A new report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has thrown more light on the dubious state of workplace relations in the UK.
The CIPD surveyed more than 2,000 staff about conflict at work and discovered that 20 percent of people saw their boss as a primary source of friction, while a whopping 32 percent considered that line managers made conflict situations even worse.
The General Secretary of The Workers Union, Colin Mahoney, said: “This report highlights the desperate need to invest in new training and development for line managers. Working people go all out to put in a good day’s shift and take pride in their jobs. They don’t go to experience friction, arguments or harassment. It’s a short step from there to a full-blown case of bullying and all the personal angst and reputational damage it entails.
We’ve been looking into this issue for a number of years, and it’s quite clear that this is not about automatically distrusting people in a supervisory role. Staff want to have constructive relationships with their managers, but what emerges is a sense that management are promoted on the basis that they are competent at their jobs, which doesn’t necessarily equate to being good with people. We’re saying that to get the best from everyone in the team, we need to see a change of emphasis that promotes emotional intelligence and dispute resolution as being as important as the ability to do the day job. Managers must understand how to create an atmosphere of trust where creative disagreements can be used to drive change. The resulting improvements to wellbeing can only have significant effects on productivity and the working environment.”
If you’ve been a victim of bullying and harassment at work, get in touch with The Workers Union today. Our experts are on hand to help you, wherever you work and whatever you do.
For more information on the benefits of joining, visit our why join page.
Colin Mahoney
General Secretary
The Workers Union
Union House
111 Union Street
Coventry CV1 2NT
The Workers Union – Britain’s hardest working union
