Workplace conflicts will always occur. The real issue is how to deal with them. Workplace conflict can lead to:

• Apathy, lack of motivation, lower productivity, lack of creativity,
• poor communication and lack of teamwork,
• stress leaves and disruptive absences,
• Insubordination and unhealthy (and sometimes unsafe) confrontations,
• various degrees of sabotage and harassment, and
• disregard for the employer’s interests or property.

Most employers react to workplace conflicts only when the symptoms become typical “management problems” — disciplinable offences, absenteeism problems, productivity issues — which are then handled through traditional methods.

Resolving workplace conflicts before they become disruptive benefits any employer, especially in these difficult economic times. Why wait for an employee to become so alienated that he or she acts out in ways that affect other employees and production? Why spend time, effort, and money, to terminate an employee, and then to train a new employee, when preventive measures could have been taken? What if the “problem employee” is merely a symptom of a systemic or management problem that requires change on the employer’s part?

Lawrie Cherniack, The Workplace Ombudsman, has been able to resolve long-standing conflicts between employees that were affecting the productivity and, in some cases even the viability, of the business. Examples of the conflicts he has resolved include:

• Conflicts between employees and supervisors, all highly trained and vitally important to the business, who insulted each other and did not communicate with each other, thus seriously affecting the viability of the business.
• Serious and formal complaints of bullying and discrimination from a large group of managers about a senior manager that could have resulted in losing either a top manager or a group of important middle managers.
• Interpersonal problems between employees that resulted in lengthy “mental health” stress leaves of absence that were affecting production and morale.
• Conflicts that escalated to legal battles between employees and their current or former employers.

The resolutions reached were always creative, because the employees involved were able to find a way, through Lawrie’s guidance and coaching, to develop solutions that met their needs and understandings.

Not every workplace conflict was resolved by having employees remain. In some of Lawrie’s cases, the positive resolution of the conflict involved an agreement on how an employee would leave the employ of the employer without rancour or legal dispute.

Why engage The Workplace Ombudsman?