Over the last 7 weeks, you learned about both the theoretical side and the practical side of the conflict. You’ve seen yourself in a conflict situation, and you’ve seen

Scenario #1 Office Sharing

Maureen Smith and Elwood Dunmore both work for CSC, a defense contractor, who provides a variety of sophisticated computer support systems to the U.S. Navy. In the past year they hired a new President of Operations who is keen on team building strategies and creative ways for getting people to increase productivity. One of his pet projects is the Mixing Bowl, where every 6 months, people switch office mates. Offices are favored over cubicles and although they are not large, each one has a window and space for a desk, bookcase and file cabinet. The selection process is reportedly random with names pulled from a hat. Each staff person actually only ' moves' once a year as during one "mix up" a person moves to a new office, and in the next round, their office mate moves. Maureen Smith and Elwood Dunmore were selected to be office mates, with Elwood moving into the office Maureen already occupied. From the moment they started sharing the office space there were problems. Just passing by you can feel the tension in the air. Both have accused the other of purposely messing with the thermostat to make the space unbearably cold or hot. Light bulbs have been removed, computer messages deleted or supposedly never received, mail missing, and instead of fostering camaraderie and improved productivity, both spend the better portion of their day seemingly trying to find ways to make the other miserable or e-mailing their supervisor or HR back and forth with complaints. They share the same supervisor, Mr. Greene, who has tried to counsel them both but says he hasn't been able to get to the bottom of the issue. According to HR it would be hard to fire either of them, as their performance evaluations have been good. However, each has started to engage others in their little warfare and the whole situation has escalated to the point that morale in the department has been affected. The supervisor has been reluctant to move them although both have requested this because it is against the policy of the Mixing Bowl and frowned on by the President of Operations. Moving either Maureen or Elwood would involve disrupting other members of the team as well as the expense associated with the move. The supervisor has sent them to mediation hoping they will find a way to co-habitate for the rest of the six-month period without jeopardizing their jobs or team morale.

Maureen's Story: Maureen is a 52 year old woman who has risen through the company during her ten years o~ employment, from an entry level receptionist to Analyst II. She only has a high school dtplo~a bu_t has attended n_u'!1~~ous company sponsored training programs and is proud of her Job title and respons1b1httes. She was recently granted a security clearance which has allowed her to work on a new configuration identification project. She is a good work~r W:hose performance evaluations note her ability work to well under pressure and contnbut,ons to the overall project. She is often late coming to work but her supervisor, Mr. Harvey Greene, tolerates her lack of punctuality because she works late and comes in on the weekends. She is a very large, attractive woman who works hard and is well liked by the other members in the department. She is known as the queen of funny e-mail. Even though it is against company policy to send and receive e-mails unrelated to business, her violation of this policy has been overlooked because the jokes are enjoyed by so many people. Her office is also grand central – it is where others go to gossip, get comfort and any number of over-the-counter prescriptions if they are ill, food if they are hungry, and a spare dollar if they are short for lunch; she has played the role of department mother. She is the person who remembers others' birthdays, bakes the cake, buys the card for everyone to sign and arranges for monthly potlucks.

Maureen has told Mr. Greene numerous times that she likes the Mixing Bowl and looks forward to each six month period when she will get to share an office with someone new. She knew within one day that she and her new office mate, Mr. Dunmore would never hit it off. She feels like Mr. Dunmore invaded her space with a total disregard for her preferences. When she moved into the office she intentionally selected the desk away from the window and positioned her desk so that she can look out at the view. She gets hot easily and would prefer to have a view than have the afternoon sun hitting her on the back. She feels like she spends a significant part of her life at her job and wants her work area to be comfortable and reflective of her personality. She prefers natural light from the window and lighting from the two lamps she has on her desk and bookcase to the glare of the overhead fluorescent lighting. She usually has fresh flowers on her desk as well as a scented candle burning. She also likes to play soft music while she works and listens to either jazz or classical. On the first day of their sharing space together she went to the rest room and came back to find the blinds closed and the fluorescent overhead light on. When she asked him why he had turned it on he said he couldn't see his computer. She feels like she tried to explain the importance to her of lighting preferences and offered to buy him a lamp which he refused, saying he preferred the overhead light. Within a week he had complained to Mr. Greene that her candle made him sneeze and that he couldn' t concentrate with the music playing. She offered to play a different kind of music and he stated he preferred silence. He also told her that the jokes she passed on via company e-mail were against company policy and asked her to delete him from her forwarding list. She knows he complained to Mr. Greene about it bec~use she got a "Dear All" message from HR reminding everyone of the company poltcy on personal e­ mail. She feels like she has tried to befriend him but he has rebuffed her attempts at conversation. She baked him a cake when she found out it was his birthday and noticed he didn 't eat any of it. One day she had asked him to please turn the light off because it

