Recall
The conflict I recently experienced occurred at Yumz, where I currently work. As a fast customer service worker, it is unavoidable to have disputes with customers. On that fateful day, I was busy attending to customer orders for the Drive-thru location. As one of the customers approached the entrance, he became upset due to the long queues of customer service. The long wait for pre-ordered services made the customer start swearing and shouting at me. Since I had already grown tired due to having a busy long working day, I became impatient and did not show any interest in resolving his complaint.
Reflect
Thoughts
I thought that the customer could have used an appropriate approach to express his complaints and understand the circumstance everyone was experiencing. I would have attentively listened to him and compensated by adding him a promotion coupon. However, he aggressively addressed me, knowing that the long queue at the Drive-thru could not allow quick services as he expected. I had self-thoughts that made me compare myself with other workers of similar occupational settings in different companies. Even though various customer service provider workers from different companies undergo numerous intentional and unintentional disagreements with customers, it barely meant that I was to tolerate customers’ aggressiveness. Also, being kind to others cost nothing in service provision.
Feelings
I felt like the customer had disrespected me since he began to address me with hurting words that pissed me off. He said that I was the worst and stupid for delayed attendance to his order. I felt the only person responsible for the customer’s inconvenience because I was the only service provider who attended to this order. However, other factors that contributed to lateness comprised the effectiveness of other workers in different sections in preparing orders. The experience also made me upset with my colleague workers. For instance, I was resentful toward the manager for assigning me to a customer order processing position.
Actions
As we had busy schedules and a constant increase in customers, I declined to be attentive to him, and I refused to address his complaint with a possible solution. In return, I sarcastically said sorry and looked at him with a rude facial expression. Shortly later, I closed my record books and accounting tabs and ignored to drive and leave my working office sections. Irritations I experienced from the incident made me complain to my manager to reshuffle me with anyone else in my position.
Relate
Concept 1: Non-Verbal Communication
Non-verbal communication accounts for the most significant part of the communicated message: eye contact, facial expression, posture, and gesture. The moment that verbal and non-verbal communication becomes incongruent, non-verbal communication is usually getting more perception. I demonstrated non-verbal communication during the conflict to illustrate my feelings. I rolled my eyes at him, closed my counter operating windows and electronic tabs, and ignored him when I felt angry. These signs of non-verbal communication were meant to show him my disapproval arising from his attitude to me. I felt like shouting back at him, but I controlled myself from revenging myself. I said sorry to him for once after disagreeing, though my apologies were not sincere since I was sarcastic. Also, my actions expressively spoke louder than words. Thus, my efforts toward the customer have a close correlation with the incongruent verbal and non-verbal message.
Concept 2: Passive-Aggressive Communication Style
Passive-aggressive communication is characterized by individuals who take other people’s needs before their own. This type of communication perfectly suits the conflict I experienced with the customer. I showcased passive-aggressive communication to the customer by refusing to attend to his complaint and escaping his needs. I wanted to reach out to him, but the feeling of being disrespected blocked me from actively listening to him and solving the conflict. I prioritized my needs first while knowing that he had needs that I was also supposed to attend to and serve him.
Concept 3: Physical Communication Risk Factors
Physical communication risk factors inevitably alter clear communication. According to Schuster and Nykolyn (2010), communication risk factors can distort clear communication through inference with the precision of the intended message. As a result, misinterpretation arises that leads to negative feelings and frustrations (Schuster & Nykolyn, 2010). A vivid example of this concept is the conflicting environment that is my place of work. As a service and manufacturing company, there are a lot of noises from machines and customers that buy our goods and services. I suggest that this risk factor has elevated customer conflict since customer numbers are constantly increasing, and the place will suddenly become too noisy everywhere. Therefore, I could not communicate with the customer due to the pressure of attending to different orders of urgency.
Respond
How does reflecting on this event influence your future reactions to conflict in a similar or different situation?
Reflection on this incident has helped me realize certain communication areas that I need to work on, rectify, and perfect. Once I perfect my weak spots, I will improve on effective communication with people and during moments of disagreements and conflicts. For instance, I have realized that I need to concentrate on improving my skills in active listening. My rapid temperamental attitude blocked me from listening to the opposition’s perspective, which made me evade the situation. For this reason, I am obligated to control my anger and train myself to give appropriate responses to each other’s needs. It will help me to practice my active listening conceptual skills during conflicting times.
What are the potential consequences to your relationships, education, and future professional practice if you do not change your behavior?
Failure to change my behavior might lead to unhealthy relationships and unresolved conflicts with colleagues, friends, and family. Implementing my identified behavioral attitude in my future profession in nursing practice may birth undesirable dilemmas such as misunderstandings in my workplace. Thus, it can become a drawback to expressing professionalism while collaborating among teams to achieve goals and objective expectations.
What are the potential benefits to your relationships, education, and future professional practice if you change your behavior?
Changing my behavior will potentially benefit my future ability to develop effective communication with people, clients, and colleagues at the workplace. Nursing practice and profession require effective communication. For this reason, the development of effective communication will help to resolve conflicts that might arise in the future. It will also help to identify appropriate care that is required to access clients in the future. Further, effective communication is also essential in promoting harmonious relationships and healthy interactions with coworkers and clients in health care settings.
Identify two strategies you will use to change your communication in the future and how you plan to implement each strategy.
The two strategies I will employ to perfect my future communication shall be the development of assertiveness and training to become an active listener. I shall actualize assertiveness by realizing that my needs are prioritized similarly to other people’s needs (Potter et al., 2018). The second strategy I will need to change is to become an active listener to understand messages being discussed and relayed. I shall implement this strategy by focusing on the speaker and creating time for clarification of their points. By becoming an active listener, I will resolve conflicts since ineffective listening creates misunderstandings between conflicting parties. Developing assertiveness and becoming active listener strategies are vital in managing conflicts and suit teamwork and collaboration in my future workplace. I will implement these strategies to enhance sound quality care and patient safety in the future.
References
Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Stockert, P. A., Hall, A., Astle, B. J., & Duggleby, W. (2018). Canadian fundamentals of nursing-e-book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Schuster, P. M. (2010). Communication for nurses: How to prevent harmful events and promote patient safety. FA Davis.