Team Buidling and Collaboration, Part 1

As I think of the adjourning phase of groups, I think of leaving my last employer.  I have been apart of several groups that had an adjourning phase. The adjourning phase of each group provided closure and encouragement to move on.  I left my previous employer in August of 2015.  As with most jobs, I provided a 2 week notice because that's the norm with most employers. This employer was hard to leave because of the friendships I had developed  over 2 years.  I had also developed relationships with a lot of the customer's that I came in contact with. On my last day, I was given a going away party.  My co-workers all brought food and one of the ladies that loved to cook made a cake.  I really appreciated the going away party because they didn't have to do that.  This showed me that they really cared about me and they want to see me do well.

I feel like adjourning with colleagues in the masters program will be hard to do. I haven't met any of my classmates personally, but I feel like we have a bond just from the experiences we shared. We all share some common goals which makes us understand each other more.  I am looking forward to the adjourning phase because this means I will be one step closer to achieving my goals. Adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because it brings everyone together to reflect on the goal and vision. It's also an opportunity to provide encouragement and to reflect on failures and accomplishments.

Conflict Resolution

I haven't experienced any conflicts of disagreements at my current job.  I try really hard not to get into conflict situations or disagreements with other people especially in the workplace.  I have always been the person that tried hard to avoid conflict.  I normally try to make people happy or try to find the positive in a negative situation and focus on that.  However, I can think back to August of last year when I was having a number of issues with my schedule at an agency I used to work for.  My supervisor and district manager both seemed to want or need different things when it came to my availability.  I am was only a part time worker, and they wanted me to be flexible like the full time staff.  I had a meeting and expressed my concern to see if they could work out a modified schedule that would help with child care issues.  At the first meeting my supervisor was not receptive to changing my schedule.  She stated that my schedule has to be based on the needs of the business.  I understood her concern, but I told her she must have forgotten that she had young children once.   We continuously came to one wall after another each time she tried to make amendments to my schedule and find something that worked for everyone. I felt like she was trying not to work with my schedule because she knew I would resign.  Eventually we were able to find a workable solution that met everyone’s needs.  However it was only temporary, and she advised that it would last about 3 months. I ended up resigning at the end of the 3 months. I think we could have worked together to compromise and find a solution that would be beneficial for everyone.  It was important that we listened to and respected each other throughout this process or we would have never gotten to that point.

After this week’s resources I now see there were so many different ways I could have handled the situation from the beginning. The 3 R’s of communication would have helped me understand how to resolve the conflict of the conversation a little better. We both should have communicated with respect through out the conversation.  It's hard to respect someone when you feel like they don't have your best interest at heart.  As a supervisor, she should understand that you treat people like you want to be treated regardless of the situation.