Part of the "What I Learned Reading EmployersWeb.com the Magazine" series: EmployersWeb.com's newest blogger, Barbara Poole of Poole Resources, has a new
article about her latest venture: Employaid University at Employaid.com. Employaid is designed to help resolve workplace issues amongst employees. She argues that people who spend as much time together, interacting like employees do develop a family dynamic. Sometimes family-like issues arise that need addressing. If they are not addressed, problems can develop in the workplace that can lead to a drop in productivity or even an "exodus of talent".
Barbara is on to something in my opinion. In my opinion, there is this expectation in the workplace that we are all professional adults and should either be able to deal with personal conflict with other employees, or at the very least be able to deal with them if they are not solved. This may have been true at one time, but in the modern society personal relationships play a big part of our daily lives and conflict with someone in the workplace over a personal issue can weigh heavily on someone. "You're adults, deal with it" is not a solutions. Sadly, the importance relationships play in the modern society comes with the caveat that many people let any problems in those relationships affect them in a deep way. No longer can we shrug off the fact that someone is hard to work with. A program that helps the HR community deal with the issues that occur amongst employees can be very valuable.