Examples of Mediation in the Workplace

Manufacturing Company - workplace dispute between the CIO and CFO of a specialty manufacturing company in which there had been a physical altercation witnessed by many other employees.

Situation:  There was a long-standing dispute between the male CFO and the female CIO of this organization. After one particularly disquieting argument, the CFO, while physically shoving the CIO from his office, pushed her into the wall, causing no real physical injury, but significant emotional damage. On the advise from company's legal counsel, the vice president of human resources requested that I attempt to mediate the dispute between the employees. My work required both individual meetings with the parties to gain their trust and agreement to mediation, and then two mediation sessions.

Mediation: The parties were successfully able to work out their differences, understand how they jointly contributed to the problems between them and develop an agreement outlining how they would work together going forward. Because many employees witnessed their office altercation, they also agreed to publicly apologize and commit to working together. As a result, they were able to bring the organization together, rather than having it divide into two camps of supporters.

A final benefit: there was no formal legal action taken, saving the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and potential damage awards and the two employees, both considered to be very valuable to the company, continued to work there.

Community Mental Health Organization

Situation:  Two employees had worked for the organization for many years, one of the supervising the other. Based on the supervisor's recommendations, the other employee was promoted. At the point that they became peers, tensions arose between them. Within six months of the promotion, the former supervisor was threatening to leave the organization because of these problems. The executive director and the head of human resources had numerous meetings with them to try to understand and handle the problem and retain both employees.

Mediation: At the point that the employee's resignation was submitted, the head of human resources requested that they participate in mediation. The parties agreed to this one last try and at the conclusion of one three-hour mediation session, they were able to understand how the tensions began and festered. The parties continued to work for the organization.

Why it worked: Both parties commented that there were two reasons why mediation worked after all else had failed:
(1) the session was facilitated to allow them a full opportunity to hear and understand how the other person saw the problem; and
(2) the mediator was external to the organization and therefore none of the discussions the parties had would be revealed to those people in the organization who supervised and evaluated their work performance.