By Jennifer Jabaley, OD
August 12, 2015
Of all the practice management decisions optometrists make, none is as crucial as the supervision and handling of the staff. Occasionally, workplace disputes can occur, and it is up to the staff leader to decide how to respond to a conflict situation.
Consciously decide on a time and place to discuss the situation
Often, when an office conflict arises, emotions can run high and fuel a negative atmosphere. Timely response is crucial to reduce an expanding stressful situation. Request a “time out” where staff members halt discussion of the problem until you can all convene at a designated discussion meeting.
Once together in a quiet, un-rushed atmosphere, frame the discussion appropriately so that only the current issue is brought into the conversation. Clearly define that it is not an appropriate time to bring up transgressions of the past.
Understand the true nature of the problem
Frame the conversation so that each staff member has an opportunity to address their personal needs, desires, concerns or fears. Ask open-ended questions that encourage each person to speak in their own words. Some examples of open-ended questions:
What’s your main concern about…?
Could you help me understand…?
What do you think about…?
Choose a collaborative conflict-handling style to seek a resolution
There are several ways a staff doctor or office manager can respond to conflict within the office. Some use an authoritative style where the person in charge makes the decision without discussion. This can be appropriate at times, particularly if a decision is vital or unpopular, however this style of leadership can often leave the staff feeling unheard and frustrated.
Many times it seems much easier to avoid conflict with the hopes it will eventually resolve on its own. There are times when avoidance is appropriate, but careful evaluation is needed so that simply ignoring the issue doesn’t let a problem simmer or leave the staff feeling discounted and resentful.
A collaborative style of conflict resolution often finds creative solutions to satisfy each individual’s concerns. The key to an effective collaboration is to identify the true need, rather than want of each individual. Understanding people’s needs can be a difficult task since most of the time people tend to communicate their wants.
For example: “I want to leave early on Friday” gives much less information than “I need to leave early on Friday because my babysitter is unavailable to pick up my child.”
Understanding a person’s needs explains the motivation behind the want. This often will aid in compassion and foster a collaborative model which aims to meets everyone’s needs.
A true life example of team collaboration
Vacation scheduling is one of the most common issues for a small-to-midsize optometry practice. Finding an optimal staff size to allow generous pay, but fill all the needs to keep the office running smoothly and prosperously, can be a challenge. Being overstaffed eats into a high net, but being understaffed can lead to poor customer service. It can be tough to find the sweet spot.
For our office, we currently have the perfect staff to handle a typical busy day. However, when an employee is out, we are slightly short-staffed. When two are absent, the office staff is stretched too thin. With several of our employees with school-aged children, we noticed a trend that around school holidays or school events, our staff was frantically racing to all request time off on the same days. Everyone wanted Black Friday off. Everyone wanted the days around Spring Break. The staff was becoming resentful if they didn’t get the days off they wanted, and we were finding ourselves short-staffed too often.
Sitting down in a collaborative team meeting, we debated ways to address this problem. We discussed hiring a new employee, noting that adding an additional salary might dip into the generous bonuses we give. We discussed the needs of each staff member, addressing childcare concerns when school vacation days occur. In the end, we came up with a fairly radical solution.
We decided that as an office we would actually align our vacation closely to the school calendar. We concluded that if the whole staff, doctors included, took their vacations at the same time – actually closing the office for a few days around the holidays, a few days over spring break, a few days in the summer – that the expense of closing the office would essentially be less than, or equal to, hiring a new staff member, but the morale of the staff would skyrocket. No longer would they be competing for the valuable vacation days. There would be no resentment because everyone’s needs were being considered. We no longer worry about walking into a skeleton crew because now, aside from sick days or emergencies, we are all scheduled off for the same times.
Clearly this model might not work for everyone, particularly larger offices and multi-doctor practices. But for our small-town family practice, this collaborative, creative solution fixed a scheduling problem and increased office morale.
Eventually, conflict arises in all workplaces. Rather than letting problems fester or erupt, engaging the staff in collaborative, creative thinking can elicit unique strategies to solve problems. When each person’s needs are considered, staff loyalty and satisfaction can flourish.
How do you approach workplace conflict? How do you resolve tension areas with staff before problems or hostility erupts?
Jennifer Jabaley, OD, is a partner with Jabaley Eye Care in Blue Ridge, Ga. To contact her: jabaleyjennifer@yahoo.com
