Dispute
In the workplace today in most companies, mediation is considered to help solve the problem to many conflicts that take place between employees. In the case between Bill and Sue, I feel that having me be a private mediator would be the best possible outcome as far solving the issue. A private mediator is a third party assistance in a dispute resolution. “In a third party assistance, three parties are involved in the process, the two disputing parties and a neutral third party. The disputing parties, and not the neutral third party, resolve the dispute”.(Frey, pg.5) It was a conflict brought about that Sue said a racist joke and Bill got offended, I could have been one of the co-workers who were also in the break room and happened to see exactly what happened. As the mediator, I would allow Sue to speak first because she was the one who said the comment and I would allow her to get her point across about the comment first. I feel that if I were to let Ben speak first he would be speaking out of anger and it would cause more confusion than what is already sparked up between the two. My job is to try and help resolve the issue as much as possible.
Because the dispute was concerning a racist joke, I would allow the maximum amount time possible to try and resolve the issue because I would not want both parties to walk away from the conflict and it gets worse or another incident occurs because all cards were not threw on the table. Racism is a very big issue, especially if it’s causing confusion between co-workers on a job. I would definitely take into consideration on why Ben got offended by the joke. Sue may have not meant it in any harm but in order to see why she would say anything racist knowing that she works with a variety of cultures among her. I would not let the two parties raise their voices at each other, I would try to keep the two calm, cool and collect. Yelling is not going to solve the conflict it is just going to get the two parties into a very heated argument especially Ben being that he got offended by the joke. In this particular situation, I feel that it would not be a good idea to give my opinion on the joke simply because I am an African-American and I would not want Ben to feel that I am on his side just because she made a racist joke and she probably meant nothing by it. Also, I would not want Sue to feel I was taking up for Ben or to feel as if she was right about making the joke to begin with. I would simply let the two negotiate the situation and come up with their own solution to the problem. I may give advice to both of them that they both are co-workers and they will be working together so it would be best to try and let it go. I may can resolve the conflict with a decision but I would rather not, the two of them would have to find a solution their selves. The situation involves forgiveness from one party and for the other to let it go and that’s something that only the two of them can agree on.