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How to Deal: Office Disputes

Guest post by: Jennifer Loftus

Article Overview: One of the most feared days has come for you as a manager, or human resource representative. An office dispute has landed in your office between two employees, or worst yet, between a manager and an employee. It’s a natural inclination to want to solve the issue rather quickly, or to shoulder the mediating skill on to someone else. However, it is more practical to resolve the issue and take preventative steps to assure such disputes can be kept at a minimum, or none at all. Astronology continues a popular series called, How To Deal with the topic of: Office Disputes

How to Deal: Office Disputes

One of the most feared days has come for you as a manager, or human resource representative. An office dispute has landed in your office between two employees, or worst yet, between a manager and an employee. It's a natural inclination to want to solve the issue rather quickly, or to shoulder the mediating skill on to someone else. However, it is more practical to resolve the issue and take preventative steps to assure such disputes can be kept at a minimum, or none at all. Astronology continues a popular series called, How To Deal with the topic of: Office Disputes

Why Preventative Measures Work Best

Preventative measures take less time and attention and will spare everyone the uncomfortable headache and embarrassment that sometimes result from unnecessary office disputes. Further, workplace retaliation can result in the extermination of possible valued employees, leading to time and money spent in hiring and training a new employee to take their place. To avoid such unnecessary consequences one article suggested the following:

§ Take a closer look at company policies:

o Do certain policies seem to favor one kind of worker over another?

o Are the channels of communications clear? Do all employees know who to speak to for specific matters?

o Do certain tasks overlap between employees? Perhaps job descriptions need to be made clearer.

§ Investigate what type of employment and workplace retaliation protections exist and make them clear to all employees:

o A Bold Example: If an employer is not following FLSA policy, clearly, an employee has the right to file for discrimination. An employer cannot "retaliate" against an employer for filing the alleged violation.

o Similarly, employees who file for employment discrimination have protected rights.

§ Be prepare for mediation

o Create and implement a yearly workshop to train managers and supervisors in the proper handling of office disputes between employees.

o Make sure proper records are kept.

A Dispute Has Occurred

Even with all the preventative steps taken, a dispute every once in a while will occur. Sometimes, these disputes happen, not because of anything the organization could prevent, but because as humans, employees are not aware of their shortcomings. Darrell L. Browning, principal and founder of a communication firm noted 4 common problems associated with office disputes:

§ Clashing of Communication Styles:

o A more interactive employee who may prefer face-to-face communication working with an "e-mail-me" preferred employee is sure to cause some problems. Other employees may be more emotionally attached to a project than others maybe. Such situations can lead to small disputes that can be easily settled with manager mediation.

§ Poor Listening Skills:

o One simple misunderstanding can spill into a large dispute if employees do not pay keen interest to the message being sent. This includes not only the words, but also the message tone. Training employees on how to properly pay attention to each other can help alleviate such issues.

§ Failure to Take Responsibility

o Its natural human behavior to play the blame game. Encouraging employees to own up to their mistakes in mediation will help with future disputes...employees will readily own up to their own mistakes, eliminating any additional escalating disputes.

§ A Lack of Humility

o As mentioned before, some employees maybe more emotionally driven than others. Although passion for the job is greatly appreciated, if employees run on emotions more than facts, it could also demonstrate that the employee lacks humility, unyielding to their co-workers view. Such a skill is needed if the organization delves in any form of customer service and so this must be addressed.

Using these tips as a guide, managers, and human resource representatives can try to resolve office disputes in a timely manner. This will also send the message to other employees that office disputes will be handled immediately. Most organizations wish for a cohesive environment, one where disputes are rare and resolved at once. In order to create such an environment, preventative steps must be taken, and preparation steps should also be considered just in case the rare disputes to arises.

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Article Tags: astronology, closer look, company policies, consequences, embarrassment, employment discrimination, extermination, headache, human resource representative, job descriptions, mediation, natural inclination, preventative measures, preventative steps, sect, time and money, workplace retaliation



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