was making her hot. He refused but the next day showed up with a space heater and stated he was 'cold natured'. The space heater turned the office into an oven. She feels like he did it intentionally to be ugly towards her. He has started telling fat jokes and leaving articles about weight loss on her desk. One Friday after he left for the day and she was working late, she climbed up on the chair and loosened the fluorescent light. When he came in on Monday he was furious and started yelling at her. A few days later she noticed that when she left her computer to go to lunch she came back and her e-mails had all been deleted. She can't prove that he deleted them but the IT guy said it was hard to believe only her e-mails were deleted without the system going down or anyone else having problems with e-mail. She retaliated by turning the thermostat down to 60 degrees before she left one night and the office was like a refrigerator the next morning. They don't speak to each other and she has told everyone in the office what a jerk she thinks he is. People don't come into her office anymore because the tension is so noticeable. She has complained to HR and tried to find ways to have him fired but instead they have asked her to go to mediation or threatened her with disciplinary action.

Elwood 's Story

Elwood is thirty-two and has only worked for CSC for two years. He has a masters degree in education from Old Dominion University and was a supply officer in the Navy. After getting out of the Navy he decided to go to work for a defense contractor rather than try and find a job teaching. He is quiet and reserved and was hired to do configuration management. He does not like some of the personnel practices at CSC and finds them contrived and juvenile. He does not feel like he comes to work to make friends or get to know others better, just to do his job and go home. A few months ago managment made everyone go on a ropes and initiatives course where they had to collectively climb a 12 foot wall. He would rather socialize and do things with his wife and small daughter or go fishing by himself. He has asked to be excused from these activities but is then made to feel like his performance is being negatively evaluated.

As soon has he heard that he was moving in with Maureen he knew he was going to be miserable. In his opinion she is a fat busy body who manipulates her way out of getting in trouble for being late all the time by baking cakes. When he saw the low lights in her office he was immediately irritated, wondering why she was trying to create ambiance in a work place. The sunlight from the window hit his computer screen and created an intolerable glare. He had to close the blinds in order to see his computer screen, but then realized he had no source of light. He didn't turn on the fluorescent on to annoy her but it annoys him that she made such a big deal about lighting, acting as if they were a married couple arguing over a decorating scheme. Her scented candles do make him sneeze, so does her heavy scented perfume, but he has kept his mouth shut about that. He is sure she bathes in cologne just to aggravate him since he has made it a point to say to her on several occasions how bad his allergies are to such things. She is always late and always on the phone. He knows more about her teenage daughter, her marriage, various recipes, friends who have cheating husbands and some distant relatives bout with lung cancer than he ever cares to know. He feels like he can' t concentrate or breathe in that office. Between the music, the talking and the interruptions from others coming in to chat, it is enough to make him scream. Oh, and she's always claiming she's hot. He wants to tell her, "look lady, try losing l00 lbs" and you will be amazed at how much cooler you' ll be". She is always turning the thermostat down and he turns it back up. How is anyone suppose to work in a frigid environment? And yes he did lose his cool when he came into work one Monday to find the overhead light didn' t work and when maintenance came to replace the bulb, found out that it had been unscrewed. He knew without a doubt she had done it intentionally.

He has been to Mr. Greene and HR constantly to report her lateness, her disruptions to his wo~k, her constant talking on the phone, long lunches, etc. to no avail. He has requested a different office mate several times only to be told this is company policy and he needs to make it work. After his last visit to HR where they hinted that he was the problem ("maybe you're just not a team player . .. . ") he decided to take matters into his own hands. He did bring_in a sp~ce heater and_tum it up on HIGH to make her literally sweat. He ~as taken to makmg fat Jokes and leavmg articles about weight loss on her desk, hopmg to get her to be the one to ask for a transfer. It also irritates him that she is the

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s:ne grade as he and she only has a high school diploma. He knows she has been with t e company for ten years, but still something isn ' t right about that situation. He should ~ake more. What is the point of education if you end up on the same level as someone hke her. It ' s hard to look at her now and see how she could have slept around to get this far but maybe ten years ago she was real good looking. She has accused him of deleting her e-mail but he knows she must have taken some really important papers that were on his desk and are now missing. All he knows is he is miserable and just wants to do his job and go home. He shows up at 7:30 and leaves right at 4:30 because he and his wife share a car and they have to pick up their daughter from day care. One of the reasons h~ has stayed with CSC is they pay well, the benefits are good and the work schedule fits hts life style. He works to have enough money to pay the bills and do things he likes to do. This is not a career or his life, just something he does so he can have a life after hours. HR sent him a letter telling him he would have to participate in mediation or face disciplinary action. He is not sure his job is worth the effort or aggravation.