There is the old saying that you “should not take your work home with you” meaning that the stresses of the workplace should be left at work, and not taken home where it will potentially impact family and friends. But how many people can do this in reality? A stressful workday that has caused frustrations or difficulty will more often than not stay with a person, and be carried into their home life. But it gets worse as the opposite is also true, a stressful family life, caused by any one of a myriad of issues that life can bring, will also likely be brought back to the workplace the next day.

 

So we have a situation where life’s emotional roller coaster goes from work to home and home to work, and the end result is a work colleague who may carry frustrations, anger, fear, stress, burnout or physical illness into their job. When you add to this situation the fact that in the workplace relationships between people, and the ability for people to work together is essential and you can see that supporting staff to be emotionally, mentally and physically healthy is imperative for a business.

 

The purpose of mediation and consultation is to support employees, managers and leaders alike to have a healthy and productive self that can work in a way that is without perfection not impacted by life’s challenges.

 

Consultation supports the individual to observe themself and without a biased or critical eye bring clarity to burdens or difficulties. In the wisdom and insights offered during consultation a person has an opportunity to develop an inner ability to resolve and heal their own challenges in a way that supports them first and foremost as a person, and then from that wellness they naturally can be a productive and integrated work colleague. An added bonus of consultation is that the person develops an ongoing self-awareness and through the building of their own “self-awareness muscle” they are equipped to continually develop when life brings its next dip in the roller coaster.

 

Mediation works on the conflicts or difficulties that can happen between work colleagues. It is not a secret that conflicts between colleagues are a major issue for every business, so much so that most businesses will have HR policies and systems built specifically to handle this issue. When there are warring employees or managers it is debilitating and far-reaching within the organisation, affecting much more than only the two or handful of people directly involved. It can even flow on to customers and clients with the bitterness and resentment between team members obvious in their every interaction.

 

Mediation is about addressing the root cause of a conflict and empowering the individuals involved to without reservation address their part in the conflict. Although it may not look obvious at the beginning, everyone wants to resolve conflicts, they just don’t know how. Carrying a conflict becomes a great burden for most people, affecting many aspects of their life. People get stuck in who is right and who is wrong instead of seeing the bigger picture of the emotions at play. With the lens of understanding through mediation awareness is brought and the so called “enemy” can be seen through new eyes.

 

The goal of mediation is not a peaceful end to conflict, but rather a true understanding between people that supports them in building an ongoing working relationship that is respectful and supportive of the other as one team.