Do Your Employees Need an Etiquette Lesson?

As a post-pandemic normality settles in, the generations find they are playing by different rules—and the Emily Post Institute's classes are overwhelmed by demand.

Good Morning!

Here are today’s highlights:    

• Managers are reporting higher levels of anger, sadness, and stress.

• Lou Mosca explains and how and why to document your processes.

• Despite a history of financial success, businesses are giving up on multilevel marketing.

• Facebook Marketplace has become a surprisingly good place to start selling freshly made meals.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Big and small businesses alike are sending employees back to class to learn how to play nice: “Since the end of last year, Daniel Post Senning — the great-great-grandson of American etiquette queen Emily Post and co-president of the Emily Post Institute — has been gobsmacked by the growing demand for his family’s services. Senning had anticipated a boom in training requests as companies brought workers back to offices after the pandemic, but it didn’t happen right away. Instead, the wave of interest has come since the turn of the year, with growing numbers of big corporations and small family firms paying to send employees to courses like ‘Manners at Work’ and ‘Business Etiquette for Professionals.’”

• “Workers who had substantial professional experience before the pandemic, including managers and executives, still need help adapting to hybrid and remote work, Senning said. He has been coaching leaders on best practices for such things as communicating through your calendar and deciding whether to call, text, or use Slack to reach an employee.”

• “Establishing etiquette for video meetings has also been a challenge for many firms, he notes. Bad behavior in virtual meetings has occasionally made headlines in recent years, such as the backlash against Vishal Garg, CEO of the mortgage lending firm Better.com, for announcing mass layoffs over Zoom ahead of the holidays in 2021.”

• “‘If I had a magic button that I could push that could get people to treat video meetings with 50 percent of the same level of professionalism they treat an in-person meeting, I would make a lot of HR, personnel managers, and executives very, very happy,’ Senning said.”

• “Pamela Eyring, president of the Protocol School of Washington, said she has seen a notable surge in interest in training that’s geared toward younger professionals, with inquiries and bookings for courses rising 100 percent from last year. Firms are especially eager for younger workers to get coaching on skills they weren’t able to develop during the pandemic, she notes, such as entertaining clients at business dinners.” READ MORE