Appropriate Behaviour In The Workplace

Appropriate behaviour in the workplace is defined on paper by a policy and in practice by something else entirely. Staff work out the real standard by watching what happens when someone crosses it.

One person whose conduct is overlooked because they deliver results tells a team more than any module. So does a complaint that went nowhere, a manager who laughed along, or a senior person held to a different standard.

Every exception made visibly rewrites the policy for everyone watching, and people are watching more closely than organisations assume.

That is why behaviour work that stops at policy and training changes little. What moves it is the first time a valuable person is held to the same line as everyone else, and whether anyone saw it happen.

Safe Work Australia treats sustained poor conduct as a psychosocial hazard. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s code of conduct training and respect at work training.