By Guy Vicars -
The workplace is full of people from all walks of life. The people you work with aren’t necessarily the people you would chose to socialise with and there are times you are going to come across people who rub you the wrong way, including bosses, direct reports, teammates and clients.
An extra difficulty is that, as a lawyer, much of your work centres on two things which increase the opportunity for interpersonal difficulties:
• it often involves disputes
• the pressure of deadlines.
Together, these forces almost guarantee conflict. They certainly increase pressure and stress, which impacts collegial relationships.
People have a range of psychological methods for handling conflict, from being passive aggressive to outright aggression – including being derisive, demanding and hostile. How you respond will help determine the outcome of these difficult situations.
