New Week, New Headlines: Rudeness Epidemic: Insights from SHRM’s Civility Index & Turns Out, Becoming an AI Power User is Easy.

This week, we're focusing on key studies that just dropped...

Topic 1: Rudeness Epidemic: Insights from SHRM’s Civility Index
Can workplace incivility be costing your organization more than you realize? Join us as we unravel the harsh reality that nearly 40% of daily uncivil acts happen at work. We dive into personal stories and real-life experiences that highlight these staggering numbers. Discover how the SHRM Civility Index, with its current US score of 40, categorizes the frequency of incivility in the workplace. Learn about the importance of respect and how assessing civility can lead to a healthier work environment. References: 

• SHRM Civility Index

Topic 2:  Turns Out, Becoming an AI Power User is Easy.
Despite some hesitations and the lack of a clear implementation strategy among leaders, AI is gaining traction for enhancing productivity and alleviating burnout. We'll share insights from Microsoft's and LinkedIn's 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report, revealing how employees from Gen Z to Boomers are harnessing AI to streamline tasks like transcription and meeting summarization. Tune in for practical advice to become an AI power user in your workplace and learn how this technology can help bridge the gap in workload demands. References:

• 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or the management.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

nearly 40% of the daily acts of incivility occurred in the workplace. Oh, think about that, Mel. That's almost half of your experience.

Speaker 2: 0:12

But I get it Honestly. I have worked on teams where they were in the code red situation. That is like well, these people are dicks, ah, smell. Good memorial day, good memorial day, yeah, you too. Yeah, yeah, it's going well, boys, are you planting some seeds, that's fun.

Speaker 1: 0:46

What are you planting?

Speaker 2: 0:48

Enzo picked out two types of carrots regular carrots and then heirloom carrots, because he had never eaten a yellow or a white carrot before, and pumpkins.

Speaker 1: 0:58

And pumpkins. Did I ever tell you about my random pumpkin batch? Tell me the story I think you have.

Speaker 1: 1:05

It's like Snow White in our yard. There's like animals everywhere. There's a groundhog in here we found a couple rabbits, there's a skunk mama with her babies that comes through the yard, and then this one squirrel that eats all of the bird seed. And one year we left our pumpkin out and the following year we started to see like blooms of what looked like vining on the ground in front of our house and we're like, oh, let's see what this is and let it just go Straight up. One half of our front yard was a full pumpkin patch from the squirrel just eating our leftover pumpkin from the prior year. So there you go. We had one year of free pumpkins and then it.

Speaker 2: 1:44

It's like a little Johnny Appleseed yeah, not to be gross. What is it? They ate it and spit it out. Ate it and pooped it out. What do we think? What do?

Speaker 1: 1:50

we think. I'm thinking maybe both.

Speaker 2: 1:53

A little fertilizer. Nothing wrong with it, nothing wrong with it yeah, but it worked, but it worked. I understand people getting super into gardening and, yeah, I love gardening it's fun. It's healthy too.

Speaker 1: 2:06

It's super healthy.

Speaker 2: 2:08

Yeah, I agree, we're back. There's a lot going on there's news.

Speaker 1: 2:14

There's a lot going on, geez, always, goodness, all right. Friends, this is your work. Friends. I'm Mel, hey and I'm Francesca, and we're your two HR friends getting you through the work. Shit. We are talking about a couple of headlines on the horizon. Francesca, what are you talking about today?

Speaker 2: 2:32

Yeah, should we all just become AI power users? That's the question at hand. Listen, microsoft and LinkedIn came out with their 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report. That is a mouthful, but they had some really interesting insights that I wanted to share with everybody. And, more importantly, if you do want to become that super user, there's a pretty easy way, so I want to jam about it, mel how about you?

Speaker 1: 2:56

I am talking about SHRM's Civility Index Report that came out in Q1. So Civility, the state of civility, yes yeah, should we fight over it?

Speaker 2: 3:11

I'm just joking, all right well, let's do it let's do it.

Speaker 1: 3:22

SHRM has a civility index that they put out that measures how civil we are at work and beyond. Did you know about this index?

Speaker 2: 3:33

No, I didn't. Society of Human Resources right, I didn't even know that they measured that. But wow, what an interesting thing to measure. Especially well, you and I know this from being in HR right, there's a lot of uncivilness that goes. So, yeah, fascinating. What did you find out?

