presentation on ethics and etiquette

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Observe Presentation Ethics and Etiquette

Adapted excerpt from “Secrets of Successful Public Speaking: How to Become a Great Speaker” by M.S. Rao, Ph.D.

“Don’t reserve your best behavior for special occasions. You can’t have two sets of manners, two social codes―one for those you admire and want to impress, another for those whom you consider unimportant. You must be the same to all people.” ―Lillian Eichler Watson

As a public speaker and presenter, you must observe ethics and etiquette to stand out as a professional. Observing ethics builds your credibility and adopting etiquette enhances your professionalism. Here are some ethics and etiquette you should observe during your presentation:

Be early to the venue as this creates a good impression and helps you prioritize your tasks.
Maintain proper dress code. Wear professional clothes, preferably business formal.
Keep your cell phone in silent mode.
Thank the host for giving you the opportunity to speak and greet your audience. Greet the dignitaries and other special attendees.
Demonstrate the right attitude and aptitude. Present positive body language. Maintain adequate eye contact with your audience.
Express your ideas, insights, and facts ― not your opinions.
Don’t sound harsh and rough. Keep your voice soft but strong. To improve your voice, video record and take feedback.
Avoid pointing the figure at your audience as it signals negative body language.
Avoid apologizing often for any lapses.
Use a laser pointer when you refer to a specific portion on the slides to draw the attention of your audience. Put it down when you don’t use it.
When you don’t know the answer to a question, admit honestly that you don’t know it. Don’t justify the reasons for not knowing the answer.
Don’t criticize organizers for any lapses. Don’t forget that you are there because of them.
Don’t offend your audience members. They invested their time, money, and energy to listen to your presentation.
Avoid cracking jokes directed at audience members. Have respect for all individuals and communities. A presentation is not a forum to thrust your personal opinions on others and settle your personal scores. Don’t attack your competitors in public places as it presents you in a poor light.
Handle critics carefully and hecklers assertively. Be professional while handling them. Don’t lower your dignity by attacking hecklers or critics. Apply soft skills to handle hecklers and a hostile audience.
Avoid discussing your professional fees and commercials involved in delivering your presentation.
Don’t present the wrong statistical and research findings. When in doubt, avoid referring to them. If you still want to refer unverified information, use the word, “perhaps.”
Avoid using other speakers’ content without their permission. Be original and natural in content and delivery.
Trust is the currency for any speaker. Hence, build trust and transparency to grow as a professional speaker.
At the end of the presentation, thank the audience for their presence and time and thank the organizer or host for giving you the opportunity.
Ask for feedback at the end of each presentation to improve yourself.

Manage Your Time Slot

The time slot allotted to deliver your presentation is a contract between you and your audience. You must know how to complete your presentation within the given time and honor it without encroaching into others’ programs and activities. At times, the audience might stretch your session by asking more questions. You must be very careful to stick to your presentation schedule to avoid upsetting the organizers’ other programs. It is a tough task, but you must manage it successfully.

Have a clock or timekeeper. Ask someone to remind you. If time is running out, move directly to your conclusion by emphasizing core ideas and insights. Remember that live presentation usually takes 20 percent longer than the rehearsal time. Your presentation time should includes your presentation and the Q&A session.

Don’t allow any audience member to hijack your presentation. Don’t allow the same questioner to ask you questions repeatedly. Encourage other audience members to offer their queries. Allow more members to participate actively in your presentation to make it effective and successful.

Lessons Learned

“Ethics is the maintaining of life at the highest point of development.” ―Albert Schweitzer

Professional presenters and speakers make mistakes. However, they learn lessons from their mistakes to improve and grow. Hopefully, adopting the ethics and etiquette noted above during your presentation will help you grow as a distinguished speaker and orator.

Abraham Lincoln once remarked, “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” So deliver your best without craving attention and recognition. Remember, work for satisfaction, not for recognition. If you earn recognition, treat it as a by-product. To conclude, avoid biases and stereotypes. Always provide honest information. And show respect for your audience and host to stand out as a professional speaker.

“Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” ―Albert Einstein

Adapted excerpt from “Secrets of Successful Public Speaking: How to Become a Great Speaker” by M.S. Rao, Ph.D. For more information, visit: https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Successful-Public-Speaking-Speaker/dp/1628656107

Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.is the father of “Soft Leadership” and founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India. He is an international leadership guru with 38 years of experience and the author of more than 45 books, including “21 Success Sutras for CEOs” ( http://www.amazon.com/21-Success-Sutras-Ceos-Rao/dp/162865290X ). He is a C-suite advisor and global keynote speaker. He is passionate about serving and making a difference in the lives of others. His vision is to develop 1 million students as global leaders by 2030 ( http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html ). He advocates gender equality globally (#HeForShe) and was honored as an upcoming International Leadership Guru by Global Gurus ( http://globalgurus.org/upcoming-leadership-gurus ). He developed teaching tool Meka’s Method; leadership training tool 11E Leadership Grid; and leadership learning tool Soft Leadership Grid. Most of his work is available free of charge on his four blogs, including http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com . He can be reached at: [email protected] .

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10.2: Professionalism, Etiquette, and Ethical Behaviour

Learning objectives.

2. Explain the importance of ethics as part of the persuasion process.

3. Define and provide examples of sexual harassment in the workplace, as well as strategies for how to eliminate it.

4. Identify and provide examples of eight common fallacies in persuasive speaking.

5. ENL1813 Course Learning Requirement 2: Plan and deliver short, organized spoken messages and oral reports tailored to specific audiences and purposes. (A2, B2, H2, I2, M2, S2, T2)

i. Use effective and engaging language and non-verbal behaviours (A2.2) ii. Use verbal and nonverbal techniques to enhance spoken messages (I2.4, M2.4, R6.2, S2.4, T2.4)

From the moment we started considering what communication skills employers desire (see §1.1.2 above) onwards throughout this guide, we’ve been examining aspects of professional behaviour. A recurring theme has been the importance of being nice. The logic is that, if you’re nice and the people you work with and for like you because they feel that they can trust you and are productive when you collaborate with them, you’ll keep your job and be presented with attractive new opportunities. In this section we’ll look closer at behaviours that will get you liked and open doors for you.

Professionalism, Etiquette, and Ethical Behaviour Topics

10.2.1: Professional Behaviour in the Workplace

10.2.2: business etiquette, 10.2.3: respectful workplaces in the #metoo era, 10.2.4: speaking ethically and avoiding fallacies.

We’ve said from the beginning that professional communication must always cater to the audience. This is true especially in face-to-face interactions where, unlike with written communication, you can assess audience reaction in real time and adjust your message accordingly. This places the responsibility of behaving professionally in the workplace solely on you. When we speak of professional behaviour, we mean the following aspects that generally fall under the banner of soft skills:

Social Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence
Social Graces

We’ll consider these aspects in more detail throughout this subsection, but first we’ll spend some time on the personality traits of successful professionals.

We must be careful with how we define success when we speak of personality, however. Those who lack the soft skills associated with the above aspects are difficult to work with and are usually demoted or fired. In rare instances, cruel, selfish, arrogant, narcissistic, or sociopathic people rise to positions of power through a combination of enablers tolerating or even rewarding their anti-social behaviour and their own lying, cheating, and bullying. This is an unfortunate reality that’s difficult to watch, but it’s important that the rest of us avoid being enablers. It’s also important that we don’t let their bad example lead us into thinking that such behaviour is right. It isn’t, and the proof is the suffering it spreads among people in their sphere of influence. For every horrible person who moves up the corporate ladder, there’ll be a trail of broken, bitter, and vengeful people in their wake. The loathing most people feel towards such people proves the importance of conducting ourselves otherwise.

