CONFLICTS AT WORK: personal experiences and approaches

It's been a long and tough weekend for me also, having to end the week with an examination that I took yesterday. Sometimes, I wonder why I took up postgraduate courses, but the consolation is that I would be a step ahead of my colleagues when the call is made. Thanks to @galenkp for this weekend's prompt, a nostalgia of conflicting moments.

You know that not everyone who smiles with you is truly your friend. I am a medic, and I got recruited along with my medical professionals across Nigeria who got recruited into the organization from different states. My organization happened to be a health insurance organization, and from its name, you expect the medics to dominate, but the reverse has been the case since 2004 when the organization was set up. It was in 2021 that a little above 190 medics were recruited into the organization to improve and meet the vision and goals of the organization. This move, however, did not sit well with the non-medical staff we met in the organization, and they did not fail to express their grievances. For the state I work in, this was minimal because I heard of a physical assault on a colleague in a different state that resulted in a slap on the face.

I heard in my office a senior staff member report saying, "What is there in a stethoscope?" Fortunately, I was admitted as a senior to many of the staff I met in the office because of my medical profession. The tension in my office was obvious, like the elephant in the room.

I have always had a work attitude of team spirit everywhere I find myself, and similarly, while I was in the clinical setting, I called some married nurses wives and girlfriends based on our jovial relationship. I got most of the things I wanted on a platter of gold because I took my time to interact with them. Finding myself in a new environment was not difficult for me to handle despite being aware of the grievances against our recruitment. Being a humble individual, my first winning tactic was greeting other colleagues and asking about family and other things. Also, rather than send the junior staff to do the work others juniors naturally send others to do, I do my work myself. This was similar to clinical practice, where I would not wait for a nurse to assist with what I wanted, and they always appreciated the fact that I didn't burden them even though it was their job description.

Gossips would always fly, and even when you do not call for them, they are brought to your doorstep. I have had gossip brought to me even when I did not request to be in the picture. My principle is simple: 'The less you know, the less the trouble'. I earned respect also by not engaging in wrong practices within the organization and making my stand clear and relatively rigid.

Many individuals within and outside of the organization have told me to my hearing how they appreciate my approach to solving problems. My job requires interacting with hospitals within my state and knowing fully well the diversity of human minds. I have learned to be angry responsibly when I need to be with them and equally give them a fair hearing. To this end, my staff have realized I get work done faster and easily when I relate with hospitals, and thus, I find my organization staff approaching me frequently to solve problems, and they even go to the extent of giving out my personal number for complaint resolution, which, though I am not comfortable with, I know it's because of how much they trusted me.

It cannot be all rosy. I have had to exchange words with a man two decades older than I am but far less than my position in the organization. He had refused to deliver letters as instructed and made me fumble ignorantly when the supposed recipients of the letters got to my office, thinking the letter was already delivered to them. The guilty staff declined and stood his ground that I could equally have gone to deliver the letter myself. The other staff in the office when the incident occurred exhibited a pindrop silence. They were aware the older staff was recalcitrant in his attitude, and I was the right person to attack him. I spoke with the human resources manager, who was younger in age than the staff, and he lamented how frustrating the staff's attitude was.

Much later, while we held one of our usual organization meetings, I unexpectedly brought up the matter when the staff had almost forgotten. He was rebuked heavily and threatened with a query. A vital lesson was learned that day by a much more senior-level staffer when he asked the old man, 'Can you put into writing what you have said?' Then he added, 'Do not speak what you cannot put into writing.' The junior officer apologized, and since then, we have continued to enjoy cordial relationships.

Thank you for reading. I would love to have your comments and contributions.

Posted Using InLeo Alpha