We know that some types of conflict are actually healthy to an organization and can be the birthplace of improved policies, better workplace culture, and new levels of product innovation. But some conflicts just slow down progress in those areas and act as more of a speed bump than an opportunity. Scheduling conflicts in the workplace are a type of conflict that is better to be avoided as they can cost time and money that no one wants to spend.
Scheduling Conflicts in the Workplace
While some types of tension can create new ideas, it remains true that other types of workplace conflict are better to avoid. When scheduling conflicts in the workplace arise, it could be an indication of poor organization, communication, or expectations. It’s important for management to supply their team with the tools they need to not only address these conflicts quickly, but avoid them moving forward. Here are some ways to limit the impact of scheduling conflicts on your team.
Organization
Organization is an important thing to fine-tune if you’re looking to avoid conflict at work, especially related to schedules. What is the company culture regarding organization of time? How are employees and managers expected to split meeting time from work time and preserve enough space so they can get their job tasks done? If you’re wondering how to manage staff conflict, it is important to become more organized and transparent about processes, schedule expectations, and time boundaries. If your employees need better tools to stay the course, it’s best to offer them up before things become a problem.
Communication
Most people would rather be doing almost anything than dealing with coworker conflict because it often creates unneeded stress in an already stressful environment. One way to make it easier to move on from conflict quickly is to provide conflict resolution training either to yourself or to your team, depending on your role. This type of training can help improve communication which is often one of the biggest causes of conflict, especially seen in scheduling conflicts in the workplace.
Expectations
Scheduling conflicts in the workplace can arise more quickly when people have too many things on their plate. Employees do not have unlimited resources, so if their bandwidth is occupied, they may accidentally double book or be forced to balance two meetings at once. A workplace culture that nurtures these types of expectations will struggle with many things long-term as that type of work load is not sustainable. Burnout and low employee morale will appear along with increased tensions, creating all types of conflict, including scheduling conflict. The best way to deal with conflict at work related to this is to make sure your expectations of your team are attainable and that people don’t feel pressured to be in two places at once.
If small, unhelpful issues like scheduling conflicts in the workplace keep arising, your team may benefit from foundational conflict and communication training that can make those issues quicker and easier to resolve. Contact Pollack Peacebuilding Systems today to get the right solutions for your team.
