Workplace wars: take the bite out of the fight

摘要

If your plant is like most others, it has its share of employee conflicts. Indeed, it often seems that workplaces are prime breeding grounds for personality clashes. Hurt feelings... imagined insults... misunderstandings about who said what, when and to whom. The list goes on and on. Workplace friction is more than an unwelcome aggravation. It is also a costly drain on profits when embittered employees work less efficiently, refuse to cooperate with one another or take out their feelings on customers. In extreme cases, an angry worker may deliberately sabotage operations. While it is vital to reduce the effects of workplace conflicts, many individuals in supervisory positions feel uncomfortable patching up hurt feelings and salving bruised egos. There's a big temptation to look the other way.