Germs can run rampant in a workplace, but so can another problem. Researchers at the University of Florida, presenting their findings in the Journal of Applied Psychology, say that rudeness can be contagious.

The researchers followed 90 graduate business students as they practiced negotiation techniques over seven weeks, switching partners several times. Students who described a partner as rude were more likely to be considered rude themselves by subsequent partners than those who negotiated with people they felt were polite. The researchers theorize that this suggests that experiencing rudeness may make people more inclined to engage in it themselves.

Do your best to stay polite and courteous all the times, and you may be able to stop an epidemic in your organization.

Workplace rudeness can be a serious problem. It can bring down morale and lead to lost productivity. Rudeness doesn’t just affect work; it can lead to lost customers.

A study by the University of North Carolina shows that 94 percent of the 775 people surveyed told someone else about their encounters with rude co-workers. Those “someone elses” included peers, supervisors and even people they managed.

What kind of encounters caused such loss in productivity? A few examples of rude behavior included nasty and demeaning notes, accusations about lacking knowledge, name-calling and challenging credibility in front of others.

The study concluded that employees spent more time disgruntled or worrying about the rude person and less time concentrating on their work. The stats from the survey are telling:

-- 28 percent lost work time avoiding the rude person.

-- 58 percent lost work time worrying about the encounter or possible future interactions.

-- 37 percent reduced their commitment to the organization.

-- 22 percent decreased their effort at work.

-- 10 percent decreased the amount of time they spent at work.

-- 46 percent contemplated changing jobs to avoid the rude person.

-- 12 percent changed jobs to avoid the rude person.

This is why it is essential to squash rude behavior the minute it rears its ugly head. Granted, the workplace is not always the easiest place in the world to get along with others. However, it is important to feel respected by others in the workplace. This kind of healthy atmosphere will almost always increase productivity.

Here are some tips from the Mayo Clinic on how to deal with a co-worker who is rude to you:

-- Hold your tongue. Take some time to cool off if someone is rude to you. Don’t spout off something you will be sorry to have said later. Don’t be sarcastic. When someone says something rude to you, repeat it back to them in your own words and ask the person if that is what he or she is trying to say.

-- Be direct. Very calmly tell the other person how his or her comments or behavior made you feel. Make your co-worker aware that it’s a problem for you.

-- Tell the person whose behavior is bothering you about it, instead of telling other people in the office. Directing your comments to the person is the mature, respectful way of handling the matter.

-- Find a solution. Ask the person who was rude to you to help you solve the problem. Ask for his or her ideas about the problem and what to do about it.

-- If you’ve truly run out of ideas or if your co-worker is uncooperative, let your supervisor know. He or she may know how to handle the situation or have experience dealing with similar problems in the past.

And speaking of supervisors, a study by the University of Florida found that even the best employees can become negative at work if they think their bosses have treated them with rudeness or are mean-spirited. That means gossiping, pilfering, backstabbing and long lunch breaks can become the norm.

Managers have to set the tone, starting with the way they treat employees. Management training needs to include an emphasis on treating employees with respect and refusing to accept rude behavior in the workplace.

Want to boil it down to a simple phrase? Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Mackay’s Moral: Common courtesy should never be an uncommon practice.

I often use the expression, "One person can make all the difference in the world."

That adage certainly applied to my friend Bruce Halle, who recently passed away. Bruce was the founder of Discount Tire, the nation’s largest tire and wheel retailer, with 975 stores in 34 states and nearly 20,000 employees.

Bruce truly was a self-made man, working as a paperboy as I did, and even working as a gravedigger to support his family. He tried selling life insurance before he opened his first tire store in 1960 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was the sole employee. His original inventory consisted of two new tires and four retreads. Like many entrepreneurs, Bruce did everything from cleaning toilets to painting signs.

The company grew at record speed because of Bruce’s leadership and his three-pronged approach -- provide reasonable prices, tremendous customer service and guarantee satisfaction. He believed that happy employees make happy customers. He taught his employees to live by the credo "Treat others the way you would want to be treated."

I’d like to focus on one of Bruce’s quotes and provide you with my thoughts: “There are really just five simple lessons to life: Be honest, work hard, have fun, be grateful and pay it forward.”

Honesty

Tell the truth at all times to build solid relationships. Your word must be your bond. Complete honesty in little things is not a little thing at all.

Honesty, ethics, integrity, values, morals -- all mean more or less the same thing. In my estimation, you can interchange them, because they all convey the single attribute that determines whether a person or an organization can be trusted.

