Q & A Table of Contents
Politics Among The Women In My Office
From: Julie, Southampton, England
Question: I work in an office with many females. Some of the women have been there a while (years) and some new employees are not being 'accepted'. Although they are doing the job, their personalities don't mix.
As a result there are a couple of groups who take full advantage of discussing and indeed bitching about the new staff. How should this be dealt with if 'the next in command' is one of the ones who has got where they are by cleverly making sure that errors are put on the newer members, even if they are partly responsible for the error?
For example if a newer member helped out the more established person and then saved over a document, even though the experienced person failed in their job to ensure that a hard copy had been placed on a file. The ‘old-timer’ then declares to all the mistake that the new member made, whilst not declaring that they had deleted a dictation tape without ensuring that all the work they had completed was on file.
In addition if a personality clash is evident between two (not as described above) people, other members of staff stay away from the 'nicer' person for fear of suffering the same fate in derogatory comments by the 'stronger' person.
How should this be dealt with?
Response: It sounds as if the persons who manage human resources and the management of the office should take charge of the situation. Most likely it would make sense to re-arrange any existing teams, relocate people to new spaces in the office, and otherwise shake up the dynamics of staff interaction. Even if the job is getting completed to the satisfaction of the folks in power, the human dynamics you describe are a series of problems waiting to happen — or get worse.
The negotiation you need to undertake should be aimed at influencing the decisions of the ‘bosses’. Before anyone undertakes any conversation with them, it is crucial to do homework to suss out the interests of the various stakeholders. What does the company have to gain by derailing the tribalism among the staff? What do the bosses have to gain by reducing dissension in the ranks? What gains are out there for members of the staff, for clients or suppliers with whom you deal? These, and many more questions should be addressed before trying to convince the top brass to make changes in the workplace.
Once you’ve made assumptions about what’s important to various stakeholders, you need to ask open-ended questions to give folks an opportunity to tell you what they think — rather than simply give a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer which gives you very little opportunity for creative thought or solutions. Your conversations with the powers that be should not be treated as an opportunity to present a litany of complaints; your objective is to develop a collaborative process that will yield objectives that respond to the interests of the stakeholders.
If you do your homework and develop a strategy based on knowing what information will help yield a desirable outcome, you are more likely to reach a satisfactory result.
Good luck,
Steve
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