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An expensive truth is that conflict is present in every workplace. It is the single most preventable cause of lost revenue, costing US employers well over a billion dollars every year.
Even simple conflicts involving single employees can easily expand throughout entire teams or units. The resulting environment can profoundly impact (more…)
An effective component of creating an effective culture of conflict resolution is to provide employee team building programs that focus on improving conflict resolution and communication skills.
There are a variety of team building programs that are available, each with varying degrees of effectiveness. (more…)
Often, when I am speaking to business owners or managers, there is a disconnect between our definitions of workplace conflict.
Too often for conflict to be recognized by business owners or managers, it has to have escalated to a point where it is too disruptive to miss. Oftentimes this means that some sort of management intervention is required to prevent clear productivity problems, work-stoppage, or even litigation. (more…)
An interesting survey has been published by administrative staffing agency OfficeTeam.
OfficeTeam surveyed 441 adult workers employed in an office environment. They were asked one question: “Have you ever worked for an unreasonable boss?” Almost half (46%) responded yes.
Although the majority (more…)
Zappos, the online shoe retailer, has gotten a great deal of press lately – and not just for their shoes. For their corporate culture.
Zappos is a model employer. Employees are happy working there and are not shy about it. The organization strives to staff itself with people who support the core values, and even offers $3000 to new hires to quit if they do not think (more…)
As businesses of all sizes strive to cut costs, many overlook the greatest preventable cost of all: workplace conflict. Businesses can positively impact their bottom line, by addressing this conflict proactively.
Conflict in the workplace is inevitable, and often it is not uniformly defined or recognized. Workplace conflict is not the same thing as competition, although competition can contribute (more…)
Employers and human resource personnel often find themselves trying to reasonably accommodate the needs of disabled employees under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Unfortunately, for many employers, the concept of ADA accommodation can be a controversial topic. (more…)
Stress is a threat to health – few would find that surprising. However many employers do not have a clear sense of how workplace stress negatively and specifically impacts the health of their employees.
A recent study reported at the 2010 American Heart Association conference in Chicago, found that a woman’s incidence of heart disease, including heart attack and congestive heart failure, is notably increased for those who experience high levels of workplace stress.
17,415 women participated in the 10-year study, by Dr. Michelle Albert at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The women averaged 57 years of age, were healthy, and employed full or part-time at the onset of the study. Most women in the study were health professionals and included working women of various professional levels.
The findings indicate that those women whose jobs, regardless of skill level, who’s self-report in 1999 indicated higher levels of workplace stress experienced more health problems when revisited 10 years later. The highest-stress group had a 40% greater overall risk of heart problems including heart attacks, strokes, and heart-related conditions resulting in necessary surgery.
Another important aspect to this study is that the identified workplace stress came not just from jobs that are inherently stressful or demanding, but from jobs where the employee experiences little control over her duties.
The findings demonstrate the value of employers actively working to reduce the experience of workplace stress on its employees – not just to impact the workplace today, but also to decrease health related costs in the future.
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Additional Reading
This week Notre Dame University has had to respond to public scrutiny as to whether it has or has not responded to an allegation of rape by one of its football players. It seems that the family of the alleged victim, who committed suicide shortly after, is outraged, among other related issues, by the lack of the university’s communication with local police or any apparent investigation. An important aspect of this story (more…)
At the end of July 2010, Managing editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, Kevin Morrissey, committed suicide. Friends, family, and co-workers immediately voiced allegations of workplace bullying as the cause of Morrissey’s suicide:
