When kids are little, we think about teaching them social niceties, such as please and thank you, as a way of helping them to develop an awareness of others and a sense of gratitude. We might not consider that the use of these niceties also helps to improve how other people perceive the child. As Learners grow into their teens and prepare for the workplace, we often focus on teaching job-specific skills and forget to teach the social skills that can support success in the workplace. Expanding a student’s knowledge of how to use social niceties at work and why that is important also deserves attention. Floreo’s employment readiness lessons offer a unique way to address these essential skills.
There are some Learners who don’t immediately understand the value of using social niceties. In “Inside Out: What Makes a Person with Social Cognitive Deficits Tick?”, Michelle Garcia Winner presents a straightforward strategy for use with youngsters and with teens to describe the advantages of developing social competence. In short, the use of social awareness, social competence, and social niceties makes life easier and helps young people more effectively achieve their goals. (Winner’s more recent publication, Social Thinking @ Work (2023), is a recommended resource.)
Teamwork: Collaboration & Compromise places Learners in the grocery store work setting. It teaches Learners to propose a work plan and allows them to compromise with their coworkers when there is a difference of opinion. The lesson offers opportunities to practice flexibility and social problem-solving, but just as importantly, it offers opportunities to try different ways of presenting information when making a compromise.
A potentially fun way to use this lesson would be for the Coach to assume the role of the Learner, and demonstrate an exaggeratedly rigid response to the coworkers (saying, “No. I really want my plan. I don’t really care what you want.”) This can open a discussion about how their coworkers might perceive such a response and how it would impact teamwork. Next, the Learner has a turn to generate a more palatable response and practice that response in the VR lesson. Other teaching opportunities in this lesson include having the Coach demonstrate a particularly whiny voice tone when responding to the coworkers. Learners should understand that compromise is a bit of give and take. If the Learner is using a statement similar to “My way is better, but I guess we will use your plan,” this is not really compromising and also could leave a negative impression on coworkers.
Another approach would be to compare and contrast the declaration. “We will do my plan today, and we will do your plan tomorrow,” with more collaborative statements such as “How about we use my plan today, and then we can use your plan tomorrow?” Being playful with over-the-top rude responses (assuming this does not encourage your Learner to imitate this type of response in a real work setting) can often be an effective way of addressing these skills without sounding judgmental or critical.
In Time Management: Interruptions and Distractions, the Learner interacts with customers who approach the movie theater concession stand to ask questions. There are certain social conventions that are often used by people who work in this type of customer-facing setting. For example, if a customer approaches and says “Excuse me,” the convention is for the worker to respond by a) looking at the customer and b) responding verbally. The phrases “Yes?” or “Can I help you?” are typically used, but even simply saying “Hi” sets a good tone for a positive interaction. If the customer asks, “Do you have bubble gum flavor?” consider the differences between the simple, but truthful, response, “No,” as compared to the response, “No, I’m sorry we don’t have that flavor.” The Coach might discuss with the Learner how the Learner could add some additional information, “… but, I’ll tell the manager you were interested in that flavor.”
A 2023 research article on teaching social niceties to adolescents with autism found that when specific social phrases were taught and visually prompted, these individuals were able to incorporate more social niceties into their communication with co-workers. However, it also found that when text prompts were removed, the frequency of the social niceties diminished. Based on current and previous research, recommendations for teaching these skills included fading prompting gradually and adding performance feedback to help generalize these behaviors.
When we consider the development of work-related skills, we need to think beyond the physical, the cognitive or the basic executive functioning skills. Learners going into work settings need support in understanding the benefits of social niceties in the workplace and how to deliver communicative messages to support their success in that environment.