The Slap
If you didn’t see it or haven’t read about it by now, at last month’s Oscar awards show, actor Will Smith went onto the stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock over a bad joke Rock made about Smith’s wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith. What a dramatic reaction to conflict!
Most of our readers know we’ve written two books about conflict—The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook and The Conflict Resolution Phrase Book. Non-fiction writers don’t have to make stuff up. There is plenty of real-life conflict and drama and ready-made villains to write about.
Individuals who engage in harassing behavior, for example, create mean-spirited conflict—conflict at work that quickly derails relationships and erodes trust and productivity. That was certainly on display at the 2022 Oscars.
What do you say to someone who is so rude and disrespectful? Sometimes the right words escape you, especially in a tense situation. But acting out and engaging in assault—that is clearly the wrong reaction.
In The Conflict Resolution Phrase Book, we took on the challenge of addressing conflict situations by providing prompts to help readers formulate their own thoughts so the words don’t come out wrong.
What can you say when a conflict situation gets toxic?
If you want to make jokes or criticize, please get your facts straight.
Statements like that just provoke bad feelings. They’re not respectful.
All of this name calling is not helping the work environment.
Please don’t be dismissive toward others in your comments.
This is a professional workplace. There’s no room in it for coarse language.
In the case of the Smith-Rock confrontation, Smith’s anger might have been better expressed by saying:
Jokes at other people’s expense are not funny.
I don’t appreciate you speaking about my wife like that.
April is Workplace Conflict Awareness Month, and we’re acknowledging it with a different approach this year by addressing an issue that just won’t go away—workplace harassment.
We are particularly honored that Elizabeth Owens Bille, Senior Vice President, Workplace Culture at Everfi, has agreed to share three blogs with us this April. Everfi is a leader in workplace culture and compliance training.
Elizabeth’s blogs discuss a three-step approach Toward Respectful Workplaces, and last week’s blog presented Step 1: Awareness. Step 2: Attitude will be the subject of next week’s blog, followed by Step 3: Action in two weeks. You will be able to find them all at https://www.bigbookofhr.com/blog
What I particularly like about Everfi’s approach to confronting harassment is that their training gives participants the tools to address workplace harassment in a positive way with the goal of having a positive outcome. We encourage you to learn more about them, click here.