Incivility at work is tit-for-tat exchanges, slights, verbal jabs, condescension, and discourteous interactions many employees give and get. Different from bullying, which is a form of workplace aggression and mistreatment, incivility is lower key. It's more ambiguous, but it's still harmful. Many researchers have shown that employees spend hours after an uncivil act thinking about it, processing it with a friend, and planning how to avoid the next incident. All this eats into productivity and has an economic cost. Incivility can be a factor in burnout, too, prompting workers to do less and call in sick more and continuing a cycle of morale problems.