BEDC Blog

Let’s face it…conflict is inevitable when working with people. You can almost guarantee some form of angst will arise in any relationship no matter its shape or form - whether it be romantic, friendly, political or heaven forbid – some form of rivalry between two top contending sports teams (Go Chargers!).  It should come as no surprise then that conflict happens in the workplace as well.  According to CNN Living in January 2008, human resource managers reported spending “24% to 60% of their time dealing with employee disputes.” Even more alarming was the finding from the same research group that “53% of workers lost time at work worrying about a past or future confrontation with a co-worker.” Yikes! It’s apparent a good number of people are finding themselves in the midst of some discord. Not only are they consumed with the fear of confrontation, but they’re spending an invaluable amount of time trying to avoid “it” rather than learning how to deal with the disruption effectively.