Is Your Boss a Bully, or Just a Tough Cookie?

by Catherine MatticeJul 18, 2012

The key to adapting in the work environment to better accommodate your job depends on what kind of boss you have as well as your attitude.

Incivility, bullying, and harassment occur because the culture allows them to. Before starting inclusivity initiatives, you’ve got to stop bad behavior. Take this assessment to determine if your workplace fosters a positive culture.

About Catherine Mattice

Catherine Mattice, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the founder/CEO of Civility Partners, an organizational development firm focused on helping organizations create respectful workplace cultures and specializing in turning around toxic cultures. Civility Partners’ clients range from Fortune 500s to small businesses across many industries. Catherine is a TEDx speaker and an HR thought leader who has appeared in such venues as USA Today, Bloomberg, CNN, NPR, and many other national news outlets as an expert. She’s an award-winning speaker, author, and blogger and has 60+ courses reaching global audiences on LinkedIn Learning. Her fourth book, Navigating Toxic Work Environments For Dummies (Wiley), is available in all major bookstores and where audiobooks are sold.

An Important Survey Question You’re Not Asking

by Catherine Mattice | March 2, 2026 | Corporate Culture & Employee Engagement | 0 Comments

Employee Appreciation Day is March 6th here in the United States, and with it often come social events, catered lunches, swag bags, and gift cards. It’s kind of annoying, if you ask me. Not because you shouldn’t appreciate your people, but because leaders are fairly...

Hear From the Experts: What Really Happens in Upstander Training

by Catherine Mattice | February 25, 2026 | DEI | 0 Comments

We can tell you that our Upstander Training Toolkit really works in our emails. But the most powerful proof comes from our expert facilitators who deliver this very same training to our own clients. Dr. Toni Herndon and Dr. Bob Berk have facilitated this program to...

Why Organizations Create Toxic Rockstars (And How to Stop Them)

by Catherine Mattice | February 18, 2026 | Workplace bullying | 0 Comments

Research shows that more than 70% of employees report experiencing incivility or disrespectful behavior at work, and over half say these behaviors reduce their productivity and morale. Meanwhile, almost every HR or people leader has heard some version of these...

7 Questions to Answer Before Launching a Training Program

by Catherine Mattice | February 11, 2026 | Leadership | 0 Comments

Organizations spend a staggering amount on training, yet the results often fall short. In the United States alone, organizations invested $102.8 billion in training in 2025, up from $98 billion in 2024, yet research consistently shows that only 10–20% of training...

Is Your L&D Equipped to Support a Healthy Workplace?

by Catherine Mattice | February 4, 2026 | Leadership | 0 Comments

Learning and Development (L&D) teams are drowning in activity. Leadership academies, compliance refreshers, microlearning libraries, LMS migrations, another platform, another rollout, another “strategic priority.” Motion is constant and it may be keeping your...

Culture Eats Your Policies for Breakfast

by Catherine Mattice | January 21, 2026 | Leadership | 0 Comments

If I see or hear the quote, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” by Peter Drucker one more time, I might vomit. Everyone loves this phrase, but I’m convinced no one knows what it even means. If they did, Civility Partners would be out of a job. While I haven’t read...

Navigating a Toxic Workplace: Practical Strategies for Leaders, HR, and Employees

by Catherine Mattice | January 9, 2026 | Workplace bullying | 0 Comments

When toxic behavior - such as gossip, harsh sarcasm, incivility, rudeness, public shaming, serial interrupting, microaggressions, and unresolved conflict - is brushed off as personality differences or “not that bad” it normalizes the behavior. As leaders look the...

Start the Year on a Good Note (Literally): Your Workplace Playlist

by Jennifer Areola-Estudillo | January 7, 2026 | Civil & Healthy Workplaces | 0 Comments

Research consistently shows that music affects how our brains process emotion, connection, and stress. According to the American Psychological Association, music can reduce cortisol levels, helping lower stress and anxiety while improving emotional regulation. In...

Celebrating Your 2025 Wins!

by Catherine Mattice | December 17, 2025 | Civil & Healthy Workplaces | 0 Comments

Have you stopped to pause and appreciate everything you’ve accomplished this year? Were you able to make some strides on improving your culture? Did you finally get that one initiative approved that you’ve been working on for a while? Or maybe you finally finished out...

HR in 2025: A Year in Review

by Catherine Mattice | December 11, 2025 | Corporate Culture & Employee Engagement | 0 Comments

As 2025 comes to a close, it’s hard not to look back and notice just how much the world of HR has been in motion. This year revealed an incredible amount of resilience, creativity, and heart across the profession. Many of you worked quietly behind the scenes,...