Workplace Incivility, Climate Change Curriculum and Catan for Modern Times: What I’m Reading This Week

Happy summer!

Every year, I think about this quote from The Great Gatsby: “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”

In solstices past, I have practiced yoga (but not at sunrise because I’m not a morning person) and watched the sunset over the water. I’ve written about the Alzheimer’s Association fundraiser, The Longest Day. This year, I learned about Sweden’s midsummer celebration, and I will be boogying the night away at a summer solstice party.

Amid all this reverie for nature’s beauty, we have also been enduring a brutal heat wave. It reminds me that we must co-exist with Nature and that even though we now can fly without melting our wax wings, we still have limits.

In other words, I hope you have been able to appreciate the joys of summer while also staying safe and being mindful of your figurative and literal footprint.

I am currently exploring home insulation in an effort to reduce my energy usage and help my aging HVAC unit last a few more years. If anyone wants to discuss the pros and cons of mineral wool and fiberglass, I’m all ears!

Until next time, stay safe and be well!

Workplace Incivility

I saw this story trending on LinkedIn and wondered what behaviors were considered uncivil at the workplace. These include gaslighting, gossiping, ignoring, interrupting, excessive micromanaging, taking credit for others’ work, assigning blame, abdicating responsibility and other disrespectful behaviors.

Joh O’Brien, a psychologist and executive coach, told Fortune that unlike bullying, incivility is a collection of often unintentional “stress-related behaviors that emerge spontaneously and may be seemingly inconsequential, such as eye-rolling” that others might dismiss as overreacting.

Incivility can lead employees to question what they’re experiencing and to distrust or second-guess themselves—and their work. It can also cause employees to experience low self-esteem, dread, anxiety and PTSD.

And, it seems, incivility is on the rise. A Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey in March 2024 found that 66% of members experienced or witnessed incivility at work within the past month, while 57% experienced or witnessed incivility at work within the past week.

There are many suspected reasons for the rise in incivility—stress, mental health issues, social media and political climate—but the end result is that employees don’t feel psychologically safe. That leads to lower productivity, higher turnover, lower morale, increased gaps in institutional knowledge, higher risk of injury, higher risk of workplace violence, etc.

Unfortunately, the SHRM study also found that only 25% of respondents believe their managers are effective at handling incivility. It seems that unless or until management decides to take action, the problem will continue to grow.

As a result, safety professionals need to consider how they lead from where they are. Maybe that means speaking to management. Maybe that means collaborating more with HR. Maybe that means intervening when they see unfair treatment or disagreement.

Learn more about workplace incivility and the damaging affects it can have here.

Climate Change Curriculum

Young adults want to learn more about what matters to them. At the top of that list is climate change.

This story from the Associated Press focuses on high school and college students in Minnesota who were supporting a bill that would require Minnesota schools to incorporate climate justice into the curriculum.

Some states are already talking about climate change, while others are moving in the opposite direction. The Minnesota bill did not advance in the 2023 or 2024 legislative sessions, though supporters promised to try again next year.

Many young adults are getting involved because they are already seeing the effects of climate change. What’s more, they are going to bear the brunt of the effects of climate change.

They will be the ones who have to adapt their way of life because of our actions. They will be the ones who will have to live with the consequences if we don’t meet the Paris Agreement. They will be the ones who might not be able to enjoy chocolate, coffee and other luxuries if producers are driven out of the market by droughts, diseases or flooding caused by climate change.

That’s already taking a toll on young adults, who are troubled by climate anxiety.

An October 2022 survey from EdWeek Research Center found that 37 percent of teenagers feel anxious when they think about climate change and its effects, and 34% are afraid. Respondents also reported feeling helpless, overwhelmed and angry. Only 8% reported they are unconcerned and 7% reported they are uninterested.

I have been thinking about my own teenage years. I don’t know if I was incredibly naïve or privileged to not know about climate change, but I do know this: If we want our children and grandchildren to have a better life than we did, we have to make changes today for their future.

Read more about climate change curriculum here.

Catan for Modern Times

Settlers of Catan ushered a renaissance of board games. The game, released in 1995, has had different editions or expansions over the years. But its latest release, Catan: New Energies, is bringing the game of pre-industrial settlements into modern times.

In the classic version of Catan, players collected ore, lumber and wool to build roads, towns and cities. In New Energies, players will also have to build fossil fuel or renewable power plants to gather energy. There’s a tracker for greenhouse gases (GHG) on the side of the board. As GHG emissions increase, so does the potential for climate-related events like flooding or air pollution. This can block resource production or trigger the early end of the game.

Climate change is a serious topic. Games present an opportunity to learn and reflect on a serious topic while also being fun.

“The fun thing about games is there’s enough detachment that you can engage with this big, scary concept in this big, varied space,” says Rachel Kowert, a research psychologist who specializes in games, to CNN. “And then maybe at the end of it, come out with a greater understanding of what you can actually do, what power you have.”

Read more about the new version about the beloved game here.