Speaker 1: 3:51

Yeah, yeah, okay. I'm going to start off with, for anyone who doesn't know, in case you are unaware, what is civility. Marian Webster defines civility as courtesy and politeness. It's generally accepted that it means treating others with respect, empathy, humanity, especially in moments where you disagree. So, in simple terms, folks treat others the way you wish you were treated. But it all comes down to the good old lesson from your mom, right? So what's in this index? They conducted a survey with 1,611 US workers and they placed this on a scale of zones. So where are you in a civility zone? It's rated on a scale of 0 to 100, right, okay? First there's zone one. This is a 0 to 10 rating and this means we're operating in a state of civility where incivility is rare. Let's just say nobody's in this zone right now. And is it like?

Speaker 2: 4:50

by your organization.

Speaker 1: 4:51

So if you have a seven organization, pretty good, really nice, or even as a country even as a team.

Speaker 1: 4:57

They're measuring it from a US worker standpoint and the incivility that they're experiencing in the workplace but also in their day-to-day life. So really taking that scale, but they drill down into the work component. So I'll get to that in a second. I'm curious if you could take this into your organization, if they had an assessment tool that you could do to help you with that reading. I think it would be so amazing. All right, I'll get to all that in a second.

Speaker 1: 5:23

So zone one zero to 10, rare incivility it doesn't happen, Okay. Zone two is a score of 11 to 30. This is what they call the stay alert zone, where there's occasional incivility. Zone three is a score of 31 to 50. This is what they call their take action zone to prevent incivility from escalating further. At this stage, incivility is common practice. Zone four is a scale of 51 to 70. This is what they're calling. This is not a drill stage where frequent incivility occurs. And then zone 5, 71 to 100, this is their code red zone. So this is just constant incivility is taking place. So they just released the Q1 2024 index report on a scale of 1 to 100 for the US index score, what do you think the US is ranked?

Speaker 2: 6:22

as. Just so many good jokes here, mel. Just so many good jokes. Honestly listen, yeah, 54, 54, you're close 40 get out of this 42.3.

Speaker 1: 6:35

So we are in zone three, we are in the take action zone. We're on the higher end of that because the top of that zone is a score of 50. This is where incivility is common. So in the us and we live here, so yeah, we do. That's my experience is that your? Experience sounds about right? Yeah, it's my experience. Is that your experience Sounds about right?

Speaker 2: 6:54

Yeah, it's only my dailiness. I don't see that Right, but keep in mind I live in Portland.

Speaker 1: 7:01

If you see Portlandia that's very true.

Speaker 2: 7:03

The stop sign is you go ahead. No, please you go ahead.

Speaker 1: 7:06

Right, I live on the East Coast, where the guys like honking at me and giving me the finger, telling me to learn how to drive by the way.

Speaker 2: 7:12

I think the most uncivil place to drive is Boston. No offense to Boston drivers, but like Boston is, get the fuck out of the way I think it's hilarious to drive in Boston.

Speaker 1: 7:22

If you can drive on the East Coast, you can drive anywhere, yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:26

Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense, though, especially when you look at things politically. I get it, we're there, I see it, I see it.

Speaker 1: 7:34

Stats for workers. Nearly 40 percent of daily acts of incivility occur in the workplace. Wait, whoa, when they measured where incivility takes place. In general like the grocery store, whatever it holds them on. Where does it occur in your daily life? So it could be outside of work or inside of work, and nearly 40% of the daily acts of incivility occurred in the workplace.

Speaker 2: 8:04

Oh, think about that, Mel.

Speaker 1: 8:05

That's almost half of your experience.

Speaker 2: 8:08

But I get it Honestly. I have worked on teams where they were in the code red situation.

Speaker 1: 8:37

That I was just like wow, these people are dicks. Do you know what I'm?

Speaker 2: 8:39

saying I get it, and that's of US workers believe their managers are effective at handling incivility in the workplace. This is so awesomely bad. Keep going, keep going. By the way, this is from the Society of Human Resources.

Speaker 1: 8:47

Yeah, they know what they're talking about, and US workers collectively experience 171 million acts of incivility per day. It doesn't always have to be a big action. That is incivility. It could just be you're in a conversation with someone and you rolled your eyes. That's incivility, like these behaviors or actions that essentially don't treat people with respect or empathy or humanity, and moments of disagreement. That's what that looks like, folks. Why this matters. 66% of US workers agree that incivility is reducing their productivity, so organizations really should care about this.

