Workplace conflicts

My only work experiences so far are from the jobs I had during high school and my DJ experiences. First, I worked at a law firm and did administrative work and after this I worked for several months in a restaurant to earn some extra money for my gap year. Furthermore, have I been DJ’ing at some events and in clubs. In all these cases I didn’t really experience a conflict in the workplace, but upon reading the prompt the movie Horrible Bosses does remind me of workplace conflicts. Horrible Bosses is about three workers who have conflicts with their bosses for different reasons.

Firstly, one of them, who is called Dale, faces problems with his female boss who sexual harasses him at the workplace. The female boss is trying to get him so far that he will cheat on his wife and goes with her otherwise she will tell his wife that they had sex while this is not true. She is not only blackmailing him, but also is she making sexual comments all the time. I believe this kind of conflict at the workplace isn’t that common, however sexual harassment is a hot topic at the moment. Currently there are a lot of stories about sexual harassment in Hollywood what dominates the news the last weeks.

Secondly, Nick has a boss who is a sadistic and he implies a promotion for Nick for months while at the end he reward himself with the promotion. I can imagine that this kind of conflict does happen often at the workplace. Implying that there is a chance of getting promotion does let employees work harder. In the movie, Nick’s boss knows that Nick will go far to get that promotion, thus he let Nick do the shitty work and even let him drink whiskey at 8am. From the boss his point of view, he has the power to imply that there is a promotion on the line while he knows there isn’t. It might be a good incentive for the employees, however as we see in this movie this kind of action doesn’t get much praise.

Finally, another friend of Dale and Nick is Kurt who works at a chemical company. He enjoys working until his boss dies because of a heart attack what results in a change of bosses. Kurt’s new boss is the cocaine addicted son of his previous boss and he is apathy and Kurt believes that he will ruin the future of the company. For example, his new boss wants to fire all the fat people because they are fat. I believe that this doesn’t happen much at the workplace, but I can imagine that you can have difference of opinion with your boss. Kurt tried to convince his boss to act differently, but his boss has the power and he said he would do whatever he wants.

All of them didn’t do much about their conflicts at the workplace because they didn’t have the power to do so. Furthermore, it is a comedy movie so it kind of showed the extremes of workplace conflicts. Besides, the solution to resolve the problem was the plan to kill all the bosses and make it look like it was an accident. This is not really a realistic option to resolve these kinds of situations. Ultimately they didn’t kill anyone because they failed or couldn’t do it.


I believe that all of the three examples are situations you could possible face during work. The big problem is the fact that your boss is acting improperly and it is hard to stand up against your boss. Furthermore, for the same reason it is hard to avoid this kind of conflicts. Of course the solution to kill you boss isn’t the good one and there are different ways to handle these kinds of situations. However, I believe that it is much harder to solve such conflicts with your direct boss compared with conflicts with other employees. I’m wondering how employees would need to act to these three situations, because I haven’t experienced anything like this but this might ever occur.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanNovember 12, 2017 at 11:19 AM

    If your employer has some pathological problem, then that will lead to conflict, no doubt, or to the person quitting, which might be realistic but wouldn't make for a good movie. As you said, sexual predation has been in the news a lot recently. I will say that when I was in the campus IT organization we did receive formal training about how to prevent sexual harassment, so the institution did something to reduce the possibility. Subsequently there has been a document produced about racial microaggressions, and what should be done to avoid those. Again, formal training was recommended.

    I have to say that the institution is not very good in delivering formal training that is effective. I believe I mentioned ethics training in class. What is delivered is on a par with the softball quiz I produced in Moodle - you go through the motions but you don't learn anything. It may be that effective training is possible but requires considerably more thought and sensitivity to deliver. It may also be that such training would be most effective on people early in their careers, when they are more flexible and open to changing their behavior. It is said that it is difficult to teach an old dog a new trick. Once those behaviors are entrenched, I'm afraid the only answer may be to sever that person from the organization.

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    1. John Hicks Econ 490 fall 2017November 14, 2017 at 9:25 PM

      It is good and logical that the University provides a sort of training how to prevent sexual harassment. I believe that FyCare is also a good thing at this University, but this is more focussed on sexual harassment concerning students under each other. Mostly does this occur at parties or in bars but they don't focus on the workplace. However, the FyCare workshop wasn't that 'special' and maybe not that effective, but still is it a good thing to provide to the students.

      I believe that a training or workshop is effective when there is repetition. The same is for the quizes and excels, by repeating the material you get a better understanding of it. Furthermore, delivering of the training is indeed also a important aspect in order to make a training effective. It might be true that someone later in the career is less open to new 'tricks', but still can we learn from each other.

      Delete
  2. Ben BernankeNovember 13, 2017 at 7:26 PM

    I enjoyed that your post was on horrible bosses since I have seen and love that movie. Sexual harassment is all over the news. I was quite disturbed to learn that people I had looked up to and admired were responsible for taking advantage of so many people. I think that the University does a good job of being proactive to try and curb sexual harassment. Of course, this University is quite large and the college culture is too prevalent with sexual harassment. I think that the University proactive stance against it is helping though. I also think more management could follow the example of the University and take more steps to ensure sexual harassment does not occur in the workplace.

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    1. John Hicks Econ 490 fall 2017November 14, 2017 at 4:16 PM

      Sexual harassment at the workplace was kind of a laugh in this movie, which was first in theaters in 2011. Nowadays sexual harassment is a big issue as we see in the news. I was also shocked how many people took such advantage of others. Back in Amsterdam, there is not something like FyCare on the University, I think this is more an American thing. I believe that it helps against sexual harassment on and around campus. Some people are just scared to stand up against their boss who sexual harass them or they are often ashamed. I hope that with everything in the news now, sexual harassment won't occur at the workplace anymore.

      Delete
  3. Glenn Hubbard Econ 490 fall 2017November 14, 2017 at 8:08 AM

    I think that the potential for conflict with a direct superior is one that would make a lot of people uneasy. There is often a fine line between wanting to earn the respect and trust of your boss, while also standing up for what you believe in. Personally, I haven't experienced this all that much yet, but I know that it will probably arise in the future. The way I plan to handle potential conflicts with my boss will to be communicate effectively my ideas while also listening intently to his or her side of things. I would also plan to accept the fact that my boss is to be respected and probably has greater knowledge than me.

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    Replies
    1. John Hicks Econ 490 fall 2017November 14, 2017 at 3:52 PM

      Most of the time the boss has indeed greater knowledge and especially more experiences. I can find myself too in your way to handle such conflicts with your direct superior. I believe that you always should do what you believe in, however sometimes you need to adopt other ideas. Communication is probably the best way to handle conflicts.

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