The Office: PDAs, paperclips, and conflict

With the economy in a place where most don't want it to be, jobs are scarce and some employees may feel that they have to put up with more a the workplace than in the halcyon days of old.

Not so, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The article quotes an EEOC mediator as "people who bring up issues may actually be more protected during layoffs."  I suppose the thinking goes that if you, as an employee, have lodged a complaint about something in your workplace, than when it comes time for the RIF, you might not be on the short list because of the possibility that your complaint was protected under law.

Of course, a great way of handling these types of disputes is through workplace mediation programs.  I've posted about the efficiencies of these programs before.

Workplace mediation is great because it improves the lines of communications, cuts down costs, and frees up resources.  Even if the mediation is post-termination (I handled one of those last month as a mediator), I found that the lines of communication were opened, information was shared, and what could have been a costly dispute (money and resources for the company, emotionally for the employee) was resolved in about 12 hours.