Interpersonal Conflict

I mentioned in my last post how I would love working in a box so that I do not have to deal with people. I accept the fact that conflict is a part and parcel of working life but I still find it hard to believe that a small workplace like a gift shop can turn into a war zone where only the dirtiest, not the fittest survive.

At the shop where I worked, there was this rule in which a sales assistant can only serve one customer at a time. Now, I had a colleague who was a real tyrant when it comes to fighting for customers. She would spend the first half of the month doing nothing. And when she realized that she was very far from hitting her personal target for that month’s commission, she would serve three customers at a time while the rest of us just stood at the counter doing nothing. And you wonder how a person splits herself to attend to three people at the same time. This lady taught me that you serve by giving the customer a basket when you see him holding our product(s). No communication with customers whatsoever.

I was not happy with what she did as I had worked hard for the entire month only to be outdone by this colleague who practically whizzed through with her three-customers-per time winning formula. Imagine how I felt when I found out that she stooped so low as to “steal” some of my customers by keying in very big purchases under her name as she was also one of the cashiers (only senior staff can be cashiers). I did not complain to the supervisor as I felt that it would only fall on deaf ears as the supervisor himself was on excellent terms with that particular colleague.

So, my dear readers, if you were in my shoes, what would you have done? If I were to run to the boss himself, I would probably come off worse.

The Importance of Effective Communication Skills to me

I was and still am a bad communicator. If I were to have it my way, I would live and work in a box. And I found myself in the school counsellor’s room one day, asking “Is there any job that does not require me to deal with people?” Her response was,” I am sure there is, but you probably will not have a successful career. Why else do you think a lot of emphasis is placed on EQ nowadays?”

Having had a few holiday jobs, I would say that a lot of my distress came not from the jobs themselves, but from the people I had to deal with. Take my first job, for example, where I worked as a clerk in a forwarding company. It was only my first day and I answered a call. I was supposed to transfer the call to the person-in-charge but she had just gone to the toilet. The man, having learnt that, introduced himself and launched into an endless speech of his purpose of calling, in the hope that I would convey the message to her when she returned. Too bad he was wrong. The whole time he was talking, I could only make out words like consignment and container as I was too busy looking around hopelessly for any helpful soul who would take over and attend to that man. I guess he sense the dead silence at my end for he asked “are you listening?” You can imagine the wrath I had to endure when I told him I had forgotten his name and company.

I guess what I should have done was to interrupt him politely when I missed out on some details and not to panic easily. And you would have thought I had learnt my lesson…apparently not after what happened on Friday. Thank God there was no yelling man this time :)