Saturday, November 30, 2013

Conflict Resolution

Not too long ago, me and my supervisor clashed.  I had brought, on more than one occasion, a pay discrepancy to her attention.  As before she had indicated that she would take care of the situation for me.  When it occurred again, I had reached my limit with depending on her to rectify the situation.  I preferred to take matters into my hands by skipping the middle man, which was her, and speaking directly with the counsel about my issue with not receiving holiday pay.  According to her, I wasn't hired as a full time teacher.  Even though I was working full time hours and received other benefits that are only designated to full time employees but because "the system" indicated I was part time, I couldn't get holiday pay.  To me, that didn't make any sense and when I questioned her about it, she just gave me a blank stare as if she didn't know what to say or do.  I walked away because I knew it was a waste of time and there wasn't much else to say to her about it.


Later, she handed me a letter regarding all her concerns about me and how unprofessional she thought I was during the brief conversation.  In return, I wrote her a letter addressing each concern she had and sharing my professional opinion with her as well.  A few days later, we meet and discussed our concerns in both letters.
The misconceptions she had, I was able to explain and give her clarity.  In turn, it gave me an opportunity to learn something about her as well.  She is what is considered an escapist.  She avoid direct conflict but leaves issues unresolved (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012).  Even though I didn't receive my holiday pay and the conflict wasn't totally resolved, I reached a point where it was best for me to remove myself from the situation.  This is considered separation, a tactic used to resolve conflict (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012).  I chose to resign for varies reasons that led up to the conflict, but in retrospect it was the best career move for me.  Now, I have the administrative support I need and don't have to debate over compensation that is rightfully mine.  I am blessed now to enjoy paid time off and not just for holidays!



Reference:  O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012).  Real communication:  An introduction.  New York:  Bedford/St. Martin's.  


2 comments:

  1. Wow, your post was interesting. I understand why you decided to resign. If your former supervisor was an escapist, how affective is she as a supervisor? Conflicts is to be expected and normally the person in leadership should be prepared to handle conflict and not run away from it.

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  2. I am happy that everything worked out for you in the end. Often times we don't always understand why things happen the way they do but it is all for our good in the end. You are right where you are suppose to be.

    On the other hand I always tell people that the best lesson you can learn is to learn those that you work with. Know who and what a person is allows you to make better decisions. You can then decide to choose to accept them as they are or leave them alone, but at least you know what you are working with. Learning who your supervisor was allowed you to see that if you chose to stay it would be inevitable that you would continue to encounter different situations such as you did. Nothing is really worse than lack of pay, but it is a good thing that you did not stick around to find out. Many blessings on your future!

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