50MINUTES - Managing Conflicts at Work: Diffuse tense situations and resolve arguments amicably

• Problem: how can you get rid of a toxic atmosphere in your workplace? What can you do to overcome your own negative reactions, as well as those of your colleagues and superiors?
• Uses: conflictual situations, including minor friction, disagreements, misunderstandings and even outright animosity, are part of our daily lives, both at home and at work. Learning to analyse them and (re)act more constructively will contribute to a more pleasant atmosphere at work.
• Professional context: relationships between colleagues, relationships with your team, relationships with superiors.
• FAQs:
  • Is conflict always a bad thing?
  • How should I deal with task-related conflict?
  • How should I deal with people-related conflict?
  • How can I tell if something is not right?
  • How can I resolve a conflict without one person losing?
  • How important are working conditions?

We may not like it, we may do everything we can to avoid it, but it often breaks out all the same.

Whenever we get a job, we dream of a good working environment, just like we all dream of blue skies. However, stress, demotivation and aggressiveness are increasingly present in teams. Conflict is inevitable in human relationships, and it is useful to know how it progresses so that we can nip it in the bud.

Is conflict necessarily a bad thing for a company? Like stress, we tend to see it as something negative. However, just as we can distinguish between good stress, which is a driving force, and bad stress, which harms us, we can view conflict positively, as an opportunity for innovation and development, or negatively, when it poisons the atmosphere.

The more attention you pay to signs of discontent, the quicker you will be able to understand and manage them to the extent that it is your responsibility. Indeed, the roots of conflict can be found at various different levels of a company. If it comes from the institution or organisation (such as a change in working hours or production norms), you will need to evaluate how much room for manoeuvre you have. If it comes from an unpleasant remark from a colleague, you have the freedom to act. If you are leading a team, it is your duty to keep the peace between team members and to maintain an atmosphere of trust and a feeling of fairness.

Conflicts can hurt us, cause us stress and make us ill. They make us cynical, aggressive and withdrawn. When an interpersonal conflict arises, it is important to put your emotions aside and find a win-win solution. If only one person wins, the conflict is not resolved, it is just silenced.

Are you more of an actor or a spectator? When you witness power struggles, open conflict, hostile emails, unpleasant comments or catfights, how do you react? Do you avoid the situation? Face up to it? Enter the fray? Put up with it? Take part? It is important to understand how you work and know yourself well if you want to act in a way that is more mature and respectful of the other person and their point of view.

When we go to the office, it is mainly so that we can work, produce things or carry out tasks, generally while interacting with other people. In spite of what Facebook would have us believe, we cannot become friends with a single click: your colleagues are your collaborators, not your friends. You need to stay professional at work under all circumstances, or you risk letting your emotions govern your behaviour. It is better to be open to dialogue and work towards your shared objectives.

Sabrina greets Catherine very coldly. The new hire does not have the same qualifications as Sabrina, who therefore thinks that she is incompetent. I dont have anything against you, but I dont think its right that youre doing the same work as me. The company culture at their law office expects employees to be friendly and informal with one another. This leads to an awkward situation: should Catherine be friendly towards someone who is hostile to her, or should she draw attention to the conflict by being openly unfriendly? After a shaky start, this situation turned out well: Sabrina and Catherine were passionate about a shared project, threw themselves into it and were recognised for their hard work. Now, they are happy to greet each other warmly in the mornings. This shows that it is possible to overcome conflict at work without holding a grudge.