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I’ve given two specific things you can do if you are intentional about bringing back simple common courtesy and civil behavior where you work. First, use the words please and thank you all day every day—as often as it is appropriate. You can’t overdo it! Second, ask at least one person a day how they are and then sincerely listen to their answer and respond appropriately. That just means care about others. As Christ-followers courtesy and caring should be the norm for us.
The third suggestion is: Watch out for sarcasm because it can become a weapon that hurts others, whether intentionally or not. Recently at my church where I’m on staff, one of the pastors said that he realized he was too sarcastic, just too often responding with sarcasm. It wasn’t intended to harm anyone—indeed it was done as a joke or a clever retort. But he felt it had become a bit much among the staff. So, he put a jar out and suggested that every time someone used sarcasm, they put a dollar in the jar, and then they would give that money to our fellowship fund, for people facing financial hardship.
I don’t know how much he raised for the fellowship fund, but I know that it caused everyone to simply be more aware that sometimes those clever sarcastic words can be hurtful and sound anything but civil and polite. I’m not saying that you have to walk on eggshells all the time for fear of saying the wrong thing. But I have noticed my own tendency to let go of a quick response, intended as a joke, but I need to be careful that it doesn’t come across as ridicule and be hurtful.
For those of us who are prone to use sarcasm, we should keep in mind that what we may have meant as a clever response was instead hurtful to someone else. As Christians, we can do much to change a culture of incivility to one of caring and good manners. So, if there’s too much sarcasm in your world so that it contributes to this problem of incivility, make sure you are not contributing to that problem.