Workplace Bullying

THE ISSUE

Two employees used to be friends but fell out; this affected their work and both claimed they were being bullied by the other.

The parties had been friends but fell out and this affected both of their work performances. One lodged a claim against the other for bullying and this brought a counterclaim for bullying and harassment. In the mediation, they both told their stories; both agreed that they needed to move on so they came to an agreement as to how they would work together in the future.

The two employees in the organisation used to get on well. They fell out and that affected their working relationship and their performance. One accused the other of bullying and lodged a claim with HR. This was met with a counter claim for bullying and harassment. Under the organisation’s Dignity at Work policy the parties could be offered mediation – an informal process for resolving the issues. Both parties had agreed to mediation, which is a voluntary process.

The HR Manager then contacted Erwin Mediation to engage our services.

PRE-MEDIATION

We met the two parties separately for pre-mediation meetings. Both meetings were confidential and neither of the parties where informed of what the other party had said. We explained the process of mediation and how it worked and went through a draft Agreement to Mediate with them.

THE MEDIATION

The mediation was then held in a hotel meeting room starting in the morning. The parties and the Mediator signed the Agreement to Mediate and the Mediator went through the process with the parties. The first party then told their story, uninterrupted. They explained the issues as they saw them up to the time they had the row with the other party. When they finished the other party told their story and it was clear that there had been a misunderstanding between the two.

Emotions ran high through the mediation with a lot of challenges to the truth of the other’s version of events. Some way into the mediation, once both parties had had their say, both realised that there was no merit to continuing the dispute which was affecting both of their performances. The organisation was becoming tired of the continuing dispute.

THE OUTCOME

With my assistance, the parties agreed that they needed to move on, agreed a modus operandi of how they would work together without rancour and agreed that the settlement agreement would be reviewed in three months to see if it was working. I was asked to contact the organisation to say that the matter had been resolved and that the file could be closed which I did.

The mediation resolved the issues between the two employees and there was no need to hold a review meeting.