Office Politics.

What a way to come back to work.

Ok. I need to vent. This is one of those posts you probably shouldn’t write from work, but here goes. We had a mandatory meeting this morning. Supposedly, someone who recently transferred from our department to another took the liberty to basically rip on our dept. and our manager. It left everyone pretty much blindsided as our manager in so many words told us that we needed to do much better or else his job and possibly ours is at stake. The really frustrating thing to me is the way the whole issue was handled. Everything has been so secretive and underhanded by the person/people involved. The Human Resources Dept. called a select few to verify the one person’s report, and it looks like they only choose people they thought would side with the offended party. No men were questioned about their satisfaction in the workplace, only a handful of women...and their questions were very leading & manipulative.

Office politics can be a very tricky thing, and sometimes very touchy. We all have the opportunity to be adults about the things going on in our lives and jobs. It seems that a very big step was skipped in my workplace...if you have a problem with one of your coworkers (superior or not), you should take that issue up with the person that offended you. If you do not have the guts to confront the person you’re upset with, maybe take someone with you to confront them...otherwise it must not be that important to you. The issue should be dealt with on an individual level before it becomes something to lose your job over. That very important step was skipped. The offended party went straight to the top, and “the top” did not handle the situation in a professional way either.

Yes, I believe some changes need to be made in my workplace. No workplace is perfect, all we can do is set the bar high and try to do better. Each problem does not have to cause a rift in the team, or become immediately something to potentially lose a job over. Sure, there are issues that are moral or ethical that should be acted on in a serious manner. These issues were not of that level, and should have been handled in a more rational way.

I think much of the problem is that we have poor conflict resolution skills. We don’t know how to deal with personality conflicts with our families, and in this case, that has carried over into the office. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the greatest in dealing with conflict, but I’m constantly making an effort to become better at it.

I’m deciding if I need to speak with someone about my feelings on the issue. The situation now involves our entire office, so I don’t feel like its out of my place to speak up. I respect my manager and feel that he was dealt with unfairly. So, if standing up for him is the right thing to do, then I’m willing to do that. Office Politics, man! It stinks being in a situation like this, but, really, what an opportunity to show the love of Christ. Any advice or similar "workplace conflicts?"