Arguments/conflicts can be seen among colleagues quite often. Sometimes, you, as a colleague or senior have to wear the hat of mediator or may be simply asked your opinion. At this point of time be little tricky, neutral and calculating about what you speak. Because if you take sides then you are part of the argument/disagreement. Instead remain totally objective  and firmly in the middle. Just do not be bias to anyone. Because if you are, then not only one side will blame you but also the person they were arguing with originally. So before you take a call, consider the following points:

• Think of long term perspective
• See it from company’s point of view
• Remain unprejudiced
• Remain calm
• Be diplomatist
• Not take sides
• Stay independent

The more detached you appear to be, the more senior you will come across. On the other side, if you jump into argument and take side then the chances are that you would be making enemy but also be perceived as hot headed.

The real challenge is when you good friend is tangled in a row with another not-so-clsoe colleague. Your friend will always turn to you and drag you in, ‘oh, come on please tell him that I am right,’. YOu should not be dragged in. You cab be a little diplomatic and uninvolved here. Like, you can say holding your hands up defensively and say, ‘Dont involve me. You sort this out sensibly without arguing and we ll do a party’. By doing this:

• You have made the situation lighter
• Indicated that you are a senior to both of them
• Remain neutral

Tough situations, apart from your work, will keep on coming at workplace. Be ethical and choose right practicee to handle every situation.

One of my friends sharing from his previous work experiences mentioning how badly he was treated from one of his “influential colleagues”. How he used to treat him like a pet football and keep kicking him around the corner as and when he felt like doing it. He was quite junior at that time so had few choices – walk out of the job or sit over his head and report to senior people. But top bosses were also this guy’s friend. So eventually my friend left with no option but to endure everything and wait for the right time.

Every organization normally faces one common problem of high employee turnout ratio?  An employee may leave an organization for a variety of reasons. Office politics, stress, salary, employee and / or manager conflicts, or the pursuit of better job opportunities can encourage an employee to quit the organization. Following are some of the reasons:

- The most common reason for any employee to leave the organization is salary or compensation. Most of the employees who have been in the same organization for a while expect to be compensated well for their experience, hard work & loyalty. If they feel they are not being rewarded properly or even considered for an increase, they often look to move somewhere where they can receive better compensation.

- An employer should always keep this in mind that beyond a point, an employee’s primary need has less to do with money, and more to do with how he is treated and how he feels when he enters into his office for work on a daily basis. HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find humiliation the most intolerable. The first time when he is being insulted, he may not leave but a thought has been planted. The second time, the thought gets strengthened. On the third time, he starts looking seriously for some other job. When the employee cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression by slowing down, by doing only what they are told to do and nothing else.

- Another factor which might prompt an employee to leave the organization may be the inter-personal relationships. Much of this depends directly on the immediate manager to whom he reports. Different managers create problems for employees in different ways being too authoritative, too selfish, too critical, but they forget that employees are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes for too long, an employee will quit. Unfortunately, the CEO is busy travelling the world, signing new deals / contracts and developing a vision for the Company, has little idea of what may be going on at home.

- Dissatisfaction in the work environment is a common reason for employees leaving an organization. Often going above and beyond what the job demands is not acknowledged and meeting goals is not rewarded. Employees who perceive themselves as being treated unfairly will automatically try to look for other jobs.

Consider for a moment the cost of losing a talented employee who has been with you for sometime. There is the cost of finding a replacement, training the replacement, the cost of not having someone to do the job in the meantime, the loss of clients and contacts the person had, the loss of morale in co-workers, the loss of trade secrets, along with the loss of the company’s reputation. Every person who leaves an organization becomes its ambassador, for better or for worse. Keeping a good employee definitely is more cost effective and productive than recruiting new ones.

To prevent these frequent occurrences, the organization should understand the needs of the employees. The need of the employees has to be addressed immediately failing which the frustration, agony & dissatisfaction experienced by him percolates deep within himself which eventually lead to resentment, group formation, and work place politics.

Therefore, it is necessary to follow the Principle of Equity like work, like pay in a company’s pay structure and work allocation.

The above write up has been written by  Subramanian Iyer attached to Bombay Chamber of Commerce.  The writer can be reached at iyerpdkgnm@yahoo.com

Well, to be a good listener does not mean that you provide your shoulder for all to share, chatter, cry anytime without giving them attention. It means that you have to listen what other person is saying with full of your interest and undivided attention. Like if you are extremely busy in your work and someone comes to you to speak then either stop what you are doing and give them your full attention or ask them to come back later because you can’t be interrupted now.

To get promotion, increments and recognition at workplace, you need to project the right image of yours. The wise, mature, reliable, sophisticated, trustworthy, experienced, problem solver etc. Remember, a careless word or any vulnerable moment can spoil your hard work and image at work.

People who do not speak sense or relevant things or say too much, about themselves or others, can be seen as incompetent, unproductive and unworthy of professional development.

There are certain conversations/behaviours that do not belong to the workplace. They should be avoided at workplace. Some of them are listed below:

• Offensive jokes or comments
• Arrogance
• Loss of temper
• Swearing
• Gossiping
• Inappropriate conduct on social networking profile or blogs
• Revealing what you “really” think about colleague/boss

It is important to learn to speak occasionally rather blabbering. To get a reputation of being wise and mature you should watch your words carefully all the time. People will come to you for advice/guidance because they know you think about what you are going to say and don’t just chatter on. You will be trusted which is required for success. So think before you speak!

Now its your turn to share some more what-not-speak-in-office points.

Hope to get many more points.

Keep your feedback coming.

Threats are part of everyday work life.  They come to us every year, quarter or day in many forms.  They posses the potential to disturb our worklife, approach, perspective etc. They could be anything from the following list:

• pink slips                                                                          
• downsizing (or rightsizing in management terms!)
• take overs
• revengeful colleagues
• hotheaded bosses
• new technology
• new process at office
• your under performance and your colleague’s over performance could  also be threats since its time of appraisal!

We really have to be proactive, on our toes, positive, change master to take on threats. But we can’t do that all the time. Sometimes threats may overtake us and crush us. It happens to all of us.

However a threat is only a threat not reality. Once it becomes a reality we can deal with it. Till then it is only a threat. It can only frighten us but can’t do any harm. But making out which threat will become reality and which not is something related to skill, talent and experience. There are many threats and we can not react to all of them. Similarly there are fewer reality and we need to address them all.

Threat should be seen as an opportunity. Each threat that becomes reality is actually an opportunity to grow, change, adapt and make over your approach/style of work/management. Our positive attitude helps us in taking threat as challenge. And challenge is an advisable way to establish yourself that you are the best.
Its a fact that if we never get challenged we never will improve!

The other day my friend who is now a senior management in an IT company was sharing his experience. What happened was that he used to work on a java in an IT company. But somehow his project got scrapped and he was asked to move on to Mainframe. So he was left with only two options either quitting or learn this new technology. He accepted the challenge because the company was an established well to do company and his career graph would
have been good, if he worked there. So he took this as an opportunity to  learn a new technology, and not sulk at being removed from a particular project.

So if threats/situations let you down then don’t feel depressed. Instead just get back up and move upwards and onwards.

Looking forward to hear your stories as how you conquer different threats in your worklife.

Keep your feedback coming.