Workplace incivility harms marginalized employees more than others

"It can have physiological effects on the body, including upregulation of the sympathetic nervous system through, for example, increases in cortisol," she says. "It has similar adverse effects to other, more severe forms of mistreatment such as workplace bullying." And people in "equity-seeking groups" such as BIPOC or LGBTQ2S+ are likely to experience more incivility on the job. Hershcovis and colleagues Lilia Cortina from the University of Michigan and Kathryn Clancy from the University of Illinois have found that how someone responds to the incivility can either mitigate the harm or make it much worse. Their study,  The embodiment of insult: A theory of biobehavioral response to workplace incivility , documents four different responses to workplace incivility: reciprocation, retreat, relationship repair, and recruitment of support. "Fighting back and avoiding the situation are generally ineffective strategies," she says. These approaches rarely resolve the mistreatment, nor does it reduce the stress felt by the target of the incivility. "Those who engage in 'fight or flight' responses are more likely to have adverse physiological reactions to incivility as compared to those who connect with others, seek out support, or try to reconcile with perpetrators," says Hershcovis.