Workplace Incivility in Nonprofits: How Minor Slights Create Major Organizational Damage
Article Summary
Workplace incivility — subtle behaviors like interrupting, gossiping, and exclusion — is quietly eroding morale, collaboration, and retention in nonprofits, where high emotional demands and lean resources make teams especially vulnerable. Organizations can prevent workplace incivility by setting clear behavioral expectations, modeling respectful leadership, and equipping staff with tools for feedback and conflict resolution.
Most nonprofit leaders would say their organization leads with compassion. What the data shows is more complicated.
In the nonprofit world, a highly impactful mission can often overshadow the messiness of workplace dynamics. But beneath the surface of grant deadlines, community engagement, board meetings, and donor stewardship lies a growing challenge: workplace incivility.
Workplace incivility is subtle, often unintentional, and yet deeply corrosive, especially in high-stress environments of nonprofit organizations. As employees navigate financial instability, increased workloads, and emotional fatigue, this strain can further exacerbate workplace incivility and the erosion of collaboration.
Having studied workplace incivility through the lens of business psychology, we’ve seen how this can quickly and quietly erode team cohesion, morale, and performance across nonprofit environments. In nonprofits, where emotional labor is high and resources are tight, the cost of incivility is especially steep.
Incivility at work isn’t confined to boardrooms or high-pressure transactions. It shows up across industries and sectors, including nonprofits. More specifically, and according to SHRM’s Q1 2025 Civility Index, 56% of daily acts of incivility occur in the workplace. What’s more, the Index also shows that 68% of employees say their managers prioritize business goals over how people are treated. Incivility may be hiding in your organization because only 30% of employees report incidents, according to the Index. Organizational culture is not sector-specific, and neither is the cost of ignoring it.
What is Workplace Incivility?
Incivility is subtle, disrespectful, and rude behavior, often ambiguous in intent. Common examples are being repeatedly interrupted in meetings, being excluded in meetings by colleagues, basic lack of consideration, gossiping, eye-rolling, and more overt behaviors such as yelling and belittling. While these behaviors are not as severe as bullying or harassment, they can escalate if left unaddressed and contribute to a toxic work environment. As Murrell (2018) puts it, incivility is psychological harassment and emotional aggression. In mission-driven spaces, it can feel like a betrayal of shared values, especially when much of the work can be emotionally taxing.
Workplace incivility is often conflated with microaggressions, though they are each distinct. Incivility includes any negative behaviors that are intended to harm, cause negative feelings or consequences, and are often rooted in a general lack of respect. Microaggressions, while often similar in impact, target an individual based on their identity. For simplicity, workplace incivility is more akin to a universal negative culture norm experienced by a wide range of people regardless of identity, while microaggressions are directed at a specific group or individual in the workplace based on identity.
Why Incivility is Rising in Nonprofits
The concept of workplace incivility emerged in the late 1990s, coined by Andersson and Pearson (1999), and has been on the rise since then.
At the individual level, burnout, reductions in resources and collaborators at work, an ongoing need to maintain and display high emotional intelligence, and poor self-awareness are key drivers. Organizationally, leadership style and culture matter immensely as this creates the setting in which staff are engaging. When leaders fail to model respect or address toxic behaviors, incivility spreads. In nonprofits, where hierarchies are often flat and roles are becoming more fluid, the lack of clear boundaries can make it harder to call out or correct uncivil behavior.
Another major driver was the pandemic, which changed how we work and how we relate. Remote and hybrid models changed the dynamics required to develop social bonds, and digital communication introduced new opportunities for misinterpretation to occur. Add to that the emotional toll of frontline service, stretched social services, political divisiveness, and economic uncertainty, and you get a perfect storm for incivility (Porath, 2022; Gallup, 2023).
Technology plays a role too. Quickly fired-off emails without context, Slack messages sent in haste, or Zoom/Teams fatigue can all contribute to digital incivility. In environments where feedback is rare, unclear, or not encouraged, especially around major decision making and change management, misunderstandings can fester.
