Workplace Mediation
Workplace mediation is a confidential process in which a neutral mediator assists the parties to resolve their dispute in a collaborative and consensual manner. Parties to a mediation may be employees, managers, Board members or others who might be involved in the dispute.
Mediation has become an indispensable tool in dealing with workplace disputes. Without conciliatory intervention, workplace disputes can result in work environments poisoned with conflict, lowered productivity, and the loss of effective employees.
Mediation can assist resolve disputes between employees or issues arising between employees and their employer.
A Short Guide for Parties to the Mediation Process in Workplace Disputes
Mediation is a confidential and informal process. It’s also entirely voluntary. As a process, there are various steps that must be taken if it is to be successful.
Case Studies
Working From Home
NB: At time of writing, (05.06.23), The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 2023 has been signed into law, but has not yet been commenced.) An employee who had been working from home during the Covid pandemic requested that they be allowed to continue to work from home. They explained to their employer that their personal circumstances had changed dramatically during the pandemic, and that it would solve a lot of the new problems they were faced with if permission to work from home was granted. Company policy had initially insisted that all employees were to return to working in the office full time. The employee’s line manager felt it was their duty to enforce company policy, and permission to work from home was initially denied. The employee wanted to make a formal complaint and take the matter further.
The Human Resources department offered the parties the opportunity to have an independent mediator appointed, which they both agreed to. The mediator was able to help the parties to identify each of the separate issues which had led them to make the decisions that they had. They were able to fully discuss these within the safe and confidential space of the mediation, and they arrived at an agreement which they were both entirely happy with. The matter was not taken any further.
Bullying & Harassment
A complaint of bullying and harassment was made against a senior employee by a direct report. At the time of the incident, the entire team had been working extremely hard and for long hours in order to have a new system in place and fully operational by a deadline. During a meeting chaired by the senior employee, he had asked the attendees if any of them had any fresh ideas about getting the new system over the line on time. The direct report in question made a suggestion. The chair of the meeting laughed and said “Have you even been awake here for the last few weeks? Has anyone got anything intelligent to say?” The direct report was mortified and made a formal complaint of bullying and harassment.
An external mediator was appointed, and they helped the parties to discuss what had occurred, and to ensure that there would be no reoccurrence. The senior employee made a full apology to the direct report, who accepted it, and withdrew their complaint. Part of the agreement was that the company would hold a half-day session with all of their employees on the subject of bullying and harassment, and company policy would be scrutinised to ensure that it was fully up-to-date.
Change Management
A manager made a complaint to their Human Resources department about a specific direct report who appeared to be disengaged from their work, and who was letting the other team members do most of the heavy lifting in setting up the new processes. The manager had noticed that the entire team seemed to be somewhat lacking in motivation, and ascribed it to the impact of this one employee who was not pulling his weight. An external mediator was appointed in order to help the parties work through their differences and identify the issues between them. It transpired that the employee had worked in that particular company for many years, and did not believe that the new processes would work. He also believed that nobody in the company really wanted the changes, and he was ‘passing the time’ until the whole idea was dropped, and he could go back to doing things the way they had always done them. He also felt that the manager, who was significantly younger than the employee, had barely been in the company ‘a wet week’ and didn’t understand how things were done.
An external mediator was able to work with both of the parties, and during the mediation process it transpired that neither party had fully discussed their position with the other. On the one hand, the manager was keen to make his mark and effect the changes – which in fact were prescribed by law – and prove himself to his superiors. In so doing, he admitted he had lost sight of the fact that his team needed regular communication about the change, why it needed to happen, how it might impact on them and what the overall change would look like once it had been effected. In turn, the employee admitted he ought to have asked to speak with his manager and ask about the things he was unsure of. The parties reached agreement, and a set of action points were drawn up which they both agreed to adhere to. They further agreed to return to mediation if there were any future problems.
Burnout
A manager was appointed over a team of ten employees in order to establish a new department within an organisation. This was a great promotion for the manager, and the first time they had been in charge of a team. The CEO of the organisation was known to be very hardworking, and expected the same from their employees. The manager had hoped to be able to prove themselves, and establish an outstanding nation-wide example with their new department. There were many long nights and weekends, during which the manager and CEO were in regular contact. The manager began to suffer from health issues, and started to experience short-term memory loss. His doctor told him he was signing him off work for a week, and that he would review the situation at that point. When he returned to work, the CEO immediately called him up to his office and asked him to draw up a plan to deal with all of the work he had not done while he was ‘out on holidays’. He wanted to see this plan by 5pm that evening.
The manager went straight to Human Resources and made a complaint about the CEO, and threatened legal proceedings.Human resources offered the option of an independent mediator, and both parties agreed to attend. The mediator was able to work with both parties to help them articulate their difficulties, and arrive at a consensus as to how to work together going forward. They agreed to draft safeguards to prevent a repetition of the burnout experienced by the manager, and it was further agreed that he was to take a further two weeks paid leave before returning to work. No further action was required.
I felt the mediation was a constructive process. I had to work in the same office everyday with the individual whom upset me. It was successful, there's no doubt about it, and we found it difficult to work together before…things between us have improved greatly. I would definitely recommend mediation, yes.