Town Hall Employees Report Incivility

Anyone who has ever worked with the public knows it isn’t easy, but apparently, things have gotten so bad at Stafford Town Hall that First Selectman Bill Morrison brought it up at the February 4, 2026, Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting. 

Morrison said that at a recent meeting with department heads, it was brought to his attention that members of the public were “berating” employees. He reminded the public that “this is someone’s workplace” and asked them to be respectful toward employees. 

Stafford doesn’t seem to be unique in its troubles with incivility. The problem is widespread. Inc. reports, “According to SHRM data, U.S. employees were subject to 208 million acts of daily workplace incivility — or 144,000 each hour — during the first quarter of the year. That represented a 21.5 percent increase over the same period in 2024. By the trade association’s calculation, those conflicts are costing employers a whopping $2 billion every day.”

---

---

While the problem seems to stretch across industries, and. iseven a problem among co-workers, the problem is bad enough for public servants that “The American Public Health Association, American Psychological Association, International City/County Management Association (ICMA), and the National League of Cities (NLC) hosted an insightful conversation on the impact of incivility on public servants, including city managers, health professionals, and elected officials.” During the presentation, it was mentioned that 75% of elected officials report a reduced willingness to run for re-election. 

Meanwhile, CivicPulse compiled a chart tracking the likelihood of a public servant being harassed or threatened over a three-month period. The likelihood of being insulted, harassed, or threatened increases with population size, and Stafford is just big enough to fall into the most problematic group.