Double Trouble: Conflict in the Workplace

Conflict in the workplace surely exists. There is no avoiding around the conflict. A double secret can be defined as conflict that has been misunderstood and misdiagnosed. How can this occur? Well managers will always believe employees who work harder, but have bad attitudes. Managers will turn a blind eye on productive employees who constantly cause conflict. It only takes a couple of issues or conflicts before the employee realizes that they can pretty much get away with murder. Therefore, these sorts of employees will continuously test the waters to see how far they can stretch management before they can get in trouble. The double secret lies in their bad behavior, which is covered by their productive work habits. The double in this portion is a result of management indirectly influencing this behavior. Managers influence this behavior by turning that blind eye. Even HR can contribute to turning the blind eye. In several organizations, HR has been known to blindly ignore conflict. Why? Because they are pressured by management. Good workers are difficult to find, specifically those that go above and beyond their work duties. Therefore, in order to ensure that the customers' needs are met, and work is completed well and accurately, HR will also not pay any attention to this bad behavior.

Another issue that arises is that these bad attitude employees are also instigators. They instigate fights and arguments in clics that they are not allowed into. So these instigators look for the "weaker" individuals in each group and stir that pot. However, they can get away it with because they use their work as a means of manipulation to cover their bad behavior and conflict.



What corporations, HR and managers fail to see is that the more conflict that arises in the workforce, the higher the turnover rates amongst very good employees (employees who have a good attitude and work hard), and the financial cost of deescalating conflict. A lot of time, money and resources can be used by an organization to deescalate conflict in order to stabilize the environment. HR may be forced to work overtime to recruit new individuals, or deal with bad attitudes. The trickle down effect will occur as well. If managers ignore bad attitudes, then this will increase in conflict, increase in high turnover, and increase the lack of customer service to clients. Why? well when employees leave b/c of unfair treatment, then this will result with low customer service. The latter can potentially hurt the budget and revenues earned.

Group WhyNot offers conflict resolution trainings to managers and employees. Contact us today for more information at groupwhynot@gmail.com. Visit our website for more information: www.groupwhynot.com

Posted on behalf of Group WhyNot.