10.2.1.1: The Five Qualities of a Successful Professional

A persistent idea within the field of psychology is that there are five basic personality traits, often known as the “Big Five” or by the acronyms OCEAN or CANOE. Each trait contains within it a sliding scale that describes how we behave in certain situations. The five are as follows:

Openness to experience: curious and innovative vs. cautious and consistent
Conscientiousness : goal-driven and detail-oriented vs. casual and careless
Extraversion : outgoing and enthusiastic vs. solitary and guarded
Agreeableness : cooperative and flexible vs. defiant and stubborn
Neuroticism : anxious and volatile vs. confident and stable

Except for neuroticism, most of the traits as named correlate with professional success. Researchers have found that successful people are generally organized, innovative, outgoing, cooperative, and stable, although extraverts don’t do as well as introverts on individual tasks and agreeableness doesn’t necessarily lead to a high salary ( Spurk & Abele, 2010 ; Neal et al., 2011 ).

Blending these with Guffey, Loewy, and Almonte’s six dimensions of professional behaviour in Essentials of Business Communication (2016) and putting our own spin on these ideas, Table 10.2.1.1 below presents a guide for how generally to be successful in your job, how to be well liked, and how to be happy. Consider it also a checklist for how to be a decent human being.

Table 10.2.1.1: The Five Qualities of a Successful Professional

Source: Guffey, Loewy, & Almonte (2016, p. 309: Figure 10.1)

10.2.1.2: Civility

Civility simply means behaving respectfully towards everyone you interact with. Being civilized means following the golden rule: treat others as you expect to be treated yourself. The opposite of civility is being rude and aggressive, which creates conflict and negatively affects productivity in the workplace because it creates a so-called chilly climate or a toxic work environment. Such a workplace makes people uncomfortable, miserable, or angry—not emotions normally conducive to people doing their best work.

10.2.1.3: Social Intelligence

In the decades you’ve been immersed in the various cultures you’ve passed through, you’ve come to understand the (often unspoken) rules of decent social interaction. Having social intelligence means following those rules to cooperate and get along with others, especially in conversation. This includes reading nonverbal cues so that you know:

How and when to initiate conversation
When it’s your turn to speak and when to listen in order to keep a conversation going
What to say and what not say
How to say what you mean in a manner that will be understood by your audience
When and how to use humour effectively and when not to
How and when to end conversation gracefully

People who lack social intelligence, perhaps because they missed opportunities to develop conversational skills in their formative school years, come off as awkward in face-to-face conversation. They typically fail to interpret correctly nonverbal cues that say “Now it’s your turn to speak” or “Okay, I’m done with this conversation; let’s wrap it up.” It’s difficult to interact with such people either because they make you do all the work keeping the conversation going or don’t let you speak and keep going long after you wanted it to stop, forcing you to be slightly rude in ending it abruptly. Like any other type of intelligence, however, social intelligence can be developed through an understanding of the principles of good conversation (see §10.1 above) and practice.

10.2.1.5: Emotional Intelligence

Like social intelligence, emotional intelligence (EI) involves being a good reader of people in social contexts, being able to distinguish different emotions, and knowing what to do about them with regard to others and yourself. Strong EI means knowing how a person is likely to react to what you’re about to say and adjusting your message accordingly, and then adjusting again according to how they actually react. Though we often hide our inner emotional state—smiling and looking happy when we’re feeling down, or wearing a neutral “poker face” to mask our excitement—in professional situations, EI enables us to get a sense of what others are actually feeling despite how they appear. It involves reading subtle nonverbal signals such as eye movements, facial expressions and fleeting micro-expressions (Ekman, 2017) , posture, hands, and body movements for how they betray inner feelings different from the outward show. Beyond merely reading people, however, EI also requires knowing how to act, such as empathizing when someone is upset—even if they’re trying to hide it and show strength—because you recognize that you would be upset yourself if you were in their position (see §10.5.3.4 below for more on empathy).

Every interaction you have is coloured by emotion—both yours and the person or people you interact with. Though most routine interactions in the workplace are on the neutral-to-positive end of the emotional spectrum, some dip into the red—anywhere from slightly upset and a little sad to downright furious or suicidal. Whether you keep those emotions below the surface or let them erupt like a volcano depends on your self-control and the situation. Expressing such emotions in the workplace requires the good judgment represented by the 3 T’s :

Tact: Recognizing that what you say has a meaningful impact, tact involves the careful choice of words to achieve intended effects. In a sensitive situation where your audience is likely to be upset, for instance, tact requires that you use calming and positive words to reduce your message’s harmful impact (see §8.3 above on negative messages). When you’re upset, tact likewise involves self-restraint so that you don’t unleash the full fury of what you’re feeling if it would be inappropriate. When emotions are running high, it’s important to recognize that they are just thoughts that come and go, and that you may need some additional time to process information when you’re in a different emotional state before communicating about it.
Timing: There’s a time and place for expressing your emotions. Expressing your anger when you’re at the height of your fury might be a bad move if it moves you to say things you’ll later regret. Waiting to cool down so that you can tactfully express your disappointment will get the best results if it’s an important matter. If it’s a trivial matter, however, waiting to realize that it’s not worth the effort can save you the trouble of dealing with the fallout of a strong and regrettable reaction.
Trust: You must trust that the person you share your feelings with will respect your privacy and keep whatever you say confidential or at least not use it against you.

By considering these 3 T’s, you can better manage the expression of your own emotions and those of the people you work with and for in the workplace ( Business Communication for Success , 2015, 14.6) .

Like those who lack social intelligence, those who lack emotional intelligence can often be difficult to work with and offensive, often without meaning to be. When someone fails to understand the emotional “vibe” of their audience (fails to “read the room”), we say that they are “tone deaf.” This can be a sign of immaturity because it takes years to develop EI through extensive socialization in your school years and beyond, including learning how and why people take offense to what you say. Someone who jokes openly about another’s appearance in front of them and an audience, for instance, either fails to understand the hurt feelings of the person who is the butt of the joke or doesn’t care. Either way, people like this are a liability in the workplace because their offense establishes an environment dominated by insecurity—where employees are afraid that they’ll be picked on as if this were the elementary school playground. They won’t do their best work in such a “chilly climate” or toxic environment.

10.2.1.6: Social Graces

Social graces include all the subtle behavioural niceties that make you likeable. They include manners such as being polite, etiquette (e.g., dining etiquette), and your style of dress and accessories. We will explore most of these in the following section, but for now we can list some of the behaviours associated with social graces:

Saying please when asking someone to do something
Saying thank you when given something you accept
Saying no, thank you, but thanks for the offer when offered something you refuse
Complimenting someone for a something they’ve done well
Speaking positively about others and refraining from negative comments
Smiling often
Being a good listener

Of course, there is much more to social graces, but let’s focus now on specific situations in which social graces are expressed.