Nonprofit workforces are particularly vulnerable to incivility. Many operate with increasing external pressures, lean teams, undefined career ladders, and high emotional demands. In these settings, stress is constant, and the pressure to “do more with less” can erode patience, empathy, and sometimes, civility. Frontline staff, especially in community-facing missions, such as healthcare, education, and human and social services, report the highest rates of incivility, both from coworkers and clients (Kim et al., 2023; Grandey, 2022).
The Consequences
While incivility behaviors may be minor and ambiguous, the consequences are major. Incivility leads to emotional exhaustion, disengagement, and voluntary turnover (Porath, 2022; Kim et al., 2023). For nonprofits, this means losing passionate people throughout an entire ecosystem consisting of staff, volunteers, and those served, all of whom care deeply about the mission. It affects organizational culture, employer brand and reputation, both internally and externally. When incivility festers, teams become less collaborative, donors notice the dysfunction, and clients feel the strain.
The impact of incivility extends beyond direct targets. Bystanders, those who witness incivility, often experience stress and reduced trust. Over time, this creates a culture of silence and self-protection, both of which stifle innovation and inclusion.
What Leaders Can Do Now
Civility isn't a policy problem. It's a leadership culture problem.
In the current digital age of information, organizations need to take an honest look at the culture they are creating. Employees speak openly about positive and negative workplace experiences through internal feedback systems and external platforms such as Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Fishbowl, and similar sites, including social media. In a world where employees share their experiences openly, workplace culture is no longer an internal matter; it's a part of your brand and reputation as an organization.
The good news is that incivility is preventable and, even in extreme cases, can be minimized. Organizations can start by setting clear behavioral expectations, coupled with immediately addressing violations, resetting their shared values, and creating safe channels for reporting. Most importantly, leadership matters. When managers model respect and address issues early, the ripple effects are powerful. Smith (2023) found that attentive leadership reduces turnover risk by 78%.
To strengthen your organization’s foundation and promote the prevention, minimization, or full eradication of workplace incivility, begin by assessing current policies and accountability measures. Often, organizations have vague policies around “professional behavior” and boilerplate legalese for non-discrimination and anti-harassment protocols.
While great starting points, these often don’t capture the nuances of behaviors that are technically legal but still detrimental to workplace culture. Adding context to policies, or even adding new policies describing “commitments to maintaining a respectful, inclusive, and productive workplace” with specific examples of how the organization supports this, while also sharing guardrails outlining inappropriate behaviors, are key to defining the culture you aspire to reinforce.
In terms of accountability measures, having organizational competencies that define behavioral norms, performance metrics on the desired cultural norms, and processes for addressing misaligned behaviors or violations of workplace norms are essential for ongoing effectiveness. Even when considering new staff or leadership additions to the organization, hiring practices can benefit from refinement. In hiring, consider screening for civility-related traits, effective communication, and conflict-resolution skills, especially in client-facing and high-stress roles.
An organization’s existing senior leaders and division-level leaders are often supported through close coaching relationships that provide space to explore their unique roles in setting organizational tone and team culture. Organization-wide training can benefit staff at all levels to ensure clear and consistent behavioral expectations. It’s time to go beyond microaggressions and bias-free communication to topics that probe more deeply into harmful behaviors between colleagues. Equip leaders and teams with tools for feedback, conflict resolution, and cultural competence. Encourage bystander intervention and build resilience through emotional intelligence development.
Looking Ahead
The landscape is evolving. As AI and digital tools become more embedded in our work, we must also explore their role in shaping or preventing incivility. SHRM’s Civility Index also reports that 26% of employees say they may leave their job in 2025 because of incivility, while 60% believe it is important for organizations to take action. For mission-driven organizations already operating at capacity, that risk is too significant to ignore.
Nonprofits exist to serve, uplift, and transform. But when incivility takes root, it undermines that very mission. By investing in respectful cultures, emotional intelligence, compassionate leadership, and clear communication, we can build workplaces that not only do good work but also feel good to work in.
OneDigital works with nonprofit organizations to build the policies, leadership frameworks, and cultural foundations that make civility sustainable. If you're navigating this challenge, connect with our team — we're ready to help you build something better.
Publish Date:Sep 30, 2025