Speaker 2: 9:27

No, shit, honestly, when you're working with an incivil team or somebody that's just like a jerk or someone that rolls their eyes at you. By the way, I'll be thinking about that the rest of the day.

Speaker 1: 9:37

You will. I have 100% experienced that with someone, or I've even witnessed someone just treating someone else like complete shit in a meeting and you're like what the hell man?

Speaker 2: 9:47

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:48

Can we just not be nice to each other? We're all under the same stress.

Speaker 2: 9:52

Such a waste of energy, such a waste of energy and as a, even when you're a people leader.

Speaker 1: 9:57

Just that's one of the worst things that you have to manage. Um, 59 of employees agree that it causes a decline in their morale. Yeah, of course. Of course you feel like crap, like your life's hard enough, and then you come in and you're dealing with that shit, and workers who rate their workplace as uncivil are over three times more likely to be dissatisfied with their job. And we know what dissatisfaction with your job leads to. That leads to turnover. So there are some real bottom line business implications to not addressing incivility in the workplace.

Speaker 1: 10:33

So I really love that they're launching this conversation they have, by the way, I'm quoting all of the stats from their report and I'll link to that in the show notes so you can download that yourself, and they have a few other stats out there that are really interesting, and they have an entire page dedicated to resources to help you out. They have a great resource for employees and for leaders to leverage. It's a play on Cards Against Humanity. It's called Cards Against Incivility. I went through the cards.

Speaker 1: 11:04

It's a great self-reflection tool. Or you can do this with your team if you're a team leader, and just have a general discussion on how to create more civil work environment and culture for your team. Look, if your organization is not going to do it at an org level, then take it into your own hands to have that discussion with your team. Or if your team leader isn't making this a priority, all you can do is focus on yourself and how you show up, and I would use this as a great reflection tool. They offer a number of different articles and resources too, with experts that provide guidance on various situations where instability arises and how you can get ahead of that. For example, as we all know, we have an election coming up this November.

Speaker 1: 11:45

They have advice with experts on how to manage political discussions in the workplace for example or when that shows up and how to address it, Highly recommend going through those articles, not just because I'm SHRM certified. I love SHRM. They have really great resources around this, so the best thing you can do is start to have the conversation when incivility shows up. Shrm launched their One Million Civil Conversations campaign to encourage this dialogue and it focuses on helping companies, ourselves and our communities to move towards a more civil living situation. I love that.

Speaker 2: 12:24

Can I add one other thing here.

Speaker 1: 12:25

Yes, please do.

Speaker 2: 12:27

Listen, I have found that adage that potentially your grandparents always used to say that you earn more bees with honey than you do with vinegar is very true. Early on in my career I think I was very much a bull in a china shop. By any means necessary, get it done. Execute that kind of thing. I have learned in my wise age that you get so much further and longer if you act with civility. That does not mean you need to agree, but that means you need to be respectful, that you need to understand that potentially somebody else is coming from a different point of view and get through this in a healthy way, and pulling back to high school antics will get you freaking nowhere.

Speaker 1: 13:17

Oh yeah, and we've seen it. We've seen it. Yeah, you're just like come on, this is not helpful. No, it doesn't build trust. There's so much damage from this one thing.

Speaker 2: 13:30

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:30

So I love that the dialogue is happening, because I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done in the workplace to teach people how to disagree and respectfully.

Speaker 2: 13:45

Well, you and I both love our studies. We love our studies. This week, LinkedIn and Microsoft dropped their 2024 Work Trend Index annual report and the title here is AI at Work is here. Now Comes the Hard Part A couple of things. I want to give you some insights around what came out of this report and, more importantly, the things that you should probably start thinking about as an employee around AI and especially around how to become a power user. Now is the time to start thinking about how do you do this. Before I get into that, they looked at 30,000 plus people and organizations. The reason why I really like looking at this report is when you think about who has the data on employees and companies in terms of how they work. The closest that you could probably get to that is LinkedIn. In terms of jobs, job seekers, the skills that people have, LinkedIn probably has the best data on that of anybody. Quite honestly.

Speaker 2: 14:44

So that's really interesting. And then, with Microsoft, most companies are sitting on a Microsoft platform in terms of Teams, word, excel, microsoft platform in terms of Teams Word, excel, powerpoint right. So if you look at data around how companies operate and the marketplace for employees, microsoft and LinkedIn are probably your best bets right now to look at that. I trust what they're saying here in terms of work trends and here's what they find. It is the year of AI, especially around generative AI.

