#workplace-dispute

#workplace-dispute

Welsh and another pregnant colleague developed a plan. They would share a caseload, splitting responsibilities so they could continue working part-time while caring for their growing families.

"Since it wasn't going to take long, I was approved to do it over the lunch hour," he told Who, Me?

In 1960, 72% of adults were married, and over 90% would go on to marry. HR policies and management practices back then catered to nuclear families with a lone, male breadwinner. Today, dual-career couples and working mothers are common, largely due to the growth of women in the workforce in the second half of the 20th century.

If you've spent enough time in workplaces, on boards, or in other community organizations, you've probably had that moment where your stomach tightens in a meeting and you're not entirely sure why. A comment lands sideways. A tone shifts. Someone interrupts you for the third time. You walk away replaying the exchange, wondering whether you imagined it or whether something subtle but unmistakable just happened. That confusion is often the first sign you're dealing with a workplace bully.

Around the office, people clutch coffee like a life raft, waiting for their brains to come online and cursing the 8 a.m. meeting. And the cheerful colleague. But at least they got in early enough to find parking and grab coffee before it ran out-this time. Now: which person are you? The early riser, or the one watching them, wondering why you can never feel that awake at this hour no matter how hard you try?

To successfully repair after a mistake, you need to acknowledge and name the mistake, validate the other person's feelings and viewpoint, and create a plan for the specific actions you will take to prevent this mistake from occurring again.

Laura and Todd, both journalists, had been out for an evening of drinks with colleagues following a particularly horrific day covering the news. Gradually, the herd had thinned out until it was just the two of them, alone at the bar near 3 a.m. with a sudden weight of sexual tension between them. They'd worked together for a couple of years at this point, and each had emerged from a relationship in their early 30s to be newly single.

No wonder it feels personal that this team rejects your efforts. It is personal; it's happening to you. But it's not about you. This team might have so much internal tension that they can't stand to be in a meeting together. Maybe they had a bad experience with your predecessor. They might think they know it all already and attending meetings is just wasting their time. Or it could really be as straightforward as what they've told you: Their working hours and training times are already used up.