Return to the Professionalism, Etiquette, and Ethical Behaviour Topics menu

Etiquette is a code of behaviour that extends to many aspects of how we present ourselves in social situations. We’ve examined this throughout this guide in specific written applications (e.g., using a well-mannered, courteous style of writing, such as saying please when asking someone to do something; see §4.5.2.5 ). Though we’ll examine specific applications of etiquette associated with various channels (e.g., telephone) throughout this chapter, we will here focus on dining etiquette and dress.

10.2.2.1: Dining Etiquette

If you are invited out for a lunch by a manager, it’s probably not just a lunch. They will assess how refined you are in your manners so that they know whether they can put you in front of clients doing the same and not embarrass the company. Though it may not be obvious, they’ll observe whether you use your utensils correctly, chew with your mouth closed, wait till your mouth is empty before speaking or cover your mouth with your hand if you must speak while chewing, and how you position your cutlery when you’re done. Why does any of this matter?

Though all of this seems like it has nothing to do with the quality of work, it shows the extent to which you developed fastidious habits and self-awareness. Someone who chews with their mouth open, for instance, either lacks the self-awareness to know that people tend to be disgusted by the sight of food being chewed, or doesn’t care what people think. Either way, that lack of self-awareness can lead to behaviours that will ruin their reputation, as well as that of the company they represent. The University of Kansas presents a handy Dining Etiquette (School of Business, 2001) for starters.

10.2.2.2: Dressing Appropriately for the Workplace

When we hear the word uniform , we often think of a very specific style such as what a police officer or nurse wears. In a general sense, however, we all wear uniforms of various styles in whatever professional or institutional environment we participate in. Dressing appropriately in those situations and in the workplace specifically has everything to do with meeting expectations. In an office environment, clients, coworkers, and managers expect to see employees in either suits or a business-casual style of dress depending on the workplace. In such situations, conformity is the order of the day, and breaking the dress code can be a serious infraction.

Though some infractions are becoming less serious in many places because the general culture is becoming more accepting of tattoos, piercings, and dyed hair as more and more people use these to express themselves, you might need to be careful. Consider the following points:

Tattoos: Though a significant proportion of the population has tattoos and therefore they are more acceptable across the board, overly conspicuous tattoos are still considered taboo. Tattoos on the face, neck, or hands, for instance, are considered risky because of their association with prison and gang branding. Tattoos that can be covered by a long-sleeved shirt with a collar and slacks are a safe bet. However, if you have tattoos on your forearms depicting scenes of explicit sex or violence, consider either getting them removed or never rolling up your sleeves if you want to get hired and keep your job.
Piercings: Of course, earrings are de rigueur for women and acceptable on men as well. However, earlobe stretching and piercings on the nasal septum or lips are still generally frowned upon in professional settings. Any serious body modification along these lines is acceptable in certain subcultures, but not in most workplaces.
Dyed hair: As with tattoos and piercings, hair dye is becoming more acceptable generally, but extreme expression is inadvisable in any traditional workplace. Where customer expectations are rigid (e.g., in a medical office), seeing someone with bright pink hair will give the impression of an amateur operation rather than a legitimate health care facility.

Because conformity is the determining factor of acceptability in proper attire in any particular workplace, the best guide for how to dress when you aren’t given a specific uniform is what everyone else wears. Observe closely their style and build a wardrobe along those lines. If the fashion is slacks with a belt that matches the colour of your shoes and a long-sleeve, button-up, collared shirt for men and a full-length skirt and blouse for women, do the same (Feloni, Lee, & Cain, 2018) .

Most of what we’ve been saying in this chapter and throughout this guide focuses on how we should behave to be effective, respected professionals in our respective workplaces. Unfortunately, this isn’t what we always see in actual workplaces. Misbehaviour is rampant and is especially harmful when it’s harassment of a sexual nature. The broader culture took a hopeful step forward toward more respectful workplaces in 2017-2018 with the rise of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.

Though initially a response to high-profile sexual assault cases in the entertainment industry where perpetrators often went unpunished for decades, #MeToo activists successfully brought the movement to the broader culture via social media. After the outrage of the former CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi’s acquittal for sexual assault charges (Gollom, 2016) , Canada was ripe for a cultural shift against its own issues with rape culture generally and toleration of sexual harassment in the workplace. Encouraged by a series of public accusations, firings, and resignations of prominent men in the entertainment, media, and political arenas throughout North America, women everywhere were encouraged to challenge widespread toleration of common sexual harassment and assault by reporting incidents to their employers and speaking out to shame everyday offenders in social media. For those who were unaware, it revealed the troubling extent of sexual harassment even in supposedly “nice” Canadian workplaces.

10.2.3.1: The Prevalence of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Infographic showing the prevelence of sexual harrassment in the workplace

10.2.3.2: What Is Sexual Harassment?

sexual harassment means any conduct, comment, gesture or contact of a sexual nature that is likely to cause offence or humiliation to any employee, or that might, on reasonable grounds, be perceived by that employee as placing a condition of a sexual nature on employment or on any opportunity for training or promotion. (Government of Canada, 1985, p. 214)

The Code clarifies that all employees have a right to conduct their work without being harassed (241.2), but what does that look like in practice?

For help with understanding what specific behaviours constitute sexual harassment, the City of Toronto’s Human Rights Office’s 2017 “Sexual Harassment in the Workplace” guide lists the following 21 examples of offenses that have had their day in court:

Making unnecessary physical contact, including unwanted touching (e.g., stroking hair, demanding hugs, or rubbing a person’s back)
Invading personal space
Using language that puts someone down because of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression
Using sex-specific derogatory names, homophobic or transphobic epithets, slurs, or jokes
Leering or inappropriate staring
Gender related comments about a person’s physical characteristics or mannerisms, comments that police or reinforce traditional heterosexual gender norms
Targeting someone for not following sex-role stereotypes (e.g., comments made to a female for being in a position of authority)
Showing or sending pornography, sexual images, etc. (e.g., pinning up an image of a naked man in the bathroom)
Making sexual jokes, including forwarding sexual jokes by email
Rough or vulgar language related to gender (e.g., “locker-room talk”)
Spreading sexual rumours, “outing” or threatening to out someone who is LGBTQ2S (e.g., sending an email to colleagues about an affair between a supervisor and another employee)
Making suggestive or offensive comments about members of a specific gender
Sexually propositioning a person
Bragging about sexual prowess
Asking questions about sexual preferences, fantasies, or activities
Demanding dates or sexual favours
Verbally abusing, threatening, or taunting someone based on gender
Threatening to penalize or punish a person who refuses to comply with sexual advances
Intrusive comments, questions or insults about a person’s body, physical characteristics, gender-related medical procedures, clothing, mannerisms, or other forms of gender expression
Refusing to refer to a person by their self-identified name or proper personal pronoun, or requiring a person to prove their gender
Circulating or posting of homophobic, transphobic, derogatory or offensive signs, caricatures, graffiti, pictures, or other materials

The guide explains that any such behaviours involving professional colleagues in the physical or online workspace, as well as offsite outside of normal hours (e.g., work parties or community events), should be reported without fear of reprisal (City of Toronto, 2017, pp. 2-3) .

