W5 - Discussion 2
Jaspereric
week5_dis2Reply.docxYesterday29 Jul at 13:01
Hello,
Workplace Conflict – Work-life Conflict
An example of a work-life conflict for me is my never-ending workday. I have struggled with this for many years, but it is considerably worse now. According to Cahn & Abigail (2014), technology such as internet-connected phones typically carried by those in managerial positions has created an hour less workday and a sense of always being on call (Chapter 12.6, para. 4). I carry an i-phone for work and because I oversee safety, so I feel I must answer when someone calls. We developed an on-call system a couple of years ago, but people did not adapt to calling the on-call number and my co-workers were not very good at updating the on-call line so the on-call calls were always transferred to me anyway. Even when people try to call my peers they are not good at answering so I almost always take the call. Now with COVID-19 in the mix, I get a barrage of questions almost every day. While I actually do not mind at all, but it drives my husband crazy. Add in the fact that I am also trying to be a college student and, my office is officially located in my house now and he feels that he never gets my undivided attention. I am trying really hard to disconnect from work more, but my team is now officially down 3 people and the workload is over the top. I am grateful that my children are at least grown, and I am not also trying to raise children with all of this. More than anything I wish I could take a vacation.
Kristen
References
Cahn, D. D., & Abigail, R. A. (2014). Managing conflict through communication (5th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc. https://content.ashford.edu/
Yesterday29 Jul at 17:38
Workplace Conflict
For this discussion, I chose the work-life conflict. Work-life conflict in my own words is when your personal life is affecting your work life. An example is, the need to drop off your children at school every day is causing you to be late to work, and you do not have anyone else to take your children to school.
My husband was stationed in Fort Lewis, WA, and he used to be held for so long due to many infantry training. Sometimes they were one monthlong and other times 2-3 months. At the time, I was a student and worked at a daycare center on post. It was a lot for me to take on because I was parenting single-handedly, and aside from work, I was responsible for my child and my schoolwork. One of the times my husband was training, I came down with the stomach flu, and I felt horrible. I had to call out of work for three days and miss school. I could tell each day I called out my boss was getting more and more irritated, and I felt like they did not believe me. I was falling behind in every aspect but still trying hard to be a parent. I had to drag myself to the doctor to get excused from work, or else it would be marked as unexcused, but even though I was justified, I was stressing over everything I missed and how I let down my classroom of teachers by not being there for three days. I felt defeated and had to reach out to my friends around me. Thankfully they would take my daughter and watch her for me so I could recover and not risk infecting her.
I resolved this workplace conflict by talking about it to a good friend that was also my coworker. She had a military husband and could understand my husband’s crazy military lifestyle. I felt much better venting to her about my terrible situation. She heard me out and offered to take my daughter to daycare every morning and bring her home to me when she got off work. So, I could rest during the day since I had no one taking care of me. “Talking with coworkers about family and personal life has been shown to lead to greater work satisfaction and higher work functioning as well as higher satisfaction with family activities” (Cahn & Abigail, 2014).
Reference
Cahn, D. D., & Abigail, R. A. (2014). Managing conflict through communication (5th ed.) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/
