Answer:
The conflict over work versus family demands intensifies when the person is serious about both work and family responsibilities.
Conflict arises because the person wants to work sufficient hours to succeed on the job yet still have enough time for personal life.
Given Heather's situation, the following could be done by her company to alleviate her stress:
• Give more advances on meetings scheduled after proper work hours.
• Allow her to teleconference for impromptu or weekend meetings, so that she may watch over her child.
• Be more organized so that they don't need to schedule so many last-minute daylong work sessions.
In terms of whether the company should consider Heather's dilemma their problem, the answer is: yes. Here are the reasons:
• Heather has a proven track record for being an excellent asset.
• Worker attitude and well-being reflects in better outcomes for the company.
• Stressed workers yield less quality work.
• By not caring, companies could lose valued employees to other companies who do care.
Answer:
There are situations of conflict in which one's criticizer may have valid negative criticism (such as a poor parallel parking job during a driver's license exam), and they choose to figuratively clobber the guilty party with knowledge of what was done wrong.
A simple technique has been developed to help in such situations-disarming the opposition. This is a method of conflict resolution in which you disarm the criticizer by agreeing with their criticism.
In the driver's license exam scenario, the potential driver could respond with something similar to: "Yes, my parallel parking job was not impressive. I realized that and did as you earlier advised and avoided parking in an effort to maintain safety and control of the vehicle.
I know my other skills were passing, so if you would be help me in correcting my shortcomings in parallel parking, I would be truly grateful."
Answer:
Coworkers naturally disagree about topics, issues, and ideas. Yet some people convert disagreement into an attack that puts down other people and damages their self-esteem. As a result, conflict surfaces.
When this aggressive and bullying behavior is coming from one's supervisor, it can become an even more stressful situation.
Here are some tips for dealing with a bullying boss:
• Become proactive and plan how to act in specific situations.
• Maintain professionalism and always take the high road.
• Display high self-esteem and a positive attitude.
• Protect personal information and do not provide fodder for the bully.
• Approach HR only when the situation seems unbearable and is compromising work productivity and civility.