10.2.3.3: How to Make the Workplace More Respectful

Though the Canada Labour Code places the responsibility of ensuring a harassment-free workplace squarely on the employer (Provision 247.3), all employees must do their part to uphold one another’s right to work free of harassment. At the very least, everyone should avoid any of the 21 specific examples of sexual harassment listed above, even in the context of lighthearted banter. Employees everywhere should be held to a higher standard, however, which the HRPA advocates in the following recommendations:

All companies must have a stand-alone sexual harassment and assault policy, as required by the Labour Code .
All employees must familiarize themselves with their company’s sexual harassment policy, which should include guidance on how to report instances of harassment.
All companies must conduct training sessions on their sexual harassment policy, including instruction on what to do when harassed or witnessing harassment, and all employees must participate.

Of course, experiencing harassment places the victim in a difficult position with regard to their job security, as does witnessing it and the duty to report. The situation is even more complicated if the perpetrator has the power to promote, demote, or terminate the victim’s or witness’s employment. If you find yourself in such a situation, seeking the confidential advice of an ombudsperson or person in a similar counselling role should be your first recourse. Absent these internal protections, consider seeking legal counsel.

If you witness sexual or other types of harassment, what should you do? The following guide may help:

If it’s safe for you to do so, try recording video the incident on your smartphone. The mere presence of the phone may act as a deterrent to further harassment. If not, however, a record of the incident will be valuable in the post-incident pursuit of justice.
If you can play any additional role in stopping the harassment before it continues, try to get the attention of the person being harassed and ask them if they want support and what exactly you can do.
If it’s welcome from the victim and safe for both you and them, try to place yourself between them and the attacker. If the victim is handling the attack in their own way, respect their choice.
If the harassment continues, try to de-escalate the situation non-violently by explaining to the offender that the one being harassed has a right to work in peace. Only resort to violence if it’s defensive.
After a safe resolution, follow up with the person being harassed about what you can do for them (American Friends Service Committee, 2016) .

Of course, every harassment situation is different and requires quick-thinking action that maintains the safety of all involved. The important thing, however, is to be act as an ally to the person being harassed. The biggest takeaway from the development of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements is that a workplace culture that permits sexual harassment will only end if we all do our part to ensure that offenses no longer go unreported and unpunished.

When we discussed persuasive messages earlier (see §8.4 ), we focused on best practices without veering much into what’s considered offside in the art of persuasion. When we consider ethical behaviour in the workplace, it’s worth revisiting the topic of persuasion so that we can address how not to persuade. In other words, how can we avoid manipulating someone in professional situations so that they don’t later feel like they were taken advantage of.

In the context of communication, manipulation is the management of facts, ideas or points of view to play upon people’s insecurities or to use emotional appeals to one’s own advantage. Though emotional appeals were part of the rhetorical triangle discussed earlier in §8.4.1 , they cross the line into manipulation when motivated by an attempt to do something against the best interests of the audience, which expects that you treat them with respect. Deliberately manipulating them by inciting fear or guilt is unethical. Likewise, deception is unethical because it uses lies, partial truths, or the omission of relevant information to deceive. No one likes to be lied to or led to believe something that isn’t true. Deception can involve intentional bias or the selection of information to support your position while negatively framing any information that might challenge your audience’s belief.

Other unethical behaviours with respect to an audience such as a workplace team include coercion and bribery. Coercion is the use of power to make someone do something they would not choose to do freely. It usually involves threats of punishment, which get results at least while the “stick” is present, but results in hatred towards the coercing person or group and hence a toxic work environment. Bribery , which is offering something in return for an expected favour, is similarly unethical because it sidesteps normal, fair protocol for personal gain at the audience’s expense. When the rest of the team finds out that they lost out on opportunities because someone received favours for favours, an atmosphere of mistrust and animosity—hallmarks of a toxic work environment—hangs over the workplace.

10.2.4.1: Eleven Unethical Persuasive Techniques

Though you may be tempted to do anything to achieve the result of convincing someone to act in a way that benefits you and your company or organization, certain techniques are inherently unethical. The danger in using them is that they will be seen for what they are—dishonest manipulation—and you’ll lose all credibility rather than achieve your goal. Just as we have a set of DOs for how to convince someone effectively in a decent way, we also have a set of DON’Ts for what not to do.

In Ethics in Human Communication , Richard Johannesen (1996) offers eleven points to consider when speaking persuasively. Do not :

Use false, fabricated, misrepresented, distorted or irrelevant evidence to support arguments or claims
Intentionally use unsupported, misleading, or illogical reasoning
Represent yourself as an “expert” (or even informed) on a subject when you’re not, as in the case of “ mansplaining ” (McClintock, 2016)
Use irrelevant appeals to divert attention from the issue at hand
Ask your audience to link your idea or proposal to emotion-driven values, motives, or goals to which it is unrelated
Deceive your audience by concealing your real purpose, your self-interest, the group you represent, or your position as an advocate of a viewpoint
Distort, hide, or misrepresent the number, scope, intensity, or undesirable features of consequences or effects
Use “emotional appeals” that lack a supporting basis of evidence or reasoning
Oversimplify complex, multi-layered, nuanced situations into simplistic, two-valued, either/or, polar views or choices
Pretend certainty where tentativeness and degrees of probability would be more accurate
Advocate for something that you yourself do not believe in

If you tried any of the above tricks and were found out by a critical-thinking audience, you risk irreparable damage to your reputation personally and that of your company.

Though you might think that the above guidelines wipe out most of a marketer’s available techniques, in fact they leave plenty of room for creative argument following the model for persuasive argument outlined in §8.4 above. After all, the goal of any such argument in a professional situation is to achieve a mutually beneficial result, one where both you and your audience benefit by getting something you both want or need in a free and honest exchange. Your audience will appreciate your fair dealing as you build your credibility (or ethos in the rhetorical triangle terminology introduced in §8.4.1 ).

10.2.4.2: Avoiding Fallacies

Logicians (experts on logic) have long pointed out a set of rhetorical tricks, called fallacies, that charlatans use to convince others of an argument that has no merit on its own. Though these fallacies are typically deceptive in nature, they still manage to convince many people in ways that undermine their own interests. Whenever you see anyone resorting to these tricks, you should probably be suspicious of what they’re selling or getting you to support. To be ethical in the way you present arguments in professional situations and steer clear of being held under suspicion by a critical audience yourself, avoid the eight fallacies explored below in Table 10.2.4.2.

Table 10.2.4.2: Logical Fallacies to Avoid

( Business Communication for Success , 2015, 14.6)

Avoiding such false logic helps strengthen your own argument by compelling you to stay within the bounds of sound argumentative strategies such as those covered above in §8.4 .

Key Takeaway

2. Deliver a short presentation on dining etiquette or how to dress for success in the workplace with clear recommendations for how your audience should conduct themselves (follow Ch. 12 on presentations beforehand).

3. Have you ever experienced or witnesses sexual harassment in a workplace or institution (e.g., at school) according to the definition and examples given in §10.2.3.2 ? What happened and what did you do about it? Would you do anything differently in hindsight?

4. Find an example of advertising that is unethical because it relies on logical fallacies and other deceptive techniques explored in §10.2.4 . Identify the fallacies or techniques and speculate on why the advertiser used them. Outline a more honest—yet still effective—advertisement for the same product or service.

