees who take credit for others’ work, assign blame, or spread rumors; and coworkers who exclude teammates from networks—all of these can cut a swath of destruction that’s often visible only to the immediate victims. Targets of bad behavior become angry, frustrated, and even vengeful. Job satisfaction falls, and performance plummets. Some employees leave. But those who stay may take a bigger toll on the organization. As a senior vice president of a Fortune 50 firm told us, “They can and do sit in the boat without pulling the oars…and that may be worse than leaving.”
A version of this article appeared in the April 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review.