Workplace Conflict is a Fact of Life

The film “The Others guys” delivers a brilliant demonstration on how to deal with a work battleground.

In the 2010 action comedy film “The Other Guys” (starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg) you get the perfect example of what happens when co workers don’t necessarily click.  The story revolves around two men, who are the opposite of a perfect match.  Ferrell plays a former “forensic accountant” wuss who drives a Toyota Prius, never leaves his desk, never fires his sidearm, and never enters the field.  Wahlberg plays his hot-headed partner, who has the chops and all the balls to be a big-time cop, but an embarrassing on-the-job accident has him stuck on the lowly detective depth chart.  As the movie goes on the two of them make sure to make of their workplace a battleground for each other. They yell, humiliate and make fun of each other and there’s coffee flying about (in the meantime “Welcome to the jungle” by Guns and Roses is playing in my head), until they eventually realize how the power of being in accord brings out the best of them.

The number 1 lesson to learn from this movie is that, even for those of us who hate drama and try to stay mellow, conflict is just a fact of life and sometimes you have to deal with it.

Here is a very interesting infographic by ACU on how to handle conflict at work.