Lesson 1: Awareness of Ourselves, Our Rights and Communication Issues

B. Your Personal Bill of Rights

We may ask ourselves why we should become more assertive and act on that. One of the roles of assertiveness training is to help you enhance your rights and the rights of others.  Refusing to stand up for your individual rights characterizes and reinforces non-assertive behaviors. We'll learn more about assertiveness in the next lesson, but first let's examine some rights that commonly come up in my workshops. In the next section we'll talk about developing and acting on your own personalized Bill of Rights.

I have the right to...

• say I don't know.
• receive instruction, guidance, or education in order to change the condition of "I don't know."
• disagree with others and to question decisions regarding my work assignments.
• be protected from harassment and verbal abuse.
• show my imperfections. I have the right to make mistakes and to be responsible for them.
• have a bad day occasionally.
• say no without feeling guilty.
• express my opinions, feelings, and ideas.
• be myself and be accepted just as I am. I do not have to conform to others' expectations of me in order to be considered worthwhile.
• expect the best possible working conditions. I also accept responsibility for helping to create those conditions.
• be treated with respect and consideration by all people-regardless of their status.
• expect answers to questions I ask and a response to problems I identify.
• express all of my feelings-even anger-in a responsible way.
• be my own person: to be unique, an individual.
• create and be involved in work-related changes.
• work in an environment free of fear, intimidation, and manipulation.
• expect and express my needs for cooperation and assistance from co-workers.
• be well rewarded and appreciated for my work.

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A Word from Clarissa

Click > to hear Clarissa discuss claiming the rights you deserve.