Conflict Resolution Does Not Mean Pepper Spray Your Coworker

When employees are crammed into an office or other work environment for 40 or more hours a week, conflict is bound to arise. However, it’s how you handle conflict that matters the most, and that especially includes not using pepper spray.

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) recently reported on a Pizza Hut supervisor who pepper sprayed a coworker after an argument over pepperoni placement. According to AJC, police were called to the Sandy Springs, Georgia, location and were informed that a female worker had been pepper sprayed.

Witnesses told police they overheard a supervisor arguing with a female coworker over where to place the pizza ingredients. The supervisor told the woman that she “needed to go home or get fired,” but the woman told him he wasn’t her manager. The supervisor then threatened the woman’s husband and brought up the death of the woman’s brother a few weeks prior. The general manager (GM) tried to intervene by sending the supervisor home; however, he returned shortly after and started provoking the woman again. In front of the GM and other employees, the supervisor unleashed a can of pepper spray at the woman, but it landed on her arm, missing her face.

The supervisor than wrote his address down on a piece of paper, slammed it onto the counter, and told the woman that if she wanted to fight, that’s where she could find him. As he was leaving, he also threw trays of pizza dough on the floor. The police tried to call the supervisor, who then told them, “Don’t call me again … because I’m not going to answer.” While the GM did try to intervene, it may have been too little, too late.

HR Daily Advisor offers these six steps to the conflict resolution process:

1. Clarify what the disagreement is. Clarifying involves getting to the heart of the conflict. The goal of this step is to get both sides to agree on what the disagreement is. During the process, obtain as much information as possible on each side’s point of view. Continue to ask questions until you are certain that all parties involved (you and those on either side of the conflict) understand the issue.
2. Establish a common goal for both parties. In this step of the process, both sides agree on the desired outcome of the conflict. To accomplish this, discuss what each party would like to see happen, and find a commonality in both sides as a starting point for a shared outcome. That commonality can be as simple as “both sides want to end the conflict.”
3. Discuss ways to meet the common goal. This involves listening, communicating, and brainstorming together. Continue with both sides working together to discuss ways that they can meet the goal they agreed on in step 2. Keep going until all the options are exhausted.
4. Determine the barriers to the common goal. In this step of the process, the two parties acknowledge what has brought them into the conflict and talk about what problems may prevent a resolution. Understanding the possible problems that may be encountered along the way lets you proactively find solutions and have plans in place to handle issues. Define what can and cannot be changed about the situation. For the items that cannot be changed, discuss ways of getting around those roadblocks.
5. Agree on the best way to resolve the conflict. Both parties must come to a conclusion on the best resolution. Start by identifying solutions that both sides can live with. Ask both sides, and see where there is common ground. Then start to discuss the responsibility each party has in maintaining the solution. It’s also important to use this opportunity to get to the root cause to ensure this conflict will not come up again.
6. Acknowledge the agreed-on solution, and determine the responsibilities each party has in the resolution. Both sides need to own their responsibility in the resolution of the conflict, and express aloud what they have agreed to.