American Friends Service Committee. (2016, December 2). Do’s and Don’ts for bystander intervention. Retrieved from https://www.afsc.org/resource/dos-and-donts-bystander-intervention

Barnes, E. (2018, January 20). Marchers in Baltimore. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65692582

City of Toronto. (2017, October). Sexual harassment in the workplace. Retrieved from https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/8eaa-workplace-sexual-harassment.pdf

Ekman, P. (2017, August 5). Micro expressions. Retrieved from https://www.paulekman.com/resources/micro-expressions/

Feloni, R., Lee, S., & Cain, Á. (2018, May 16). How to dress your best in any work environment, from a casual office to the boardroom. Business Insider . Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-dress-for-work-business-attire-2014-8

The Gandalf Group. (2017, December 12). The 49th quarterly C-suite survey. Retrieved from http://www.gandalfgroup.ca/downloads/2017/C-Suite%20Report%20Q4%20December%202017%20tc2.pdf

Gollom, M. (2016, March 24). Jian Ghomeshi found not guilty on choking and all sex assault charges. CBC News . Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jian-ghomeshi-sexual-assault-trial-ruling-1.3505446

The Government of Canada. (1985). Canada labour code . Retrieved from http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/L-2.pdf

Hale, T. (2015, April 2). Changing the culture of reporting sexual harassment and sexual assault. Retrieved from https://www.army.mil/e2/c/images/2015/04/02/388160/original.jpg

HRPA. (2018a). Doing our duty: Preventing sexual harassment in the workplace . Retrieved from https://www.hrpa.ca/Documents/Public/Thought-Leadership/Doing-Our-Duty.PDF

HRPA. (2018b). Sexual harassment infographic. Retrieved from https://www.hrpa.ca/Documents/Public/Thought-Leadership/Sexual-Assault-Harassment-Infographic.pdf

McClintock, E. A. (2016, March 31). The psychology of mansplaining. Psychology Today . Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/it-s-man-s-and-woman-s-world/201603/the-psychology-mansplaining

Navigator. (2018, March 7). Sexual harassment survey results. Retrieved from http://www.navltd.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Report-on-Publics-Perspective-of-Sexual-Harassment-in-the-Workplace.pdf

Neal, A., Yeo, G., Koy, A., & Xiao, T. (2011, January 26). Predicting the form and direction of work role performance from the Big 5 model of personality traits. Journal of Organizational Behavior , 33(2), pp. 175-192. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/job.742

School of Business. (2001, February 1). Dining etiquette. The University of Kansas. Retrieved from https://business.ku.edu/dining-etiquette

Spurk, D., & Abele, A. E. (2010, June 16). Who earns more and why? A multiple mediation model from personality to salary. Journal of Business and Psychology , 26(1), pp. 87-103. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10869-010-9184-3

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Top 10 Office Etiquette PPT Templates with Samples and Examples

Simran Shekhawat

Are you looking for a guide that helps you establish a proper office etiquette? Here's what we have saved for you. Introducing SlideTeam's office etiquette template to help you set proper formal standards and codes of conduct for your office. This blog consists of collections of some of our highly advanced list of office etiquette templates that highlight the importance of maintaining a proper demeanor in the office.

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Effective business communication is the cornerstone of professional success. Adopting proper workplace etiquette ensures smooth interactions, fosters colleague respect, and enhances overall productivity. This Template offers suggestions for upholding civility and professionalism across various business communication platforms. Maintain and create a positive environment by speaking clearly to persuade your clients and audience to listen to you more. Record precise and comprehensive messages, including the caller's name, contact details, and why they called. Answer messages as soon as possible, acknowledging receipt even if a thorough answer may come later. Employees may promote good communication and collaboration across all channels and help to create a healthy and courteous work environment by following these recommendations. Download now.

Training Module On Workplace Etiquette in Business Communication

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Template 2 – What is Workplace Etiquette

This Template is a thorough manual created to set and uphold appropriate behavior standards in the workplace. It creates a polite, inclusive, and productive work atmosphere by giving staff members a systematic framework to comprehend and follow etiquette standards. This Layout highlights the principles of values and underlines the etiquette required to be maintained in the workplace. The Slide provides a set of unwritten rules while educating you to create a demeanor to present yourself, creating a professional work environment encouraging healthy conversation and criticism. Improve your professional behavior and skills since this Template is an essential tool for employees at all levels to develop a respectful, professional, and collaborative work environment, which promotes a successful and happy work environment.

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Template 3 – The Significance of Workplace Etiquette

This Template sets to establish clear expectations and standards for behavior in the workplace, fostering a positive and professional environment conducive to productivity, collaboration, and mutual respect. Use this Template to set the tone of professionalism in your organization. It outlines the significance of workplace manners by helping businesses to look upon enchanting workplace relations, enriching impressions, promoting business growth, providing strategies for handling disputes and conflict resolution, assisting staff in resolving conflicts amicably, promoting harmony at work, and reducing interruptions. This ppt slide helps you shape your organization's culture, foster professional communication, and contribute to your workplace's success and effectiveness.

Template 4 – Principles of Workplace Etiquettes

Check out this principle for workplace etiquette Template that provides a foundation for employee employees to understand and uphold the standards of communication and professional behavior. By adhering to these workplace etiquette guidelines, employees may support a respectful, professional, and honest work atmosphere that is inclusive and productive. Using this Template as a model, people can better integrate these ideas into their everyday interactions, improving the organization's culture and performance.

Template 5 – Critical Takeaways from the Session: Workplace Etiquette in Business Communication

This Template helps you understand the etiquette that must be maintained during business communication. This template slide teaches you to emphasize basic manners required to maintain a professional demeanor in all forms of communication: verbal, al, non–verbal, written, or digital. Highlight the significance of respecting colleagues, clients, and other stakeholders in the workplace.

Key Takeaways from Session Workplace Etiquette in Business Communication

Template 6 – Office Etiquette Harmony Business Communication Workforce Employee

Establishing and maintaining a harmonious workplace environment is essential for the success of any organization. This guide outlines fundamental principles of office etiquette and effective business communication to ensure a productive and respectful workforce. Get this Template to communicate clearly and effectively at your workplace. This template module guides you to accept, respect, and celebrate the diversity amongst your colleagues regarding backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. Promote a cooperative workplace by valuing cooperation and idea exchange. Acknowledge and value your co-workers' contributions to achieving shared goals and objectives.

Template 7 – Business Meetings Etiquette for Office Employee

Effective business meetings are essential for collaboration, decision-making, and organizational progress. Adhering to proper meeting etiquette ensures that discussions remain productive and respectful. This Template provides a comprehensive guide for office employees on etiquette during business meetings. Familiarize yourself with the agenda of the meeting, engage actively in every decision-making, listen attentively to clients, and offer valuable input. This guide template teaches you to maintain your composure and avoid engaging inside chats or disruptive behavior. When speaking with co-workers, especially during heated arguments or disagreements, teaches you how you can make use of polite language and tone if there runs out to be a disagreement. Following these business meeting etiquette principles, you can develop a cooperative and respectful working environment.

Business Meetings Etiquette for Office Employees

Template 8 – Basic Office Etiquette for Company Employees

This PPT Preset teaches aspects of basic office etiquette that you should follow as an employee or co-worker. This Template focuses on adhering to the company's dress code, being punctual about work, meetings, and appointments, demonstrating respect for other's time, and being mindful about the level of tone and noise that should not cause disruptions or discomfort to others, along with these, this guide teaches you how you can foster a culture of mutual respect, appreciation for employees. Company employees can contribute to a positive and professional workplace culture by practicing basic office etiquette. Check out now!

