Conflict in work environment
In this following blog post I will describe a conflict situation at my work. First of all, it is to mention that when different people with a different age and different background work together then there is potential for conflict.
The bureau at my work was very huge. Every department had only one room and in every room were about 50 people. This raises the potential for conflicts at work. For example, choosing the music can create conflict because all ages have different preferences. Another example is that some people’s working style are loud and others silent workers.
One of the biggest conflicts at work happened between two colleagues who were the same age. Both of them were around 60 years old and very close to retirement. For that reason, they didn’t care what they say in team meetings because they already signed their retirement contracts and act very intuitively how they thought it is right in the situation. Moreover, they were not afraid of losing their job when they said something against a colleague.
The purpose of this team meeting was that there was a free spot left in the insurance sector where they only work with other companies. This was a small complex sub department of our team and they worked with contracts where they have to deal with a lot of money, whereas the other persons in the department were working in the private insurance sector, where they worked with small private contracts.
One colleague (Colleague A) prepared a presentation in his team meeting about his working field. In this presentation, he described how complex this whole work was, because they had no software to assist, like in the private sector. They had to do the calculations in excel all by themselves compared to the other colleagues who worked with a system.
After about 10 minutes another person (Colleague B) interrupted Colleague A and started yelling. He felt very unfairly treated because he thinks that Colleague A only does this presentation to show the other colleagues that he has a more difficult and complex work than all the other persons in this department. Colleague B also worked years ago in this department and in his opinion the work was different but necessarily more challenging. In the private sector where colleague B currently works you have to be much quicker with every contract, which is another challenge.
Colleague A felt unfairly treated because in his opinion he was working very long on this presentation to try to explain what he is doing but nobody see his effort. It was very loud in this room and they didn’t stop yelling at each other.
After a while, person C began to talk because she felt also unfairly treated. She always wanted this job when it was free and nobody asked her. In her opinion, it is unfair that the team leader didn’t asked her first because she had mentioned several times that she wanted to change to the small sub department but now everybody can apply for this job.
Our team leader said nothing the last 20 minutes. Now the situation escalated because three people where yelling at each other and nobody was able to hear what they were talking about. She interrupted them and tried to bring silence in the room with words like: Everybody has the same importance. The rest of the people were silent and listened what happened and couldn’t believe how loud it was in this small room.
The last thing the team leader saw was to close the team meeting. In the following, A and B didn’t talk to each other again but A is now already retired, which did not have a big effect on the department. The open spot wasn’t given to C but she later got the job from A after his retirement.
I don’t know if this conflict could be avoided but I think it would be helpful if the team leader interrupted them earlier because at the beginning it is easier to resolve a conflict. But after too many words were said, it is more difficult to get a good result.
In my opinion, conflicts are not always bad because you can learn as a team and get more closer to each other. The main thing is to act in the right way when you have a conflict in the department and give everybody enough time to speak about the situation. Maybe it is helpful to create rules for the talk to get an effective result.
For some reason, this year I may not have discussed in class the way to manage committees, which requires lots of one-on-one discussion prior to and also after the meeting. This would happen by one party, called whip, who would have such discussions with many of the committee members, particularly the more strident ones. In this way they get to articulate their views and be heard, then might not feel so compelled to repeat their argument at the group meeting, as long as they can see that their position was accounted for in what the group choice is. The job of the whip is time consuming. But it is necessary to get consensus, when that isn't already there.
ReplyDeleteIn the case you describe, it sounds like the team leader could play the role of whip. If so, then the question is to know that is necessary. I've been the whip in certain committees, without being the team leader. Partly that was because I could see the need and partly because I usually like one-on-one conversation. The big lesson for me from that experience, is that having been heard (if only by one member of the committee) there is much less of a personal need to rehash the argument in front of the entire group. In contrast, without the conversation with the whip, the person can be quite argumentative at the group meeting.
You mentioned that this was because the people were at or near retirement. That might be one cause, but at least with faculty committees, this is pretty normal behavior. Being cantankerous is part of the job description. I suspect that where you worked, that wasn't the case.
I think it is important and also the job oft he team leader to be the whip. He or she is responsible to have a good working environment in their team and therefore it is necessary. So the whip could be the team leader but he or she has not necessarily be the whip because there are also other parties in the company who are responsible for that like HR or the workers council.
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