Speaker 1: 15:13

Mel Frick with ChatGPT co-pilot it right, although I listened to the Pivot podcast this morning and they were meeting with an expert that said that AI is actually it's good, but it's also still pretty dumb.

Speaker 2: 15:25

It's clippy on steroids at this point right and you start to see this even in. I was in, I think I was in Canva the other day and they're like do you want our AI generator?

Speaker 1: 15:32

Oh gosh, I think I was in Canva the other day and they're like do you want our AI?

Speaker 2: 15:34

generator. Oh gosh, I've used that, yeah. And, by the way, ai has been in a lot of tools already, just in the background. All right, so some interesting insights. Even though it's still pretty dumb, you start to see a lot of organizations are making big investments in AI. This is a way to stay competitive. Yeah, it's smart. It's smart, it's smart. However, I will argue that we're very much in our infancy with this. So again, while more AI is necessary, the pressure to show immediate return on investment is making leaders move a little bit slow. So 79% of leaders agree their company needs to adopt AI to stay competitive, which makes sense, but 59% worry that they're not going to get the productivity out of it. 60% of leaders also worry their organization's leadership lacks a plan and a vision to implement AI.

Speaker 1: 16:20

I agree, I think you can invest in it, but what is your strategy behind using it?

Speaker 2: 16:25

Where are?

Speaker 1: 16:25

you going to use it? Where are you not going to use it? What boundaries are you putting in play here and that will help you with where you're going to actually invest your time, resources and money?

Speaker 2: 16:36

Yeah, honestly, when you dig into a lot of this, it feels like a lot of leaders are throwing something at the wall to see what sticks.

Speaker 1: 16:42

Let's use.

Speaker 2: 16:42

AI for it. Yeah, when? Why? Why are you using?

Speaker 1: 16:45

AI. They need, like a true process review to see where it makes sense.

Speaker 2: 16:50

I agree. Any technology implementation starts with what business problem?

Speaker 1: 16:54

are you solving right?

Speaker 2: 16:56

And we see this so much where people are like, oh, we need to implement technology for technology's sake, as opposed to is this really solving a business challenge? And what is that business challenge? And is AI, or whatever tech you're bringing in, really the right thing?

Speaker 1: 17:13

Is it the right solution?

Speaker 2: 17:14

Yeah, sometimes it is. I will, you and I know this a lot of times. It's not so here we are again with just another tool. But I will say I think it's interesting that there's this kind of race for AI and then there's this feeling that a lot of leaders aren't really equipped to implement it in the way that it needs to be implemented. So that's interesting.

Speaker 2: 17:37

The other piece here is that 78% of AI users bring their own AI to work. It's BYOAI and this is even more common with small to medium-sized businesses, where 80% of workers are bringing their own AI to work, which obviously has its own data concerns. But I think it's interesting when you look at again, leaders are saying I need this to stay competitive, but equal number of employees are saying, yeah, I'm already using it. So we all see the value here and we're all kind of testing it out. I thought that was interesting. Yeah, and before you think AI is only being used by Gen Z, think again. I thought this was fascinating. Byoai is not just for Gen Z, yes, gen Z. So that's our 18 to 28-year-old 85% of Gen Z knowledge workers are using AI, but millennials and Gen X 78, 76.

Speaker 1: 18:31

I believe it, you're using it, I'm using it.

Speaker 2: 18:34

A thousand percent Boomers 73% of boomers are using it too.

Speaker 1: 18:37

That's surprising, yes, surprised by that.

Speaker 2: 18:40

So this is like an equal opportunity game, but this is for everybody right and we're all getting into it, which I love that 75% of knowledge workers who use AI at work today 46% of them started using it less than six months ago and they're already starting to see gains right. 90% say it saves some time, 85% allows them to focus more on work and 83% they enjoy their work more if they're using it.

Speaker 1: 19:06

I believe it. I think of the AI tool something so simple. I use, for example, the Otter AI transcription tool for meetings. That'll record your meeting. It takes all the notes, so I'm not having to worry about that. I can just be engaged fully in the conversation.