Template 9 – Key Etiquette for Formal Office Communication

This Template guide talks about how you can incorporate etiquette at the time of any formal communication. Use this Template to adhere to the standard that maintains professionalism and manners. Use proper formal communication with proper salutations and ensure your tone in your entire conversation is professional. State your purpose and concisely provide all the necessary information to avoid room for ambiguity. Mention your professional email address, job title, company name, and contact information to provide recipients with the necessary details and facilitate further communication. Following these essential etiquette guidelines for formal office communication can convey professionalism, clarity, and respect in your interactions, contributing to a positive and productive work environment.

Template 10 – Office Etiquette for Pantry Usage

Just as etiquette is necessary in a meeting room, you must consider certain etiquette when using your office pantry. SlideTeam presents you with its office etiquette pantry usage Template that teaches you some vital lessons on maintaining cleanliness in your organization and harmony in shared spaces. If your office provides shared things like coffee, tea, or snacks, use them carefully and refill the supply if you run out. Avoid hoarding or taking more than is reasonable. Use the pantry or other designated eating places in your office to eat meals instead of using them as meetings or workspaces. Be considerate when busy if the pantry is full or bustling, wait your turn to use the appliances, or other amenities. If people will use the pantry, don't stay there too long. These vital principles and guiding factors can help maintain a clean, organized, and respectful environment.

Conclusion

Our extensive office etiquette templates concentrate on communication, dress code, code of conduct, etc., enhance corporate performance and instil professionalism in their employees. Our templates are professionally designed to meet your requirements and can be edited based on the need of the circumstances.

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PS: Check out our new business communication training module: speaking templates. Click here to learn more!

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Office Etiquette and Protocol

It seems that you like this template, office etiquette and protocol presentation, free google slides theme, powerpoint template, and canva presentation template.

Get ahead of the game with a comprehensive and engaging presentation on office etiquette and protocol! This cream-colored, modern PowerPoint and Google Slides template is infused with graphs, images and other visuals to help you master office decorum like a pro. You won't just learn the ropes, you'll toe the line impeccably in a snap! It's all editable and customizable, so you can tailor it to your needs. Step up your workplace savviness today and let this template guide you to a harmonious work environment.

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Blog – Creative Presentations Ideas

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How to Illustrate Ethics in a Presentation [concept visualization]

Last Updated on September 7, 2020 by infodiagram

Understanding and following the ethics concept in communication is a way to successful business relations. Ethics concept comes in many forms – from how you choose projects to how you work with clients. Here we want to introduce the illustrations of ethics concepts that help you get creative in your presentations.

If you want to make your slides look professional, we advise you to follow one style and incorporate relevant graphics to support your presentation. The challenge is how to simplify your concept PPT, but to keep the audience inspired and involved. Here we share some hints for illustrating ethics concept ideas.

Expressing the ethics concept ideas with outline simple style

Ethnics concept icons symbols outline for PowerPoint

Above we suggest several icon examples from our outline icons collection. Use them to make your presentation more visual. Here’s an index of ethnics concept ideas:

pictograms describing customer care and teamwork values
h uman head icon full of emotions
interpersonal communication as a key to business ethic: idea change symbol , or persuasion process
weighing scale as a main ethnic principal
ethical communication icon of groups of people
graphics of ethical feelings as love , care
general ethical business principal metaphors: male leader figure , compass

Design-neutral ethics concept graphics

Ethnics concept icons symbols design-neutral flat for PowerPoint

Flat style icons will suit any presentation slide. You can change colors to suit your brand style. Here’s how you can illustrate the ethnics concept using flat symbols:

hammer symbol highlighting law principles
basic principles of ethical communication: interpersonal negotiation and idea changing icons
work ethics icon showing team job
feelings as one of the most important resources for guiding ethical conduct – trust , love and admiration icons
business ethical development stages – growing plant metaphor
protection shield icon showing the basic ethical principle

Creative unique hand drawn ethics icons collection

Ethnics concept icons symbols scribble for PowerPoint

If you want to be more creative and personal, use hand-drawn symbols for showing the ethics principles. See the specific visual ideas below:

justice and ethics in the contemporary world: layer icon , law hammer , and justice scale
professional activities icons: male figure during reading
male figure expressing emotions
global business ethics shaped with the compass

I hope you will find some inspiration from those icon ideas to express the Ethics concept. What’s your biggest presentation challenge? Let us know in the comments and we’ll be happy to share our quick design advice.

If you like the suggested icons, you can get them from infoDiagram library. The best way to get them is by joining subscription access to PPT graphics here . It will allow you to download these symbols, and graphics from any presentation deck you find on the website.

More concept icons ideas

Need to show another concept in a presentation? Leadership, Urgency, Status, Growth you name it. See our blog Ultimate List of Business Concepts Visualization to get inspired.

Chapter 14: Professionalism, Etiquette, and Ethical Behaviour

Venecia Williams and Jordan Smith

Learning Objectives

Define professional behaviour according to the employer, customer, coworker, and other stakeholder expectations
Explain the importance of ethics as part of the persuasion process
Define and provide examples of sexual harassment in the workplace, as well as strategies for how to eliminate it
Identify and provide examples of eight common fallacies in persuasive speaking

Professional communication must always cater to the audience. This is true especially in face-to-face interactions where, unlike with written communication, you can assess audience reaction in real-time and adjust your message accordingly. This places the responsibility of behaving professionally in the workplace solely on you. When we speak of professional behaviour, we mean the following aspects that generally fall under the banner of soft skills:

Social Intelligence

Emotional intelligence, social graces, business etiquette.

Each aspect will be considered in more detail, but first it is important to examine the personality traits of successful professionals. We must be careful with how we define success when we speak of personality, however. Those who lack the soft skills associated with the above aspects are difficult to work with and are usually demoted or fired. In rare instances, cruel, selfish, arrogant, narcissistic, or sociopathic people rise to positions of power through a combination of enablers tolerating or even rewarding their anti-social behaviour and their own lying, cheating, and bullying. This is an unfortunate reality that’s difficult to watch, but it’s important to avoid being enablers. It’s also important that business professionals do not allow those bad examples to become acceptable. They aren’t, and the proof is the suffering it spreads among people in their sphere of influence. For every horrible person who moves up the corporate ladder, there’ll be a trail of broken, bitter, and vengeful people in their wake. The loathing most people feel towards such people proves the importance of conducting ourselves otherwise.

Five Qualities of a Successful Professional

Openness to experience: curious and innovative vs. cautious and consistent
Conscientiousness : goal-driven and detail-oriented vs. casual and careless
Extraversion : outgoing and enthusiastic vs. solitary and guarded
Agreeableness : cooperative and flexible vs. defiant and stubborn
Neuroticism : anxious and volatile vs. confident and stable

Blending these with Guffey, Loewy, and Almonte’s six dimensions of professional behaviour in Essentials of Business Communication (2016) Figure 14.1 below presents a guide for how generally to be successful in your job, how to be well-liked, and how to be happy.

