While working as the head of the design department of a trading firm, my team has gone through various workplace conflicts. One of which was with the company’s merchandising department. Our team has sufficient staff to work on the necessary concepts, designs and graphic artwork; performing these work duties require considerable time for brainstorming and preparation. The merchandising department however, appears to be inconsiderate of these work requirements. Thus, during peak times, the merchandising would frequently badger our department with phone complaints or follow-ups. Every time this happens, I calmly explained to the merchandising team that “the designs take time to make” and “rushing them, would only lead to trouble in the end”. Despite my attempts, I would often just receive angry retorts like “You should be stricter with your staff!” or “This work order had been placed weeks ago!”. I have tried several times to explain how our department works and yet it doesn’t seem to reach the other party.
At times, I wish I could answer back and tell them to place work orders appropriately so we could finish before the deadline. It just seems unfair that the merchandising department is putting our team into so much pressure when this could have been avoided if they had placed the work orders in advance. When this conflict occurs, I was left with no choice but to pressure my staff. One of the team members cannot take the stress any longer that he confronted me. “Honestly, it is more difficult for me to work well and produce the expected designs when I am being rushed”, he said. From this, I realized that the conflict between the two teams is placing more of the burden to the staff, preventing them to work at their best. If this will just be disregarded, the same conflict will happen every time.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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