Workplace civility training is a preventive culture program that builds everyday respect between colleagues. Bodhih's version covers what incivility looks like in person and online, how it spreads, how to respond as a target or bystander, and how to repair relationships. It complements POSH and other compliance training rather than replacing them.
- Recommended: 1 day in person, or 3 × 2.5-hour live virtual sessions
- Level: Foundation · In person · Live virtual · Blended
- Designed with the ADDIE model and customised to your context
- Offered by Bodhih since 2008 to 2,000+ organisations across 7 regions
Also known as: respect in the workplace training, civility and respect workshop, workplace incivility training, bystander intervention training at work
Where and how: workplace civility training as an in-person workshop in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Jaipur; as a live online course; or delivered overseas in Dubai, Singapore and across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Last reviewed · Bodhih Training, Bengaluru
Why small disrespect is a big culture problem
Most workplace disrespect never reaches a formal complaint. It lives in curt replies, credit taken in meetings, jokes that land badly across generations and cameras-off side chats. Over time it drains trust and makes good people quietly look elsewhere.
HR leaders are paying attention. Culture has climbed up the 2026 agenda as hybrid work, AI-driven change and four generations sharing one team all test old norms. Workplace civility training gives everyone a shared language and simple habits to keep respect visible when pressure rises.
Only 47% of CHROs surveyed by Gartner said their culture drives employee performance today.
SHRM found 31% of CHROs prioritising workplace culture in 2026, up from 15% in 2025.
What participants will be able to do
Name incivility clearly
Recognise everyday rudeness, exclusion and dismissive behaviour, including in chats and video calls, without over- or under-reacting.
Check your own impact
Notice how stress, hierarchy and habit can make your own behaviour land as disrespectful, even when you intend no harm.
Respond in the moment
Use short, calm phrases to address a disrespectful comment as the target or a bystander.
Act as an upstander
Choose from direct, distract, delegate and follow-up options to support a colleague safely.
Repair after a rupture
Open a repair conversation, offer a genuine apology and agree how to work together going forward.
Set team norms
Co-create a short team charter for respectful meetings, messages and disagreements.
Who should attend
- Teams where friction, sarcasm or exclusion is starting to show up in engagement or exit feedback
- People managers who need to set the tone and address disrespect early
- Hybrid teams where tone gets lost in chat, email and video calls
- Multigenerational and multicultural teams with different communication norms
- Organisations that already run POSH training and want preventive culture work
- Newly merged or restructured teams building trust from scratch
Program outline
Recommended design, customised to your context after a short needs analysis.
01What civility means at workModule 1 · 60 min+
- Civility, respect and psychological safety: how they connect
- The spectrum from micro-incivility to harassment, and where formal policies apply
- Team pulse: what respect looks like here
02How incivility spreadsModule 2 · 75 min+
- Common forms: interrupting, ignoring, public criticism, credit-taking
- Digital incivility in chat, email and video calls
- The ripple effect on focus, collaboration and customers
03Your own blind spotsModule 3 · 60 min+
- Stress, status and speed as drivers of rudeness
- Generational and cultural differences in directness
- Personal reflection on intent versus impact
04Responding as a targetModule 4 · 75 min+
- Simple scripts for naming behaviour without escalating
- When to address it privately, and when to escalate
- Practice on realistic scenarios from your workplace
05Bystander actionModule 5 · 75 min+
- The four Ds: direct, distract, delegate, delay
- Supporting a colleague after the moment has passed
- Role-play in meetings, on the shop floor and online
06Repair and team normsModule 6 · 60 min+
- A four-step repair conversation and genuine apology
- Drafting a team civility charter for meetings and messages
- Personal commitments for the next 30 days
How we deliver it
Scenario-based learning
Scenarios are drawn from your context during the ADDIE analysis, anonymised, so the workplace civility training reflects real friction points.
Safe practice
Role-plays use observers and clear ground rules, and participants choose whether to play targets, bystanders or actors.
Theatre-based options
Where suitable, short enacted scenes let groups discuss behaviour at one step removed, which lowers defensiveness.
Manager toolkit
Team leads receive a facilitation guide to run a 20-minute follow-up discussion and refresh the team charter.
Tailored versions
For people managers
Adds how to intervene early, handle a report about a colleague's behaviour fairly and model civility under pressure.
For frontline and plant teams
Short, huddle-friendly sessions with scenarios from shifts, shop floors and customer counters, delivered in person.
For hybrid and global teams
Deeper focus on tone in writing, video-call etiquette and cultural differences in directness across time zones.
How we measure impact
Following the ADDIE Evaluate stage, we agree measures such as a short respect and inclusion pulse run before the program and again at 90 days. Participants can take a pre and post interpersonal skills assessment on AssessAll. Team charters are reviewed by managers at 30 and 60 days, and we gather anonymised examples of bystander action and repair. HR can also track trends in engagement comments, exit feedback and informal complaints alongside the program.
Pair this program with AssessAll, Bodhih’s AI assessment platform, for pre- and post-program skill measurement.
Frequently asked questions
What is workplace civility?
Workplace civility is the everyday behaviour that shows respect for colleagues: listening, acknowledging people, disagreeing politely and treating others fairly regardless of role. Incivility is the opposite, such as rudeness, ignoring people, sarcasm or public put-downs. It is often low-intensity and ambiguous, which is why it goes unaddressed, yet it steadily erodes trust and collaboration.
What are examples of incivility at work?
Common examples include interrupting or talking over people, ignoring messages, checking your phone while someone speaks, taking credit for others' work, public criticism, excluding colleagues from meetings and sharp or sarcastic chat replies. In hybrid teams, leaving remote colleagues out of decisions is also a frequent form. Workplace civility training helps people notice these patterns in themselves as well as others.
How is civility training different from POSH training?
POSH training addresses sexual harassment and the legal obligations and processes around it. Civility training is broader and preventive: it covers everyday respect that applies to all interactions, most of which fall well below the threshold of harassment. The two complement each other, and the civility program points people to formal policies and channels where serious concerns arise.
Is this program legal or policy training?
No. This is behavioural and culture training, not legal advice. We refer to your existing policies, such as your code of conduct and grievance procedures, and explain when a concern should move to formal channels. For compliance obligations, including POSH or the new labour codes, organisations should rely on their legal and HR teams and dedicated compliance programs.
How do you respond to disrespect at work without making it worse?
Start by staying calm and naming the behaviour, not the person, in a short statement, for example that you would like to finish your point. If it continues, have a private conversation about impact and what you need. If it is repeated or serious, use your organisation's formal channels. The program gives people practised phrases for each step.
Can civility really be trained?
Civility is behaviour, and behaviour can be practised. Training works best when people see realistic scenarios, practise short responses, agree team norms and have managers reinforce them. That is why Bodhih combines the workshop with team charters, a manager toolkit and follow-up at 30, 60 and 90 days, rather than relying on a single awareness session.
Who should attend workplace civility training?
Ideally, whole teams including their managers, because norms are set together. Where that is not possible, start with people managers and team leads, then cascade to teams. Bodhih has worked with more than 2,000 companies since 2008 and can adapt the format for a single leadership team, a department or an organisation-wide rollout.