|
Are you on the receiving end of frosty silences at the water cooler, slammed office doors, or unreturned emails? Looks like you're in the doghouse at work. Although you may be able to tough out the silent treatment in your private life, when it comes to the workplace, the best approach is to get relations back to normal - and as quickly as possible.
Remember your colleagues are not in the same category as that chosen group of favourite people you call your friends. They may well communicate differently to you and your friends, and also take offence more easily. So
don't just assume that they'll "get over it" or "come around eventually". They may not, and the ongoing resentment and tension could translate directly into your precious credibility and professional reputation becoming permanently tarnished.
What can you do?
Unless you're an adrenalin-junkie, chances are you'll do anything to avoid an unpleasant confrontation. It's embarrassing and stressful to have to face upto the person you've been going out of your way to avoid. In this
situation, you essentially have two choices: take action immediately, or say nothing and pray for Friday afternoon to come around so that you can escape the whole office environment.
If you take the latter option, you're playing into your new enemy's hands. If the person you've offended is vindictive, she will automatically and immediately start bad-mouthing you on the office grapevine. She may even be in a meeting right now with your boss, lodging a formal complaint about
your behaviour. This won't do wonders for your career advancement, and will involve you having to waste endless time and energy defending your-self to both your boss and your colleagues.
It's a far stronger strategy, then, to nip this situation in the bud before it gets way out of hand. It's worth putting your distaste for confrontations firmly to the back of your mind, and knock firmly on the closed office door of the injured party. Once inside the office of doom, you may find a similar look of dread on the chief torturer's face too. Right; you've made it inside - where to from here?
Keep it professional
Shut the door behind you, to discourage the gossips who will see the coming exchange as the Office Event of the Week. Put on your best professional manner, try to work up a smile, and bring the issue out into the open.
Good opening lines for this discussion include:
"It seems there's been a bit of a mix-up..."
"I think you may have misinterpreted what I said earlier..."
"Look, let's try and work this problem out and get it behind us..."
If you used to be on friendly terms with this person, you can make the atsmosphere more friendly by bringing two cups of coffee into the office with you. Or confide conspiratorially that you managed to snaffle the last
two donuts or biscuits from the staff room. Establish some rapport, make a connection - the object here is to melt the chill in the air, and to resolve the problem before the consequences for your career have a chance to set in.
Make it clear though, that even though you're being nice about it, you mean business - the troublesome issue has to be resolved and preferably right away. Do everything in your power to sort the problem out then and there. If you let it go on and on, over several meetings and discussions, before you know it, you've become part of the office folklore, and your tiff is just another feature in the culture of your workplace as permanent (and just as uncomfortable) as those hard metal chairs.
Think of clearing the air at work as a career move if your strategy goes to plan, you'll have the chance to return people's focus to the quality of your work, not your role in the ongoing drama of workplace tension.
| 