Figure 14.1 | Five Qualities of a Successful Professional (Source: Guffey, Loewy, & Almonte 2016, p. 309)

Having social intelligence means following social rules to cooperate and get along with others, especially in conversation. This includes reading nonverbal cues to determine:

How and when to initiate conversation
When it’s your turn to speak and when to listen in order to keep a conversation going
What to say and what not say
How to say what you mean in a manner that will be understood by your audience
When and how to use humour effectively and when not to
How and when to end conversation gracefully

People who lack social intelligence, perhaps because they missed opportunities to develop conversational skills in their formative school years, appear awkward in face-to-face conversation. They typically fail to interpret correctly nonverbal cues that say “Now it’s your turn to speak” or “Okay, I’m done with this conversation; let’s wrap it up.” It’s difficult to interact with such people either because they make you do all the work keeping the conversation going or don’t let you speak and keep going long after you wanted it to stop, forcing you to be slightly rude in ending it abruptly. Like any other type of intelligence, however, social intelligence can be developed through an understanding of the principles of good conversation and practice.

Every interaction you have is coloured by emotion—both yours and the person or people you interact with. Though most routine interactions in the workplace are on the neutral-to-positive end of the emotional spectrum, some are negative—anywhere from being slightly upset and a little sad to downright furious. Whether those emotions are kept below the surface or allowed expression depends on self-control and the situation. Expressing such emotions in the workplace requires the good judgment represented by the 3 T’s :

Tact : Recognizing that what you say has a meaningful impact, tact involves the careful choice of words to achieve intended effects. In a sensitive situation where your audience is likely to be upset, for instance, tact requires that you use calming and positive words to reduce your message’s harmful impact. When you’re upset, tact likewise involves self-restraint so that you don’t express anger or frustration if it would be inappropriate. In emotionally charged professional situations, it’s important to take additional time to process information when you’re in a different emotional state before communicating about it.
Timing: There’s a time and place for expressing your emotions. Expressing anger when you’re extremely upset might not be a wise decision if it moves you to say things you’ll later regret. Waiting to cool down so that you can tactfully express your disappointment will get the best results if it’s an important matter. If it’s a trivial matter, however, waiting to realize that it’s not worth the effort can save you the trouble of dealing with the fallout of a strong and regrettable reaction.
Trust: You must trust that the person you share your feelings with will respect your privacy and keep whatever you say confidential or at least not use it against you.

By considering these 3 T’s, you can better manage the expression of your own emotions and those of the people you work with and for in the workplace. Like those who lack social intelligence, those who lack emotional intelligence can often be difficult to work with and offensive, often without meaning to be. Low emotional intelligence can be a sign of immaturity because it takes years to develop EI through extensive socialization in school years and beyond, including learning how and why people take offence. Someone who jokes openly about another’s appearance in front of them and an audience, for instance, either fails to understand the hurt feelings of the person who is the butt of the joke or doesn’t care. Either way, people like this are a liability in the workplace because their offence establishes an environment dominated by insecurity and fear.

Social graces include all the subtle behavioural niceties that enable you to behave respectfully in social situations. They include manners such as being polite, etiquette (e.g., dining etiquette), and your style of dress and accessories. Some of the behaviours associated with social graces include:

Saying please when asking someone to do something
Saying thank you when given something you accept
Saying no, thank you, but thanks for the offer when offered something you refuse
Complimenting someone for something they’ve done well
Speaking positively about others and refraining from negative comments
Smiling often
Being a good listener

Business etiquette is a set of guidelines that determine how you interact with colleagues, upper management, customers and other stakeholders. Business etiquette includes possessing good table manners, showing up for meetings on time, dressing appropriately for the office and communicating respectfully. Adherence to these rules and guidelines help to create a comfortable work environment.

Respectful Workplaces

Most of this chapter has focused on how we should behave to be effective, respected professionals in our respective workplaces. Unfortunately, this isn’t what we always see in actual workplaces. Misbehaviour is rampant and is especially harmful when it’s harassment of a sexual nature. The broader culture took a hopeful step forward toward more respectful workplaces in 2017-2018 with the rise of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.

Though initially a response to high-profile sexual assault cases in the entertainment industry where perpetrators often went unpunished for decades, #MeToo activists successfully brought the movement to the broader culture via social media. After the outrage of the former CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi’s acquittal for sexual assault charges (Gollom, 2016) , Canada was ripe for a cultural shift against its own issues with toleration of sexual harassment in the workplace. Encouraged by a series of public accusations, firings, and resignations of prominent men in the entertainment, media, and political arenas throughout North America, women everywhere were encouraged to challenge widespread toleration of common sexual harassment and assault by reporting incidents to their employers and speaking out to shame everyday offenders in social media. For those who were unaware, it revealed the troubling extent of sexual harassment in Canadian workplaces.

The Prevalence of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

According to Doing Our Duty: Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace by the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA, 2018a), “sexual harassment in the workplace is an epidemic that has been allowed to persist” for too long (p. 5). In a survey of nearly a thousand HRPA members in Ontario, 43% of women said they’ve been sexually harassed in the workplace, and about four-fifths said they didn’t report it to their employers (p. 12). In a separate online survey of 2000 Canadians nationwide, 34% of women reported experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace and 12% of men, and nearly 40% of those say it involved someone who had a direct influence over their career success (Navigator, 2018, p. 5) . These perceptions are completely out of step with what top executives believe, with 95% of 153 surveyed Canadian CEOs and CFOs confirming that sexual harassment is not a problem in their workplaces (Gandalf Group, 2017, p. 9) . Clearly there are differences of opinion between those who experience sexual harassment and those in executive positions who are responsible for the safety of their employees, and much of the confusion may have to do with how sexual harassment is defined.

What Is Sexual Harassment?

The Code clarifies that all employees have a right to conduct their work without being harassed (241.2), but what does that look like in practice?

Making unnecessary physical contact, including unwanted touching (e.g., stroking hair, demanding hugs, or rubbing a person’s back)
Invading personal space
Using language that puts someone down because of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression
Using sex-specific derogatory names, homophobic or transphobic epithets, slurs, or jokes
Leering or inappropriate staring
Gender-related comments about a person’s physical characteristics or mannerisms, comments that police or reinforce traditional heterosexual gender norms
Targeting someone for not following sex-role stereotypes (e.g., comments made to a female for being in a position of authority)
Showing or sending pornography, sexual images, etc. (e.g., pinning up an image of a naked man in the bathroom)
Making sexual jokes, including forwarding sexual jokes by email
Rough or vulgar language related to gender (e.g., “locker-room talk”)
Spreading sexual rumours, “outing” or threatening to out someone who is LGBTQ2S (e.g., sending an email to colleagues about an affair between a supervisor and another employee)
Making suggestive or offensive comments about members of a specific gender
Sexually propositioning a person
Bragging about sexual prowess
Asking questions about sexual preferences, fantasies, or activities
Demanding dates or sexual favours
Verbally abusing, threatening, or taunting someone based on gender
Threatening to penalize or punish a person who refuses to comply with sexual advances
Intrusive comments, questions or insults about a person’s body, physical characteristics, gender-related medical procedures, clothing, mannerisms, or other forms of gender expression
Refusing to refer to a person by their self-identified name or proper personal pronoun, or requiring a person to prove their gender
Circulating or posting of homophobic, transphobic, derogatory or offensive signs, caricatures, graffiti, pictures, or other materials

How to Make the Workplace More Respectful

Though the Canada Labour Code places the responsibility of ensuring a harassment-free workplace squarely on the employer (Provision 247.3), all employees must do their part to uphold one another’s right to work free of harassment. At the very least, everyone should avoid any of the 21 specific examples of sexual harassment listed above, even in the context of lighthearted banter. Employees everywhere should be held to a higher standard, which the HRPA advocates in the following recommendations:

All companies must have a stand-alone sexual harassment and assault policy, as required by the Labour Code .
All employees must familiarize themselves with their company’s sexual harassment policy, which should include guidance on how to report instances of harassment.
All companies must conduct training sessions on their sexual harassment policy, including instruction on what to do when harassed or witnessing harassment, and all employees must participate.

