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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Conflict-resolution business booming

Busy firm cites recession's staff cuts

By: Murray McNeill

17/07/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 3

In the last two months, the partners at Facilitated Solutions have been called in to mediate conflicts between an office manager and an employee, two disgruntled hospital workers and members of a team of government workers.

So much for the dog days of summer.

The summer months are usually a slow time for workplace conflict-resolution firms like Facilitated Solutions because workers are on vacation. But that's not the case this year, according to Janet Schmidt, managing partner of the five-partner Winnipeg firm.

"The phone hasn't stopped ringing," Schmidt said Thursday.

"This week alone, we've had three or four calls from prospective new clients."

Schmidt said in an interview the recession has a lot to do with the surge in demand.

She said during economic downturns, many companies cut costs by cutting staff, particularly middle managers.

"But they haven't reduced the workloads," she said. "So you stress people like crazy and the more stressed people are, the worse they become at dealing with other people."

The managers who are left also have less time to deal with personnel problems and conflicts, she said, which further adds to the problem.

Other factors in the growing demand for workplace mediation are a lack of conflict-management training for managers and changing worker expectations, Schmidt said.

She said that many workers today are well-educated and expect to be involved in decision-making and to be kept informed -- and they resent it if they're not.

Facilitated Solutions has been in business for seven years, and Schmidt couldn't recall working on any cases where warring workers came to blows.

"But there have been cases where some pretty questionable emails were sent and there was a lot of anger and yelling -- that kind of stuff," she said. "And there have been a couple of times where there had been threats of violence."

Manitoba isn't the only place where workplace conflicts are heating up.

A Canwest News Service report out of Vancouver cited cases where stressed-out workers are eviscerating each other over everything from missed deadlines to messy office kitchens.

"When times get tough, people get tougher on one another. They start acting more as individuals looking out for their own skins," said Heather Mackenzie, a lawyer and president of the Integrity Group, a Vancouver consulting firm specializing in workplace conflict. "I use the analogy of Survivor all the time: It's outwit, outplay, outlast."

And a Canadian Press report Thursday out of Toronto said employees who are spared the axe during layoffs often end up shouldering added responsibilities and heavier workloads to compensate for ones who were let go. And that, too, can lead to longer hours and more stress -- or worse.

A labour arbitration case being heard in Winnipeg this week shows that even spiritual caregivers aren't immune after a nun and two other chaplains at St. Boniface General Hospital accused the hospital's spiritual care director, a priest, of bullying.

Schmidt said the two most common types of workplace conflicts Facilitated Solutions deals with are manager/employee and employee/employee disputes. The third most common is conflict among members of a group or team of workers.

The company also offers group conflict-assessment/intervention and coaching services.

Schmidt said to the best of her knowledge, Facilitated Solutions is the only workplace conflict-resolution firm in Canada that's set up as a partnership, similar to the way some law or accounting firms are structured. The other partners are Adrian Challis, David Dyck, David Falk and Louise Pelletier.

Schmidt said the firm has a standing-offer agreement with the federal government for mediation and conflict intervention, which means it's been pre-approved to do that kind of work for federal departments. It's also been called in to provide conflict-management training for some of Ottawa's own mediators.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

Causes and effects

Psychometrics Canada recently surveyed 357 human resources specialists in Canada to identify the most common workplace conflicts, their causes and their effects. Here are some of the findings from its Warring Egos, Toxic Individuals, Feeble Leadership study:

The most common causes of conflict are warring ego and personality conflicts (86 per cent), poor leadership (73 per cent), lack of honesty (67 per cent), stress (64 per cent), and clashing values (59 per cent).

Three out of four HR specialists said they've seen workplace conflicts that resulted in personal insults and attacks.

Forty-three said they've seen a worker get fired because of such conflicts.

Eighty-one per cent said they've seen workers leave their organization because of workplace conflict.

Seventy-seven per cent said they've seen it lead to worker sicknesses and absences.

The three work sectors where they said workplace conflict is most common are government (42.7 per cent), education (41.8 per cent) and not-for-profit (41.3 per cent). It was less common in the business (36.7 per cent) and consulting sectors (27.6 per cent).

More than nine out of 10 said conflict-management skills are either "very" or "critically" important for leaders.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 17, 2009 B4

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3 Comments

Posted by: The Truth

July 18, 2009 at 3:29 AM

While workplace conflict-resolution firms like Facilitated Solutions may succeed in resolving many cases, they do have their limitations. Those who are on the receiving end of workplace harassment should take note.

First, any attempt at conflict resolution will likely not succeed if any working personnel involved do not actually want it to succeed.

Second, if the person targeting you is among the one percent of the population with anti-social personality (a psychopath), this direction likely will not succeed for obvious reasons.

Third, these firms can only advise the businesses that hire them. They can not enforce sound decisions by these businesses following, which could mean trouble for targeted staff if a superior is found to be the problem.

Fourth, there is no obligation for anyone to participate, regardless of how much he/she may be causing problems.

Fifth, these firms can be a dumping ground for formal and valid complaints involving harassment. Your employer or union may try to pass the buck to them during the time of conflict resolution. The firms have no authority to follow them up so do not let this happen!

Sixth, the process starts as impartial and usually involves closed-door sessions. It can be extremely traumatic for a target and seen as a game by an expert bully, who may try to make the already traumatized target look like the problem.

In summary, do your research before participating.

I speak from extensive research and personal experience.

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Posted by: gopher7

July 17, 2009 at 9:50 PM

Problem solving has to be the main aim of any organization, company. Stress management of the type described in this article has no business in our society. If the skills of stress management people are to be used, it MUST be called in to better cope with the problem solving stage: if that stage does not exist - that company official, management must be banished, flagged as inhuman and given " scale of values" instruction, courses, or made to work on the front lines of the company ( where their workers work).

Society has to get its values straight quickly!

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Posted by: gopher7

July 17, 2009 at 9:43 PM

Well, this whole recession thing of corporations, companies, agencies, businesses laying people off to improve their bottom line: this has to be the most stupid thing in a modern age, a civilized world, a progressive society, a sane work place.

Workers are the mainstay of an organization, company, corporation. They are what make the unit successful, a place to enjoy working their life away, a place that helps create a harmonious environment. Only an ignorant boss, leader, lacking in leadership, spirit building skills, motivating techniques and human dignity. If this is not proof of the inhumanity of our economic/financial/manufacturing/government OK capitalism, I do not know what is. Its up to the management, leaders and the whole staff to analyze the situation, problem solve and work out a solution.

If solutions can not be worked out, it has to be looked at as the problem with the whole group - starting with management. Only a horrible to work for company puts MONEY over people: stocks over people, earnings over the lives of individuals and the staff. When the supposed to be strong section of society values its survival over the lives of workers, its time to throw away the whole system because it is badly directed, it has NO MISSION STATEMENT, lacks a proper scale of values, and a sense of knowing what is proper and respectful.

Problem solving must be a keynote goal, aim, objective of any organization/ company.