Work hard

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. There is no magic formula for being a success. It takes hard work. Hard work is not a bad thing. Sure, natural talent can make a big difference. But show me a natural .300 hitter in Major League Baseball, and I'll show you someone who bangs the ball until their hands bleed trying to keep that stroke honed. Ask any surgeon about how much sleep they got for the eight to 10 years it took them to get through medical school, internship and residency. Ask any concert pianist how much practice it takes to perform a 40-minute piano concerto from memory. All these gigs take more than magic hands. It takes iron determination and lots of hard, hard work. The harder you work, the luckier you'll get.

Have fun

Business and fun are not polar opposites. In fact, another piece of advice that I share frequently is “Do what you love, love what you do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” Adopt a "TGIM" attitude: Thank God It’s Monday. A positive work environment encourages fun. Quite often, those are the most successful enterprises as well.

Be grateful

Gratitude should be a continuous attitude. It’s very disheartening to see a decline in the use of “thank you” by so many. When I hold doors open for people, I seldom hear "Thank you." When I go shopping and buy something, I’m usually the one saying "Thank you for serving me"!

For a while, I thought it was just me being overly sensitive. But a few years ago, I was watching the “Late Show With David Letterman” and heard about a man who went into a store looking for an item. He found no one to help him. The clerks were uninterested at best, rude at worst. After much searching, he finally found the item himself. At the checkout counter, he found a long line of people and a clerk who definitely worked only at her own speed. Finally, he paid for his item, and the clerk threw it into a plastic bag and shoved his change at him.

The man had to say something, so he asked the cashier, “Can't you even say 'Thank you'?”

And the cashier said, “It's printed on your receipt.”

Pay it forward

When you have the opportunity to do something kind or helpful for someone who doesn’t expect it, take it! It’s even better when the recipient doesn’t know who is responsible. We all have enough time and resources to lend a hand. You might even make someone’s day.

Thanks for sharing your lessons, Bruce. We will sorely miss you.

Mackay’s Moral: Never discount the importance of honesty and hard work.

Readers of this column know that I am a big fan of Dale Carnegie, the master of making friends. I carry an excerpt from one of his books with me and often share it when I am speaking to groups. It’s about the value of a smile, and I hope you learn as much from it as I have:

“It costs nothing, but creates much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None are so rich they can get along without it, and none so poor but are richer for its benefits.

“It creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in a business, and is the countersign of friends. It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad and nature's best antidote for trouble.

“Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is no earthly good to anyone 'til it is given away. And if in the hurly-burly bustle of today's business world, some of the people you meet should be too tired to give you a smile, may we ask you to leave one of yours?

“For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have none left to give.”

I learned years ago that one of the most powerful things you can do to gain influence with others is to smile at them. Never underestimate the value of a smile. The person who is smart enough to keep smiling usually winds up with something good enough to smile about.

People all over the world smile in the same language. A smile should be standard equipment for all people, both at work and at home. It takes far fewer muscles to smile than to frown -- so really, you have no excuse. Put on a happy face!

Smiling adds face value and helps you make a good impression. We like people who smile, because they appear warm and kind. They are more approachable.

Smiling encourages trust. People who are constantly smiling appear to be more trustful than those who are not.

People who smile are more productive. A 2010 study by Andrew Oswald, a professor of economics at the University of Warwick in England, proved that employees who smile more often are significantly more productive and creative in the workplace.

Smiling makes you more creative. A 2013 study from the University of California, San Francisco, explored this connection in men and found that those who were happier had a more comprehensive approach to problems, improving their ability to think of more solutions than their negative-minded counterparts. The researchers connected this finding to the release of dopamine triggered by happiness, since the neurotransmitter is involved in learning, processing and decision-making.

Smiling enhances your disposition. The more you smile, the happier you are. And don’t forget that the more you smile, the happier other people around you feel.

Smiling makes you more attractive. A smile is a very inexpensive way to improve your looks. People are naturally attracted to people who smile.

Smiling improves health. Studies have proven that when people smile, endorphins are released making people feel happy and less stressed. The more you smile, the happier and more relaxed you get. Surprisingly, this also works when faking a smile or laugh, as the brain can’t differentiate between real or fake smiles.

Endorphins act as natural painkillers. The added oxygen from smiling and laughing benefits your body while improving your immune system. Smiling releases more white blood cells, which protect the body against infectious diseases.

In a 2012 study published in the journal Psychological Science, University of Kansas psychological scientists Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman studied 170 participants who were told to hold chopsticks in their mouths in three formations, making them smile to various degrees without realizing it, after performing a stressful task. The experiment revealed that subjects who smiled the biggest with the chopsticks experienced a substantial reduction in heart rate and quicker stress recovery compared to those whose expressions remained neutral.

Finally, smiles are contagious, just like yawns. So, smile and start an epidemic.

Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important. That’s why you should not only smile from ear-to-ear, but from year-to-year.

Mackay’s Moral: Smiles never go up in price nor down in value.