Four steps to resolve hybrid workplace conflict (beware late-night messages)

Conflict is an unavoidable part of life and work. Accept this, and you’ve already made the first step in learning to deal with difficult conversations, advises workplace conflict specialist Marie Coombes CMgr FCMI, CEO of We Restore Calm, an initiative that specialises in helping organisations and individuals understand and transform their conflicts into a positive driving force, rather than an anchor.

The problem is that we’re never taught how to handle conflict.

“We’re just expected to get on with it, and 90% of people will deal with conflict the way their parents dealt with it,” Marie says.

Generally, this means trying to ignore it and hoping it will go away by itself (which, as we know, never happens). Resentments grow, passive aggression hardens and then, finally, “destructive conflict” arrives, like a volcanic eruption, says Marie, who has dealt with workplace punch-ups and executives giving each other the silent treatment.

This childish behaviour can be endemic in toxic workplaces, where relationships between managers and staff resemble a parent-child model.

This is not conducive to a productive work environment – particularly with hybrid teams.

So how do you deal with it constructively?