This happened when I was working in this tele-survey company during my holiday. My duties were to make appointments to do a survey through the phone. As I was considered sensible, I was made to work with the program coordinators, and was soon well-liked among the workers. The conflict started after I entered the company.
Jenny, one of the program coordinators, could not handle stress. She gets worked-up easily, and will then vent her anger on others. During lunch, she would complain about her work to her best friend, Jason, who is overall in-charge of the company.
Jason, unlike Jenny, takes his work seriously. However, he is hot-tempered and fierce. Other workers in the company will always not approach Jason for help.
Dawn, a permanent worker, is a happy-go-lucky person. She does things in a relax manner, and will slack as and when she likes.
The conflict started when Jenny insisted that Dawn was not doing her work (making appointments), as she was supposed to. Instead, she uses the telephone to call her boyfriend. Jenny also pointed out that Dawn would fake the survey results in order to achieve her target of completing 6 surveys a day. This made the progress of completing the project stagnant. Jenny, easily stressed, complained this to Jason.
Jason was furious, and confronted Dawn straight after lunch, in front of everyone. Dawn retaliated, saying that what Jenny told him was not true. Jason was angry as he thought that Dawn did not feel apologetic and retorted back still.
Tension between the 3 started, and I was stuck in the middle, being close to both Jenny and Dawn. Who should I believe? What should I do to make the atmosphere less tense? Though I left the company not long after, I was asked to go back and help out. Should I go back?
3 years ago
Hi Kristin,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your plight! I feel that you should only go back to the company if you feel that you have something to contribute to this already complicated scenario. Since you are close to both Jenny and Dawn, things might get really messed up if youjoined them as a colleague again. In my opinion, this situation can be approached by speaking to the both of them separately.
Perhaps, you could tell Dawn to be a little more discrete when making phone calls, or even refrain from doing that during office hours. Let her know too of Jenny's poor stress-management. Maybe then, she would understand the situation better. On the other hand, you could also seek Jenny's explanation as to why she felt that Dawn has not been doing her work. Ask her nicely if she had any concrete proof or if she was just annoyed by her poor work attitude.
By getting to know both sides of the tale, you could then make a better judgement to handle this really complicated scenario.
Best of luck!
Hanrong
Hi Kristin,
ReplyDeleteI know it is awkward to be in the middle. Being close to both of them, I comprehend that it is difficult to believe who is telling the truth. As such, I think you should take a neutral approach in dealing with them.
I think that you should approach them individually. You should ask Dawn if she was talking to her boyfriend over the phone and was that the reason she was unable to complete the work assigned to her. If she admits that is the truth then you can suggest to her that she should cultivate a serious attitude towards work. However, this does mean that she cannot talk to anyone over the phone during office hours. She can do so more discreetly or during lunch and tea breaks. This would enable her to carry out her duties at work well thus preventing a further occurrence of such an incident.
To Jenny, I feel that you should tell her to be less stressful at work. In addition, you can suggest that if she is unhappy over Dawn’s attitude in work it would be better if she approached Dawn first instead of reporting her to Jason. This would allow Dawn an opportunity to improve on herself and prevent her from being embarrassed in front if the other colleagues when Jason reprimands her.
I think after talking to both them, you should ask them out for lunch or dinner. This would provide them an opportunity to reconcile and
I think you should not go back to the company unless you enjoy working there. If you miss Jenny and Dawn then you can meet up with them during your holidays.
(commented by ramani d/o challiah)