Resolving Workplace Conflicts: General - Complaining Too Much Work, Yet Wasting Time (PDF)

Conflict tends to have a negative connotation based on our experiences, but it does not have to be this way. When we seek to understand, we communicate that we care enough to work through difficult situations and determine how to make things better to reduce stress, promote communication and enhance teamwork.

We've all experienced these behaviors: coworkers taking excessive breaks, long lunches, carrying on prolonged non-work related conversations with coworkers, spending time on non-productive activities including personal emails and texts, phone calls, social media reviews and posts, reading news feeds, among others. Yet, they complain about having too much work to do and have excuses for not being able to complete tasks including meeting deadlines. It's not uncommon, then, for supervision and management to "dump" this individual's work on high-performing team members. What can we expect over time? The high performers will become resentful, lower their own performance and may even search for work elsewhere leading to increased turnover. Management loses respect when the complainers are not held accountable, and the impacts associated with reduced productivity and turnover become extremely costly to the organization, not just in the short-term, but also in the long-term when employees with a great deal of institutional knowledge and experience are lost. It's also not outside the realm of possibility that important customers or clients are lost as well significantly impacting the success and profitability of the organization.

With this tool you get the following:

•  The effects of wasting time, yet complaining about too much work.
•  Considerations for why the individual is complaining, yet wasting time.
•  Numerous solutions for improvement.
•  Ideas for negotiating/adjusting solutions.
•  Potential barriers and ways to overcome them to achieve resolution.
•  Implementation timeframe.
•  Follow-up review commitments.

Additionally, we provide a blank, editable Conflict Resolution Worksheet and the Worksheet Guidelines providing a step-by-step process for addressing your own workplace conflicts.