WorkLifeBridge

The latest edition of Complete Lawyer, an online publication on professional development, quality of life, and career issues that impact lawyers, covers an issue that any workplace — legal or otherwise — needs to pay attention to:  workplace bullying.

Why?  Because of the consequences it holds for workforce retention, productivity, company reputation, and employer liability.

“No Jerks Allowed!” features articles from workplace experts, including:

• “Yes, There Are Ways To Reform Workplace Jerks” by Allison West
• “Create A Blueprint For A ‘Bullying-Free’ Workplace” by Gary Namie
• “How To Spot And Deal With Jerks” by Julie Fleming-Brown
• “Power Breeds Nastiness” by Robert Sutton

What is your workplace doing to address workplace bullying?

Building on more than 75 combined years of experience in the field, five dispute resolution professionals - Moshe Cohen, Melinda Gehris, Ericka Gray, Bill Logue, and Diane Levin - have formally joined forces as OptionBridge LLC.

OptionBridge is a one-stop, full-service conflict management firm helping companies, organizations, and individuals prevent, manage, and recover from conflict. The conflict management experts at OptionBridge provide a broad range of services, including conflict audit and assessment, neutral investigation, dispute resolution system design, mediation, arbitration, training, consulting, coaching and more, in order to minimize the likelihood of destructive conflict, intervene swiftly and effectively when it does occur, and help restore relationships and build healthier organizations in its aftermath. OptionBridge also provides training, coaching, and consulting services to ADR professionals to help them build their businesses and take their skills to the next level.

From its headquarters in Concord, Hew Hampshire, and satellite offices in Connecticut and Massachusetts OptionBridge delivers services throughout the region, as well as nationally, internationally, and on the web. In addition to working together, the members of OptionBridge continue to maintain their own independent practices.

Please visit OptionBridge on the web at www.optionbridge.com or call us at 800-987-9078.

Given how much time we spend at work, shouldn’t our life at work be rewarding?

For many working people, the reality is otherwise:

A recent study conducted by the International Labour Organization has found that while American workers lead the world in productivity, that productivity comes at a cost: workers in the U.S. are logging in more hours than their counterparts in the developed world.

Yet despite all that hard work, another study indicates that job dissatisfaction has never been higher among American workers.

That should be a concern for anyone who cares about keeping employees motivated.

Our goal — to help all of us who spend so much time at our jobs make our workplaces better places to be.

We’ll be blogging about ideas and tools with real-world applications in today’s workplace. Our inspiration will come from our own experience in the fields of conflict resolution and negotiation as we explore ways to encourage people to talk to each other, to hear each other out, and find new meaning in their work.