Speaker 1: 19:23

You're also not punting that off to somebody else on the team who also would like to be engaged, and then it sends a summary to everybody automatically and it's pretty good in terms of accuracy and you can make changes if you need to, and it summarizes the key points that were discussed, in addition to action items with due dates, and then you can connect that to other systems to add that to project management tools and things like that. So when you think about something that in the past would, then someone has to take the notes, someone has to synthesize the notes, send that out to everybody, get that into your project management tool. What was once a two to three hour task for one individual is now cut down to maybe 15 minutes. Yeah, that's huge. That's a huge gain. That's a huge gain and that's a small way to implement AI in your day to day.

Speaker 2: 20:12

And the other thing to your very good point that this report came out with one of the other drivers of BYOAI is that employees are finding it harder and harder to keep up right.

Speaker 2: 20:23

68% of people are struggling with the pace and the volume of work. We know that a lot of people 46% according to this survey feel burnt out. Lot of people 46% according to this survey feel burnt out and they also found in this report which I thought was interesting again because Microsoft has the data on this 60% of our time is being spent in things like email, chat and meetings and only 40% in things like Word or PowerPoint. So when you think about, are people creating or are they in the minutiae of the work? They're in the minutiae of work And're in the minutia of work and something like Otter. That's saving you hours and hours of time where you can get more creative. And so it makes sense that people are saying hey, when I pull into tools like Copilot, pull into tools like Otter, I feel like I'm saving time. Again, 90% of people feel like they can save time, they can focus on that important work, they can enjoy their work more.

Speaker 1: 21:13

Makes sense. Yeah, it makes 100% sense.

Speaker 2: 21:15

Yeah. The last thing here is that AI is really starting to impact the job market. The majority of leaders say they're concerned about having enough talent to fill roles in the year ahead. There is a fear and a narrative out there that AI is going to cause job loss, and that's top of mind for a lot of people, but there's a hidden talent shortage. For any employee that's looking for a career change, it's AI. It's AI Listen. Leaders already made a land grab for any kind of AI talent and 66% of leaders say they wouldn't hire someone without AI skills 66% yeah, that's pretty hot. It's an expectation, it is. So. Here's the deal, friends. Ai is again. We're in its infancy. We know that when you're starting to use it and play with it, you're having some benefits here, and we also know that in the job market, it's a hot commodity, and I think, especially now again, this is if I were playing in the stock market, this is where I'd say this is a bet you want to invest in for yourself now.

Speaker 1: 22:21

A hundred percent. It's going to be a big cost to entry. Just look at your look. Don't wait for your listen by the time your organization spends the time and money to do the actual process redesign that it needs to do where AI is going to come in and they're going to define what's being supported. Look at your week and the own processes that you're following and see what you want to test with AI so you can test and learn.

Speaker 2: 22:47

A thousand percent To Mel's very good point. You can become a power user in AI very easily and let me tell you how people have done it. And it's three very interesting habit switches oh, okay, okay. And again, when we talk about being a power, there's skeptics, there's novices, explorers and power users. Power users are familiar with AI and they use it at least several times a week. Okay, that could be literally like you're asking chat GPT five times a week about something. Then you'd be considered a bit of a power user. Three quick habit switches to become a power user in AI. Number one the most important thing you could do before you start a task, ask yourself could AI help me with this? Number two research and try new prompts when you're in AI as well. So try to think about how you can use different prompts to get the answers you want. And three is regularly experiment with different ways of using AI. There is an AI for everything. Mel, you have that site.

Speaker 1: 23:48

There's an AI for that right. Yeah, I love that site. This is not a formal promotion, but I love that site because I get a weekly newsletter. It tells me about all of the new AI tools that are coming out and there's so much fun stuff to test. I think, Francesca, what did I send you? Like weird stories about my cats. Yes, Add visuals and like illustration. It was so funny. We'll link to that in the show notes for anyone who's interested. But highly recommend that newsletter and I think remember to just have fun instead of fear have fun.

Speaker 1: 24:21

Yeah, it's now's the time to have fun remember, like when the internet first came out. Oh yeah, we were young and we were like this is, although also really a weird place at the Turing one at prison, oh my God.

Speaker 2: 24:34

Yeah, in cell central.

Speaker 1: 24:36

Yeah, a thousand percent. We became super users because of our curiosity and our play, so this is an opportunity to play.

Speaker 2: 24:44

Yes, this is absolutely an opportunity to play. And again ask yourself could AI help me with this? And the answer is yes. Thanks so much for joining us today. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You can come over and say hi to us on the TikToks and LinkedIn community. Hit us up at yourworkfriendscom. We're always posting stuff on there and if you found this episode helpful, share with your work friends. Thanks, friend.