It Was All Good.. Until It Wasn’t!

By Michalle Faulkner – Managing Director
EastCoast Human Resource Group

We’ve all been there haven’t we?

At some point it may well have happened to you personally or within a workplace group that you were managing.  I know it has definitely happened to me.  Team members or your colleagues go from being supportive, firm “work friends” one day and then seemingly in a blink of an eye – something different happens.   A breakdown in communication or differing expectations, a clash of values or a disagreement and before we know it, it has somehow escalated and now there is a major workplace issue to contend with that has the potential for disastrous consequences.

I can’t tell you how many times a Client has said to me “I don’t know how it got to this” but let me just say, it’s been a real lot!

We talked last month about the importance of being a culture champion and part of the commitment, in my view, to being a culture champion is to always be an observant leader, listening for potential issues and intervening, being interested and aware of what is genuinely affecting your team members so that you can manage early intervention strategies or escalate discussions and mediate as soon as possible.

Workplace issues and conflict left unaddressed has many risks to us as business owners and leaders. It’s certainly not best practice in the modern business workplace culture to just let people just sort it out themselves.

As Business Owners and Managers we have our legislative obligations to ensure a safe workplace but we also have the potential for team members who are experiencing workplace conflict to suffer psychological injuries or a possible exacerbation of an existing mental illness.  Of course there is the financial cost of managing medical leave, WorkCover and in more serious circumstances legal expenses but the impact on the individuals, now that is something that you cannot possibly put a price on, due to the ripple effect on their quality of life, their families and in the most serious and damaging cases, their ability to even work in their chosen career in the future.

When trying to identify risky behaviours that can escalate don’t forget the following key reminders:-

• What one person finds acceptable or OK another might not. This particular reminder is even more challenging to navigate when possibly a past accepted and tolerated behaviour, becomes either no longer accepted or tolerable by either party once the conflict starts.  This can be confusing i.e.

          “But I have told her similar things before and she laughed” or “I often call him that and make jokes about it – he didn’t               care before”;

•  We all have different tolerances for behaviour and a very different sense of humour;
• It’s okay, not to be okay. Be mindful and empathetic to all parties and provide any workplace adjustments that may be required to assist their health and wellbeing including worker separation, flexibility;
• We are all different….
• Don’t forget to ask why and keep asking “why” until you get to the real issue at hand. Often it is not what you would initially expect.

The following key elements are also vitally important:

• Be familiar with healthy and conversely potentially toxic or risky workplace attitudes / behaviours;
• Be able to apply early interventions to reduce risk;
• Understand the value of regular performance discussions and performance appraisals and make sure workplace behaviour is also discussed and positive or if necessary constructive feedback is given;
• Have a greater awareness of reasonable management actions;
• Have an awareness of the costs and risks associated with not addressing risky behaviour.