Establishing a Mutually Respectful Environment in the Workplace: A Toolbox for Performance Excellence

Most health care professionals spend a substantial amount of their time at the workplace. Our interactions with team members can define our daily experiences, impact our work performance, and influence our overall job satisfaction. Over the last years, how we interact with colleagues and patients has changed with the introduction of social media, a tenser political climate, and an evolving health care system. In oncology, a team can be composed of medical students, clinicians, and support and administrative staff within a heavy emotional environment where some of our patients are facing the risk of early mortality and most are dealing with the unmeasurable burden of cancer. Many of these factors can increase the risk for professionalism lapses. We discuss common challenges faced in the practice of cancer care, including the generational gap between medical trainees and senior members, gender disparities, and microaggressions. Microaggressions represent verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities that communicate hostile, derogatory, and negative slights that insult a target person or group. Microaggressions should not be accepted as the norm in the workplace. It is essential to recognize these negative behaviors and manage them effectively to reduce or even prevent the long-term toxicities that these behaviors can bring to the workplace environment. Ultimately, we must acknowledge that these issues exist and remember that education and collaboration are the pillars of an inclusive workplace. We owe such efforts to our patients who deserve good care, to our partners in the care of patients so that they feel supported and included, and to ourselves.