Professionals in the IT industry have a reputation for not always being pleasant to deal with. Is it the urgency of the work? Certainly, technology plays a vital role in modern business. When computers break, business and productivity can suffer, and the people entrusted with the care of those systems can get cranky. Also, people with particularly nerdy personalities tend to lean toward jobs where they spend long hours isolated in cubicles pounding out code. Maybe it's easier to get along with your systems than it is to deal with some of your co-workers, but what if your colleagues think the same thing about you?

A Public Agenda study in 2002 found that incivility in the workplace contributes to low morale, decreased effort, increased absenteeism, and poor customer service, all of which can negatively impact your company's bottom line. Start cultivating your sense of business etiquette by acting with courtesy, communicating appropriately, and giving back to communities around you.

Courtesy

The key to courtesy is having genuine respect for people around you. You don't have to like everybody or agree with everything they do, but you do need to have respect for them as people. Start by being thoughtful and considerate of their needs.

Courtesy can be something as simple as holding a door open for the person coming down the hallway behind you. Many times, someone ahead of me has passed through a door, letting it close unceremoniously in my face. When someone lets a door shut on you, she is sending a very clear message: "It is more important for me to get to my destination five seconds sooner than to treat you like a human being." The next time you're walking through a doorway, take a moment to look over your shoulder to see whether anyone is coming up behind you. If so, pause for a moment to smile — yes, smile! — and hold the door for him. This takes only a moment and is a great way to show courtesy to your colleagues.

Offering thanks and congratulations when people have helped you out is another great morale booster. If your company offers a formal peer-recognition program, take advantage of it. If not, consider giving the person a phone call or stopping by her office to say thank you. Even a simple e-mail message will do — make sure to copy the person's boss so her manager is also aware of her contributions. When doing so, be sure to offer specific thanks and praise. Rather than saying, "Thanks for your help with the website," consider something more along the lines of "Thank you for putting in the extra hours required to debug a download problem on the staging server to get the new website deployed on schedule."

Communication

What you say and how you say it communicate a lot about you. One simple guideline to follow in all of your professional communication is to tell the truth. When you think about it, the ease and the frequency with which we lie to each other is astounding. We say, "I'll get back to you later today," when we mean, "I'll try to respond, but I have a million other things on my plate right now." These little lies erode your credibility with your colleagues. Making an effort to say what you mean and to follow through on promises will give you a positive professional image.

E-mail, when used properly, is a great tool to facilitate straight talk and follow through at work. Respond to your e-mail promptly and appropriately. Use a clear subject line and keep your messages short and to the point. Try to use good grammar, check your spelling if you have tools available to do so, and read over your message before you send it. Don't write e-mail when you're angry — remember that paper trail! If you need to send an e-mail about a sensitive or emotional topic, have a trusted colleague review the e-mail before you send it.

When talking on the phone, consider the people around you. This is equally important when using a mobile phone in public or when talking in your cubicle. It is difficult to manage noise levels in a cubicle or office environment. Whether you have no walls, half-high walls, or four walls and a door, the people around you can hear you talking. I used to sit next to a man who regularly had small meetings and conference calls in his office. The calls were noisy and raucous, and I could hear every detail of the conversations going on through the thin office walls. The environment disrupted my ability to concentrate on the tasks at hand (my iPod became a valuable productivity tool in those months). Thankfully, I never overheard any personal, sensitive, or confidential information, but the danger of doing so was very real. If you need to have teleconferences that include several local people, consider booking a separate conference room for the meeting. Also take advantage of these conference rooms for any phone calls involving sensitive or confidential information. And be sure to limit your personal calls at the office and remain professional in your conversations.

Odds are, you have a mobile phone, and even if you don't use it exclusively for business purposes, you probably use it at work. Remember that you can, in fact, live without your cell phone! When you're in meetings, classes, at business meals, or any public event, turn your phone off (or at least put it in silent mode). Choose an appropriate and professional ring tone. If you must use a cell phone, try to maintain distance between yourself and others — so avoid talking in enclosed spaces like buses, theaters, elevators, or restaurants.

Community

Volunteering outside your job is a great opportunity to hone your etiquette skills, and you get the added bonus of expanding your professional network. Join a committee — or start one if you need to — and share your passion with others. Does your workplace have a yearly charity drive? Is there a group that plans social networking activities? Would your department benefit from a monthly team-building lunch? Then make it happen.

At your local schools, you can put your etiquette skills into practice and provide an example of professional behavior. Why not put your technical skills to work and volunteer to help kids with their math and science homework? Visit a computer class and share your perspective on being an IT professional. Work as a science fair judge, help coach the math team, or chaperone a trip to the science museum.

You should also consider giving back to the System i community by participating in technical user group discussions or by joining iSociety (isociety.org). Do you have a local user group? Start participating in its events. (Not sure if you have a local user group? Check out this directory: geocities.com/~alex_nubla/usersgroup.htm). And of course, COMMON is always looking for volunteers to help plan events and coordinate conference logistics (common.org).

The bottom line is that the time you spend giving back to your community — whether it's for the place you work, the place you live, or your fellow System i devotees — is time well spent. Not only is it fun to volunteer, but you'll meet new people and have new experiences that will help cultivate your sensitivity to other people's needs. In doing so, you'll boost your courtesy rating too!

Vanessa Grose is a software engineer at IBM in Rochester, Minnesota. She works with early customer programs for Java and WebSphere products. You can reach Vanessa at vanessa@us.ibm.com.