How to Deal With a Job Site Confrontation
Confrontation is not unusual at a work site. It can sometimes result in an acrimonious working relationship between the warring parties if not properly handled. When effectively dealt with, it can lead to personal and professional growth. As a supervisor, you must provide effective leadership to ensure it doesn't interfere with production. It is your responsibility to make the people confronting each other understand that it is possible to achieve their goals at work without undermining someone else's.
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Instructions
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Be calm and rational when dealing with a confrontation at a job site. It is difficult to control or reason with people who are upset. Allow the warring parties to speak their minds before intervening. This flares the situation, but it allows you to get through the conflict phase before you can provide a solution.
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Allow them to calm down and resolve the conflict on their own before you can offer a solution. Intervene if the situation is getting out of hand and affecting the rest of the workers at the site. Find out the full source of confrontation before you can mediate, including whether or not it is work-related. Be objective when asking questions to avoid offending or alienating one party.
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Find common ground for the warring parties. Start by determining what they agree on. Then identify what is keeping one person, or both parties, from agreeing to the solution. As a supervisor or manager, how the situation is resolved can affect your own reputation. You don't want your seniors to think you're failing to control your group or division. Failure to resolve the confrontation effectively can also affect the way workers relate to one another, casing production to suffer.
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Avoid losing your temper, no matter how difficult the situation becomes. This is a workplace; you have to separate your emotions. If the situation gets heated while dealing with the warring parties, take a break. Avoid dwelling on the negative characteristics of the fighting workers, even if you know who is wrong.
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Remind the workers to look at the bigger picture and what is at stake when everyone has calmed down. Ensure everything has been dealt with. This might leave you angry because of the irrational behavior of one party or both. But don't focus on that. Instead focus on the job and getting results. Don't allow personal feelings about certain employees to interfere with your work.
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