Golden Rule at Work

Treat colleagues the way you want to be treated - in email tone, credit, deadlines, and hallway gossip.

Key Concept

• It is active, not passive: do the helpful thing, do not only avoid harm.
• Level 1: Help coworkers the way you want help - step in, do not just stay out of the way.
• Level 2: The golden rule is active - do the helpful thing you would want done for you, like holding a door you would want held.
• Level 3: Passive fairness leaves people stuck - because you would want someone to act for you, the rule pushes you to act.
• Level 4: At work, ask what you would want if roles flipped - then do that helpful move instead of only keeping your head down.
• Level 5: The Golden Rule is the spine; at work it means stepping in on the tedious task, not just refusing to make things worse.
• The check is experiential - how would you want feedback delivered, how would you want to be included, how would you want a mistake handled?
• Gospel depth lives in The Golden Rule; this is the version used before hitting send.

Examples

• My draft reply to the new team manager was technically right and needlessly harsh - I paused, asked how I would want that correction on my worst game day, and rewrote it.
• The group chat pile-on about the neighbor's messy yard - I asked how I would want feedback if my lawn looked that way, then said nothing mean.

Note Relationships