Saturday, April 8, 2017
Conflict/Disagreements
I've had many disagreements and conflicts with co-workers, family members, and in personal relationships in my life. The most recent conflict I've had is with a co-worker who I've worked with for quite sometime now and she asked someone else something about something I was doing in the classroom. I was at a loss for words because we work together daily and I couldn't understand why she would ask them and not me because we work together. My first thought was to just go off and be real ugly about it since she showed me no consideration when she went to someone else. I ended up taking the high road, first I prayed that the Lord help me hold my tongue so I wouldn't say anything too harsh that could lead to a physical altercation. I did confront her about it all in which she denied and I wasn't surprised one bit, so I talked and let her know that we work together if she need to know anything to ask me and no one else. I also made it my business to let her know we need to respect one another and have to reciprocate that respect. It can't be one of us respect the other while the other doesn't respect the other person. We have to work together as a team and if not someone has to go elsewhere. Needless to say that issue has been resolved and things are going smoothly. The strategies I used was to first talk to the co-worker and the other strategy was to offer suggestions on what she need to know that's going on in the classroom ways we could work together better so that type of conflict wouldn't come up again between the two of us.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Ms.Davis
ReplyDeleteGood post and reminds me of my co-teacher I work alongside. It is certainly not easy to work with someone so closely. In South Africa as teachers we are more often than not on our own and do not have a co-teacher or assistant in the classroom to help us. So when I moved to Korea and now China, it has been quite an adjustment for me to work so closely with another person, whose views will not necessarily be the same as yours. I, like you often have to pray to hold my tongue, as we can all be opinionated and sensitive and I think as adults we continue to grow in this area of conflict management.
Hello Monica, I agree that it can be frustrating when a colleague goes to someone else about a conflict, rather than to you directly. This happens many times at my center. For some reason the higher management believes that a passive aggressive approach to conflict is beneficial. However, I know that it just makes all the employees angry and confused. I always think it is most beneficial to bring conflict to the open and discuss this conflict in a respectful, mature, and professional way.
ReplyDeleteMs. Davis, Happy that you took some time to calm down before speaking with your co-worker. One thing i do know is that the tone and energy matter just as much as the calm down. hopefully you took the third-side and was able to resolve the faud.
ReplyDelete