Experiencing harassment places the victim in a difficult position with regard to their job security, as does witnessing it and the duty to report. The situation is even more complicated if the perpetrator has the power to promote, demote, or terminate the victim’s or witness’s employment. If you find yourself in such a situation, seeking the confidential advice of an ombudsperson or person in a similar counselling role should be your first recourse. Absent these internal protections, consider seeking legal counsel. If you witness harassment, the important thing is to act as an ally to the person being harassed. The biggest takeaway from the development of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements is that a workplace culture that permits sexual harassment will only end if we all do our part to ensure that offences no longer go unreported and unpunished.

Speaking Ethically and Avoiding Fallacies

When we consider ethical behaviour in the workplace, it’s worth revisiting the topic of persuasion so that we can address how not to persuade. In other words, how can we avoid manipulating someone in professional situations so that they don’t later feel like they were taken advantage of?

In the context of communication, manipulation is the management of facts, ideas or points of view to play upon people’s insecurities or to use emotional appeals to one’s own advantage. Though emotional appeals were part of the rhetorical triangle discussed earlier, they cross the line into manipulation when motivated by an attempt to do something against the best interests of the audience, which expects that you treat them with respect. Deliberately manipulating them by inciting fear or guilt is unethical. Likewise, deception is unethical because it uses lies, partial truths, or the omission of relevant information to deceive. No one likes to be lied to or led to believe something that isn’t true. Deception can involve intentional bias or the selection of information to support your position while negatively framing any information that might challenge your audience’s belief.

Other unethical behaviours with respect to an audience such as a workplace team include coercion and bribery. Coercion is the use of power to make someone do something they would not choose to do freely. It usually involves threats of punishment, which get the intended outcome, but results in hatred towards the coercing person or group. Bribery , which is offering something in return for an expected favour, is similarly unethical because it sidesteps normal, fair protocol for personal gain at the audience’s expense. When the rest of the team finds out that they lost out on opportunities because someone received favours for favours, an atmosphere of mistrust and animosity—hallmarks of a toxic work environment—hangs over the workplace.

Eleven Unethical Persuasive Techniques

In Ethics in Human Communication , Richard Johannesen (1996) offers eleven points to consider when speaking persuasively. Do not :

Use false, fabricated, misrepresented, distorted or irrelevant evidence to support arguments or claims
Intentionally use unsupported, misleading, or illogical reasoning
Represent yourself as an “expert” (or even informed) on a subject when you’re not
Use irrelevant appeals to divert attention from the issue at hand
Ask your audience to link your idea or proposal to emotion-driven values, motives, or goals to which it is unrelated
Deceive your audience by concealing your real purpose, your self-interest, the group you represent, or your position as an advocate of a viewpoint
Distort, hide, or misrepresent the number, scope, intensity, or undesirable features of consequences or effects
Use “emotional appeals” that lack a supporting basis of evidence or reasoning
Oversimplify complex, multi-layered, nuanced situations into simplistic, two-valued, either/or, polar views or choices
Pretend certainty where tentativeness and degrees of probability would be more accurate
Advocate for something that you yourself do not believe in

If you tried any of the above tricks and were found out by a critical-thinking audience, you risk irreparable damage to your reputation personally and that of your company.

Though you might think that the above guidelines wipe out most of a marketer’s available techniques, in fact, they leave plenty of room for creative argument following the model for persuasive argument outlined in Chapter 9 . After all, the goal of any such argument in a professional situation is to achieve a mutually beneficial result, one where both you and your audience benefit by getting something you both want or need in a free and honest exchange. Your audience will appreciate your fair dealing as you build your credibility or ethos.

Avoiding Fallacies

Logicians (experts on logic) have long pointed out a set of rhetorical tricks, called fallacies, that fraudsters use to convince others of an argument that has no merit on its own. Though these fallacies are typically deceptive in nature, they still manage to convince many people in ways that undermine their own interests. Whenever you see anyone resorting to these tricks, you should probably be suspicious of what they’re selling or getting you to support. To be ethical in the way you present arguments in professional situations and steer clear of being held under suspicion by a critical audience yourself, avoid the eight fallacies explored below in Figure 14.2.

Figure 14.2 | Logical Fallacies to Avoid

Avoiding such false logic helps strengthen your own argument by compelling you to stay within the bounds of sound argumentative strategies.

The quality of any workplace culture depends on the ethical conduct of its leadership and employees, with everyone treating one another with respect and speaking responsibly.

End of Chapter Activities

14a. thinking about the content.

What are your key takeaways from this chapter? What is something you have learned or something you would like to add from your experience?

14b. Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions

1. First, think of someone who exemplifies everything you aspire to be in terms of their good behaviour in the workplace (loosely defined as anywhere someone does work—not necessarily where it’s compensated with money). List the qualities and actions that make them such a good, well-liked model for behaviour. Second, think of someone who exemplifies everything you aspire to avoid in terms of their misconduct in the workplace. List the qualities and typical misbehaviour that make them so detestable.

2. Research and explain good dining etiquette or how to dress for success in the workplace with clear recommendations for how your audience should conduct themselves.

3. Have you ever experienced or witnessed sexual harassment in a workplace or institution (e.g., at school) according to the definition and examples given in the chapter? What happened and what did you do about it? Would you do anything differently in hindsight?

4. Find an example of advertising that is unethical because it relies on logical fallacies and other deceptive techniques explored in this chapter. Identify the fallacies or techniques and speculate on why the advertiser used them. Outline a more honest—yet still effective—advertisement for the same product or service.

14c. Applying chapter concepts to a situation

Working with Unprofessional Colleagues

Maria recently started her internship at a small architecture firm with only six employees. During her interview, the hiring manager emphasized that the team at the company is like a family, and they are looking for someone who would be a good fit in the company’s culture. This is a selling point for Maria, and she is excited to start her new professional journey and meet her colleagues.

Upon meeting the other employees, Maria agrees that they are a close-knit group. She also thinks that they are amicable and helpful. Maria feels valued and respected, so she hopes to get a permanent job with the company. However, there is one thing that bothers Maria. She has a colleague, Piyush, who always swears in the office. Everyone else laughs when he does it, but his lack of professionalism makes her uncomfortable.

Maria dreads going to work when she is scheduled to work with Piyush. She fears addressing the problem because she does not want to ruin the easygoing work atmosphere. She wonders if it is best to leave the company after her six-month internship is finished instead of staying long-term. She battles with this decision as she likes working at the company, and the benefits are unmatched.

What should Maria do?

14d. Writing Activity

Read this article from LinkedIn on Nine Golden Rules to Professional Ethics in the Workplace . Summarize the rules. What other rules do you think are important based on your professional or academic experience?

Attribution

This chapter contains information from Business Communication for Success which is adapted from a work produced and distributed under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA) in 2010 by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution. This adapted edition is produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing through the eLearning Support Initiative and Communication at Work by Jordan Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.