Some of the administrative staff had not been seeing eye to eye for some time. The office was something of a no-go area for the drivers lest they be embroiled in another round of 'she-said-this-to-me' and the amount of time they had spent counselling the various parties was beginning to add up.
No one could even remember who, how or what had started this maelstrom of ill-will and different drivers had at various times done their best to pour oil on the troubled waters, but to no avail. Things had got so bad that people were now taking time off with stress - a sure sign that the downward spiral was in full flow.
Up until then Paul had not been too concerned with the situation as the work was, one way or another, being done. But as soon as it became clear to him that he was paying money for people to be away, he took notice. He acted swiftly.
First he arranged a meeting with all the affected administrative staff. There it became clear to him that the central issue was the relationship between one person in particular and the various others. Allegations and counter-allegations were flung about like confetti and he too found it hard to untangle the whole. He decided that simply to move the one person into a different office and let the rest get on with things seemed the most practical solution. The drivers were delighted and the workers who were to be left behind in the office were very happy with this plan. It would, they thought, solve everything as they all worked quite well together.
A couple of weeks passed where nothing happened and the staff were starting to become a bit restless, wondering if they had been forgotten. One of the drivers rang Paul to enquire what was happening.
"I'm arranging a mediation session," was the reply.
"What? Why? I thought we had a good plan that kept everyone happy?" queried the driver.
"I've drafted in an advice team from the Human Resources department and the Training section and they feel that some sessions of facilitated common ground finding would be useful."
"And how long is that going to take? The atmosphere in that office is awful. If you're not careful more will go on sick leave. None of them enjoys coming to work anymore."
"Well," replied Paul. "Obviously many of the mediation facilitation staff are away on their summer holiday right now but as soon as they're back..."
"Don't you understand the urgency here, Paul? Why change a perfectly good plan that could have been enacted straight away?" The driver thought awhile. "It wouldn't by any chance be a tactic to get people to resign? Only a couple of weeks ago you were telling us you needed to sack 107 staff..."
"We're not sacking anyone!" screamed Paul. " There will simply be some compulsory redundancies. Anyway, were going to try mediation and that's that."
"You do realise that you're taking a big responsibility in doing this. If it doesn't work it is highly likely that there will be a disruption in service."
"We are merely advising," retorted Paul. "We don't take responsibility for anything." And he stomped off.
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