We
would have all dealt with workplace conflict at some point of time in our
professional careers. Strangely enough, the kind of harassment that we deal
with in our workplace, sometimes resemble the harrying time we had in our
school-days. The bullying from the seniors and harassment dealt out by the
bullies somehow starts to feel close to the sensation we have when we are
singled-out by someone in office. But fortunately, we are not kids anymore and
there are more grown-up ways to resolve our issues at work than we had in our
childhood.
We
spend the maximum amount of our waking time at work and it is important to have
a healthy atmosphere in the workplace. But if we have one or more people trying
to make our lives difficult in the office, we have a tough time dealing with our
emotions. The negativity we build within ourselves due to the ill-effects of
work-place conflict slowly starts to creep into our personal lives, leaving us
irritable and bad-tempered. Although it is important to resolve the divergence
at the work-place, it is also important to do it effectively and smoothly
without damaging our professional careers. Here are some effective ways of
dealing with workplace conflict and resolving professional clashes.
Get
the facts right: It is sometimes easy to jump into conclusions when we are in a
competitive atmosphere and take something which might be harmless professional
rivalry to be something more sinister. A healthy competition at the office is
absolutely fine and is required for you to grow in your career. You will need
to identify what exactly makes you think someone is deliberately trying to
undermine you or just showing some friendly competition. Only, when you are
absolutely sure that there are grounds for you to feel that someone harbors
animosity towards you, and is trying to harm you professionally, should you
take any further action. Till then, you should not make a little professional
jealousy bother you much and indeed should take that as a sign that you are
doing well at your job.
Gather
the evidence: Usually, there would be someone at the workplace who will be
jealous of anyone who passes them on the way to the top. It might not have
anything to do with you personally and could be just the personality of this
person. Usually, these people will just try to be a pest by talking behind your
back and trying to do some back-biting in the toilets. But most often, this
category of people are not taken seriously by anyone and are most often
ignored. However, if you have cause for suspecting that someone is deliberately
trying to damage your credibility or creating a bad name for you, it is time to
gather some data. Maybe, you can take the help of a colleague whom you trust
and get this person to talk about you. But you should have enough data against
this person to go any further, because hearsay and speculation will not get you
anywhere.
Personal
confrontation: Although, not always advisable in case you get into a nasty
situation, sometimes confronting the colleague who is creating the issues help
ease the matter. But for this to work, you have to be a person who knows how to
handle his temperament because you would not want to get into a situation where
you end up getting a harassment case slammed against you. However, if you are a
good negotiator, it is well-worth giving a try to try and find out what this
colleague has got against you. It sometimes helps to try and be a little
friendly and catch the other person off-guard by asking if you have done
something to offend them.
Usually, such kind of a confrontation, if done with
skill, will make this person back-off and he will be too wary to pull off any
more stunts to blacken your name in future. But, you will have to be very
careful not to give any more ammunition to this person and should retreat if he
acts aggressive. You will be playing into the person’s hands if you lose your
temper and give him any grounds for complaining against you.
Get
your superiors involved: If you have enough hard evidence to back your claim
about the efforts being made by this colleague to tarnish your reputation, you
could send him a professional warning e-mail and copy in your superiors. It is
however, prudent to have a talk with your boss before you drop this bombshell
out of the blue and besides, your boss might have some other ideas to deal with
the situation. In case you get the go-ahead from your superior, you could draft
an e-mail and let the person know that you are onto him and do not appreciate
his/her actions. A professional e-mail like that which is also marked to
someone in a higher rank should be enough to stop this person’s efforts and
give you some relief.
Have
a meeting with the Human Resources: It might be that you have found
yourself
being hounded by a very obstinate and skilled person who is doing his/her best
to ruin your career. In such cases, it is better to get your superior and the
Human Resources involved and sit for a meeting with them on how to deal with
the situation. It is sometimes better for you to be not personally involved in
these matters and let the HR take whatever course of action they deem fit. This
is of course, the last resort that you should take and only in a situation
where you feel that a friendly chat or a warning e-mail will not help. Because,
taking an action like this might cost the other person his/her career as well.
But then, if your career is at stake and there is no other way out, go ahead
and get the HR involved, because this person might get away and do the same to
someone else.
No comments:
Post a Comment