Self Reflection: Interpersonal Communication Issue in a Workplace
This incident that I will be sharing occurred 2 years ago, whilst I was working as an Operation Zupervisor (their way of calling a supervisor in that particular company). Due to confidentiality, I will address the crew member involved as Roy in this post.
At that point in time, I was still an intern in that company, serving my internship. We were rotated around different establishment to carry out role-play activities. However, as we were just newly opened, not many of the full-time staff members were well trained in many areas. Roy came in a little later as a full-timer of the company. Knowing that I am well trained in Fire Station, my team leader trusted my capability and attached Roy to me for on-the-job training.
I have no other choice but to go ahead with the arrangement and taught him every single thing that I could in details. I could sense that he is being unhappy and unwilling to learn through all his verbal and nonverbal cues. As I am much younger with not much working experiences, I knew where his frustration is coming from. Whenever I talked to him nicely, he would snobbishly snap back at me saying "Ya I already know".
Worst of all, he would leave for his break early, and come back later than the said timing, which affected the whole operation of the establishment. He does not communicate to us regarding his whereabouts and often leave the team alone to handle the crowd. As all of my team's full-timers have been rotated out to complete their cross-training cycle, I am the only one left to deal with this situation.
What would you have done in this scenario?
Commented on:
1. Pei Ling
2. Xenia
3. Shyartini
At that point in time, I was still an intern in that company, serving my internship. We were rotated around different establishment to carry out role-play activities. However, as we were just newly opened, not many of the full-time staff members were well trained in many areas. Roy came in a little later as a full-timer of the company. Knowing that I am well trained in Fire Station, my team leader trusted my capability and attached Roy to me for on-the-job training.
I have no other choice but to go ahead with the arrangement and taught him every single thing that I could in details. I could sense that he is being unhappy and unwilling to learn through all his verbal and nonverbal cues. As I am much younger with not much working experiences, I knew where his frustration is coming from. Whenever I talked to him nicely, he would snobbishly snap back at me saying "Ya I already know".
Worst of all, he would leave for his break early, and come back later than the said timing, which affected the whole operation of the establishment. He does not communicate to us regarding his whereabouts and often leave the team alone to handle the crowd. As all of my team's full-timers have been rotated out to complete their cross-training cycle, I am the only one left to deal with this situation.
What would you have done in this scenario?
Commented on:
1. Pei Ling
2. Xenia
3. Shyartini
Hello Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this with us.
If I were in your position, I would have felt frustrated trying to deal with him. However, what I would suggest is to take some time to talk to him personally. By talking to him, it gives you an opportunity to understand what is he going through and why is it hard for him to listen to you. On top that, you could also explain to him why his behaviour is affecting you. There is this quote by Stephen Covey about seeking to understand, then to be understood. This quote shows the importance of looking at things from other's point of view. Only when we understand where they are coming from can we communicate how feel better and this will help us to be understood by the other party.
I look forward to hearing your reply. Thank you!
Best regards,
Shyartini
Dear Shyartini,
DeleteThankyou for your suggestions to resolve this frustrated encounter.
He is not really keen to talk to me in person, therefore I have approached my full-timers to be present during our "confrontation". We eventually set up a timing after park closure to address on this matter.
I have addressed my thoughts on this situation using the "I" statements, conveying about how this situation between us have made me upset at work. In addition, I tried to identify the possible problems of him reacting that way and eventually showing empathy on how he might felt to be trained by an intern.
We both started off the meeting with a heavyheart, listing down what are the things that are caught in between us. He also admitted that he did not come back in time after break on purpose as he is unhappy with the arrangement. In the end, we have come to a conclusion that we should acknowledge the fact that everyone is important in the team.
The case ended off by handling the conflict in a collaborative style. After exploring the disagreement through listing down the unhappiness, we started to accept constructive inputs and viewpoints from the full-timers. Conclusion were then formed together that the Team Leader should re-allocate my position to help to train other casual staff members instead of the full-timers.
This win-win situation allowed me to rectify all the problems surfaced in my blog post earlier on and allowed me to learn how to handle different conflicts faced in the workplace.
Best Regards,
Carolyn
Dear Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this issue that you encountered with us. Frankly, I could deduce the company just by the way “Supervisor” was spelled.
It seems that Roy took out his frustrations on you without a valid reason. I am sorry that you had to encounter this. Personally, I would have taken note of this actions and brought it up to the team leader. I believe that he crossed the line when his actions started to affect the operations of the whole establishment by going for extended breaks. Like what Mr Blackstone has mentioned in class previously, if someone is unwilling to learn, it would be very difficult for you to try teaching them as they would not be receptive. In this case, I would also request for Roy to be trained by a different person. This arrangement would definitely benefit the both of us as Roy would not feel as though he was being trained by someone he views lowly of and I would no longer have to handle him anymore. I hope you were able to resolve this issue in the end.
Warm regards,
Afifah
Dear Afifah,
DeleteThank you for your suggestions. I will further take note on the confidentiality clause in the future. I decided not to bring it out to the team leader straight away as I scare that he might think that I am complaining instead of wanting to resolve the problem.
Do read my reply above on how I responded to this conflict, thank you!
Best Regards,
Carolyn
Hello Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this with us.
If we were in your shoes, we would also feel frustrated with Roy as his behavior was not appropriate in a workplace.
We felt sorry that you had to undertake all the inconvenience caused by Roy.
We suggest that both parties should communicate with one another to share individuals opinions and dissatisfaction. Both you and Roy can actually use a better approach to address the unhappiness instead of showing it through actions.
You should bring this matter up to the higher management to appoint an experience full-timer to take up the role of mentoring instead. He may have felt overconfident, comparing himself to an intern.
Nevertheless, we would like to praise you for your high tolerance towards Roy's behaviour, not vending your anger and still be willing to mentor him.
Regards,
Syairah and Xenia
Dear Syairah and Xenia,
DeleteThank you for your thoughts and suggestions!
We did have the chance to address the unhappiness after settling down for a meeting with the full-timers.
Do take a look at my reply above to know how I resolved the conflict between me and Roy. Thank You once again!
Best Regards,
Carolyn
Dear Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this problem situation. I can imagine that it was very stressful for you.
I see that you have gotten some useful feedback from your peers, though none of them referenced specifically any of the conflict resolution frameworks that we discussed in class. I'd like to now know what you would do to handle the situation.
Dear Brad,
DeleteThank you for your comment. I have posted a reply on how I resolved this conflict in Shyartini's comment.
Do take a look and feel free to ask me any probing questions if there is any!
Thank you.
Best Regards,
Carolyn
ok, got it... cheers, BB
ReplyDelete