|
Many people spend more hours with their co-workers than their families. Workplace disputes eat at the soul and erode productivity. Stakes can be high for all involved, including job dismissal, stress-related illness, and demoralization. Employers face potential declines in production, client service, and productivity due to absenteeism, sabotage, low morale, law suits and discrimination proceedings, and tense, even fearful, environments. Fast, effective, fair solutions that the disputants buy into are essential – and unlikely to result from litigation.
Consider these scenarios, familiar to almost everyone who’s ever earned a paycheck:
- Bullying by colleagues or bosses
- Formal and informal personnel grievances
- Contract negotiations
- Lackluster client service from frustrated employees
- Refusal to cooperate
- Discrimination due to race, gender, ethnicity, disability, or age
- Vindictive evaluations
- Harassment
- Communications breakdown
- Unfair assignments
- Disciplinary issues
- Incompetent management
- Unpopular new policies
- Interdepartmental conflicts; and
- Union-management issues.
Can you afford to sacrifice harmony to hostility? Litigation escalates conflicts. Mediation reinforces mutual respect, cooperation, and productive communication. It’s voluntary, reducing fear and intimidation. It can bypass formal corporate procedures to be low profile enough for the dispute and mediation to avoid becoming common knowledge in your organization. It’s confidential, therefore meetings, documents, company policies, and trade secrets won’t become public. You save the expense, delays, and aggravation of formal complaint procedures and litigation.
Mediation offers an excellent opportunity to intervene early and resolve disputes, clarify misunderstandings, and give all concerned a chance to talk through their issues in a neutral setting. You and the other participants determine the outcome—not Human Resources, a judge or commissioner. While resolving the dispute at hand, the parties can start mending strained working relationships. They can decide how to handle future disputes, change policies or procedures, create effective communication channels, and respect each party’s ability to contribute.
As a neutral external observer, I will guide everyone through an informal, nonjudgmental process designed to quickly reveal the real problems underlying the conflict, resolve them, and get back to work.
There's that old saying, the business of business is business. It is not litigation, disputes, or conflicts that interfere with working, family relationships, or functioning smoothly. Mediation saves time and money, and crucial resources for organizations. I take a straightforward approach to mediating disputes in workplace and commercial situations, one that respects everybody involved and their concerns, and keeps matters confidential. I've been in business – I get it. – Karen Levian, Md Mediator
|
