Conflict Resolution

In a job I worked at long ago, I had constant conflict with the people who sat around me. We were on a web customer service team, which meant that as a group we were responsible for email correspondence with customers and dealt mostly with questions coming from our website. I was responsible for prioritizing the emails and we all were responsible for clearing out the inbox every day. There were, however, no other job delineations. The conflict that erupted every day was over why no one would try to solve the hard and complicated problems that customers presented. It was always left to me. To make matters worse the were several little "cliques" involved and people always chose sides and defended the interests of their members. Moreover, because I had worked with the department manager in another capacity and because my supervisor was unreliable, I always reported the numbers at the end of the day. I thus felt personally responsible when the inbox was not cleared each day.

The department manager and lead supervisor could have cared less about this conflict and thus it was never resolved. (The reasons were varied and included a "hostile takeover" and, not surprisingly, some legal issues). I ended up quitting.

Looking back, if I was the supervisor I would have attempted to solve this conflict in several ways.

• First, I would have listened to the initial complaint and tried to observe the problem by checking to see who was actually completing the work each day and what kinds of emails each group member was dealing with.
• Secondly, I would have assigned each group member an email category to deal with on a rotating basis. That way no one person was dealing with the same email problem every single day.
• Third, I would have addressed the clique issue. This type of behavior is unhealthy in a work setting even if it is sometimes unavoidable. A more passive action would be to rearrange desk assignments to break up the cliques. This however would involve questions and blame would be placed on the person would initiated the complaint, making the problem worse. A better solution would be to talk to each member of the group individually to make sure they knew exactly what was expected of them in their position. They would also be made to understand that it is not their responsibility to choose a task or to help someone else get a task assignment. They should also be aware that verbal and written warnings would be given for this type of behavior in the future.
• Fourth, I would be more involved throughout the day to check on the progress and to report the numbers to the manager at the end of the day. It would also be a good idea to make it clear to the person initiating the complaint that I would take care of it and that they should continue to focus on their job, not on policing other people.
• Last, I would consider ways to modify the job to allow more creative input that would make the job more enjoyable. Raising morale and team building would be necessary for a positive outcome.