As busy as we are, no matter what time of year or point in the semester it is, I think it is important for offices to take the time to do some team building, and take some staff development time when a new member is added. This increases productivity down the line by cutting down on conflicts and increasing communication. With my internship and other job this summer, I think that was done. With Talia and LEAP, we had a whole semester of meetings in which we got to know each other and where we both demonstrated mutual respect. We also had the unique experience of Talia TAing one of my classes. Talia is constantly asking my opinion and seeking feedback on her supervising style which not only demonstrates her respect for me as an employee, person, and student, but also opens the lines of communication to avoid future conflicts.
In the past I have learned that with workplace conflicts things should be addressed directly and in a non-threatening manner. Even if a conflict does not involve my supervisor I also let them know what is going on, sometimes just to make sure they know or other times to ask for help or their opinion on how to handle it. Depending on the workplace environment and atmosphere it is best to work directly with a supervisor to resolve the conflict. The most difficult conflicts for me have been in situations where I may have more experience, but a new staff member comes in and is my superior. In those situations if both parties are not humble, new staff asking for help and advice and other staff not accepting a new ranking order and offering help, it ends up being a recipe for conflict because they do not respect each other.
In my assistantship I work fairly independently, but my supervisor is 100% open to all my ideas. So I have no conflicts with her because she is supportive and we have a work relationship built on mutual respect and trust. The more prevalent issue is managing conflicts among my students, especially the student leaders. This may be again, because we are so close in age, and we are very similar and also because I now have to help facilitate and manage other peoples conflicts which I have little experience with. Additionally it is still difficult for me to be as professional as I am in other interactions, with the students in their organization. This is something that as an executive board, my students discussed (general conflict in the group) and decided to spend a meeting doing team building. I’m very excited to facilitate this because I know that as the E-board functions better they will have less conflict and also because it is something they recognized and came up with a solution for themselves. While I will be picking and facilitating the team building exercises the leaders have given me some suggestions and suggested that we have a meeting before the entire group meets to do some of those activities together.