Rude and discourteous behaviour called ‘incivility’ is prevalent and increasing in organisations. The literature on incivility has focused primarily on its harmful effects and maintenance. Research has shown that incivility is costly to targets’ wellbeing, and its harmful effects can spread among employees via self-reinforcing cycles. While this work has been critical in establishing the significance of incivility, it is insufficient for establishing how to disrupt these self-reinforcing cycles. Recently, scholars’ attention has turned to describing non-reciprocal responses, which are purported to occur when the instigator is afforded more power than the target (e.g., supervisor incivility). The purpose of my study is to explore subordinates’ non-reciprocal responses to supervisor incivility and, in particular, the positive psychological conditions within which they occur. I adopted a qualitative approach and interviewed 43 people regarding their experiences of supervisor incivility before conducting reflexive thematic analysis of the data. Using self-compassion theory to assist analysis, I found that a minority of interviewees maintained cycles of incivility via reciprocation, while most disrupted incivility via responses called ‘unmitigated affiliation’, ‘retreat’, and ‘setting boundaries’. I differentiate these subordinate responses to incivility and argue that they are influenced by the direction of compassion towards self vs. supervisor. This study provides empirical evidence on the conditions under which non-reciprocal responses incivility emerge, offering a foundation for future theoretical development on the role of positive psychological processes in the interruption of incivility. My analysis regarding unmitigated affiliation brings to attention a non-reciprocal response that undermines personal wellbeing, thus, indicating a novel and important site for intervention. My analysis regarding boundary setting introduces a non-reciprocal response that supports personal wellbeing, thus, indicating a novel and potentially important response to encourage among targets.