Working in an office is a challenging task, especially when you consider the fact that you will have to deal with colleagues from different backgrounds, personalities and traits. When you are working with a diverse set of people, arguments, conflicts and even outright fights are inevitable. Conflicts in your office can arise from major professional challenges such as increasing work pressure or even something as simple as adjusting the temperature of the AC.In fact, many HR professionals have listed that work-place conflicts within the co-workers is one of the biggest reason of stress and dissatisfaction among the employees. Apart from this, conflicts also lead to animosity and ego conflicts running the team spirit among the colleagues.
While workplace conflicts are something that we cannot avoid, handling them more professionally can give you the mental peace while also enhancing your productivity. Want to know how to stay away from office fights and arguments? Follow the simple tips given below and soon you will be most liked person in your office.
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Avoid Gossip
First things first, gossip is never good, be it as part of your personal life and definitely not as a part of your professional one. But still every time we have an argument with a co-worker or verbal spat with a colleague, we vent out our frustration in front our friends gossiping about the other person. While venting out might provide you immediate relief, it will surely come to haunt you in long run. So avoid gossiping, instead of that you can always try to understand the cause of the problem and find practical solutions to avoid the fight next time.
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Directly address the Conflict
So, next time you feel venting out after a fight with your colleague, take a deep breath and analyse the situation. Try to understand what happened and why it happened and if there was anything that you could have done differently in order to handle the situation better. Once you have an idea about that, walk over to your colleague with whom you had a fight and discuss the same with him/her. Once you start talking calmly and discussing the matter in a matured manner, it would cool down the tempers and lead to a more viable solution. Addressing the conflict directly can help you better understand the problem and come up with better solutions.
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Find Common Ground
When you are trying to accomplish any task as part of your office team, there would be different points of views, perspectives and opinions. The key to avoiding office conflict and avoiding arguments with your co-workers lies in finding the common ground between all these different views. At first it might look almost impossible to accommodate diverse views of all different stakeholders to arrive at a common understanding, but once you make an effort it would seem easy.
Even after this, if you end up in an argument with your colleague, try to understand both sides of the coin and correct your own faults or mistakes while also asking the other party to do the same. This would give you an opportunity to find a more viable and practical solution for the problem.
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Keep an Open Mind
Simple conversations or even differences in perspective can take a form of a vigorous argument in offices, thanks to the ego battles and office politics that are quite prevalent in the corporate world. However, conflicts can only be resolved if you decide to make a conscious effort to solve the problem with an open mind. Open mind will help you keep negative feelings like ego battles and others at bay. Moreover, with an open mind, instead of trying to new ways to escalate arguments you will be able to identify ways in which you can actually resolve the conflict and come to a practical solution.
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Involve a 3rd Party only if needed
When things get really heated during an argument with your office colleague, getting out of a fight might not be as easy as you think. This is when you will need to involve a third person in the mix, preferably a senior who is trusted and respected by both the persons equally. That person will have to take the charge and make sure that that the conflict is resolved amicably and justice is done to both. However, the third party person you involve should hold some value and authority in your organization and should be respected by both, only then you will find a viable solution to the conflict.
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Learn from Experience
Finally, coming to the best teacher when it comes to office conflicts i.e. experience. While all the aforementioned tips will help you to get out of the conflicts with your co-workers, your experience shall teach you how not to get into them in the first place. So, the next time you confront someone or get into an argument, try to introspect the reason and identify the cause that led to the argument or fight in the first place. Next time you are in a similar situation, you will be able to take evasive action and steer clear of work-place conflicts like a BOSS!
Working in a challenging environment can throw up several problems in front of you and conflict with our colleagues is a major one that can put a serious dent into your career progress. So, next time you get into an argument with your co-workers, instead of trying to further escalate the situation, it is advisable to follow the tips given above to diffuse the tension. If you found this article to be helpful, please share it with your colleagues and friends to spread the good word. You can also find other similar articles about office life and corporate etiquettes in our dedicated job section i.e. www.jagranjosh.com/jobs. Alternatively, to receive such interesting articles directly in your inbox, please subscribe to our newsletter by submitting your email id and other details below.
