Conflict resolution, AI skills, recording being laid off

Here are 5 things to know about work this week.

Hello, and welcome to WorkLife’s 5 things newsletter. In this weekly newsletter, we will spotlight five things to know about the latest issues affecting modern workplaces.?

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1. Do you know how to resolve a team conflict?

Personality clashes, disagreements, and other conflicts between staff are bound to happen in workplaces. But whose job is it to resolve them? More often than not, it’s falling on managers. Some 56% of managers said they are fully responsible for managing and resolving team conflicts – whether or not they feel prepared to do so, found a Gartner survey of over 3,000 managers from around the world.

Most managers aren’t properly trained in de-escalating and resolving conflicts on their teams. Those conflicts can range from political disagreements to poor communication among a team. Those in HR roles are typically more experienced to handle these conflicts, but bringing in HR often only escalates the situation, experts say.

“Conflict resolution … is not a natural talent, it’s like a muscle, you have to practice it,” said Emily Rose McRae , senior director analyst at Gartner.

Why resolving conflicts within teams is a new must-have skill for managers

2. Are phone calls dead?

When someone says “Let’s hop on a call,” what do you think of: video or phone?

Before the pandemic, the answer was obvious. That meant picking up your phone and having a voice conversation with someone. However, that has changed. For most people today, they infer that the person will send them a Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams invite for said call.

Workplace experts we spoke to say that there is a time and place for everything and it’s important to know when is the right time for phone versus video. One rule of thumb is to use video calls for bringing people you don’t know well closer together, while phone calls may be deemed fit for talking to people you already know well.

“If it’s a big team meeting that happens once a month and the whole point is to see everyone’s face and talk and connect, it’s important to say ‘hey, you’re expected to be on camera,’” said Luck Dookchitra , vp of people at people enablement platform Leapsome . “But for some of those other kinds of conversations or check-ins, you can quickly hop on even a Slack huddle without video.”

Is the death of the work phone call here?

3. Don’t tell your colleagues you hate your RTO mandate

Many employees still feel resentful over having to go back to in-person work, but new data suggests they should maybe just keep those thoughts to themselves — especially if they aren’t exceptionally good at their jobs. Some 56% of managers say it’s a “major red flag” when employees are enthusiastically against returning to in-person work, a survey of over 3,000 U.S.-based workers from employee background screening platform Checkr, Inc. found.?

And 38% of employees also think it’s a red flag when one of their coworkers is vehemently against working in the office, that survey found.?

Those against returning for any kind of reason are now doing a delicate dance: making issues clear and asking for accommodations without giving a negative perception of their performance and commitment to their roles. At the same time though, one’s track record and performance are closely linked to how others will react to their discontent.

Hate your RTO mandate? Best not to tell your manager — or coworkers

4. Figuring out how to skill up the right way in AI, is top of mind for many?

Never has the expression “tool up” been more pressing.

Much as there is a lot of interest in how much AI may lessen employee workloads, there is still latent anxiety when it comes to its application at work.

Here are the facts:?

• According to a report from accounting giant 安永 , over two-thirds (67%) of 1,000 desk-based or office workers in the U.S. said they’re concerned they will lose out on promotions if they don’t know how to use AI technology.
• The same report found that 66% said they’re worried about falling behind on work if they don’t use AI.?
• More than half of business leaders surveyed by YouGov on behalf of 微软 in the U.K. said that they’re concerned their workforce lacks the skills to make the most of the AI opportunity.
• Only 25% said they have plans in place to recruit the right talent to successfully implement the tech across their organizations, per the same research. And just 26% have completed training to improve their understanding of how to use AI in their jobs.?

How AI ‘skill leveling’ will arm workforces in this year’s ‘quest for productivity’

5. People are recording themselves being laid off – is it an HR issue?

Employees are taking to social media to share their experiences around being laid off. Last week former Cloudflare employee Brittany Pietsch took to TikTok to post a nearly 10-minute-long video of her being laid off. The video went viral on the app because of how she repeatedly asked the two execs who were informing her that she was being let go, to justify why she was part of the layoffs.?

She wasn't alone: Chloe Shih , a content creator for the social platform Discord , posted a video of her own layoff on Jan. 14., which also gained traction online.?

It’s hard to know for sure if we will see more employees follow suit and prop their phones up to record when they think they are about to be laid off, but either way, it’s something that experts say employers should understand is a possibility and to prepare as if that would be the case.

“How would I feel if I woke up tomorrow and this made the front page news?” That’s the question Melanie Naranjo , vp of people at compliance training company Ethena , says employers should ask themselves when deciding on how to communicate messaging to their employees. “If the answer is bad, then you need to go back and rethink it,” she said.

That’s why it’s best that whoever is conducting the termination should know all of the best practices, especially when it is such a difficult conversation to have and it requires a certain level of empathy and understanding.?

Should employers worry about being recorded during layoffs?

Elsewhere in Digiday Media

Check out some of Digiday Media’s other stories on the future of work over the past week:

• Privacy and AI policies to watch in 2024 (Digiday)
• Gen Z is missing from this year’s NRF agenda (Modern Retail)
• Fashion retail has become ground zero for testing technology innovation (Glossy)

• LISTEN: Season two of The Return, a podcast about Gen Z entering the workforce, is live with all eight episodes. Binge it wherever you get your podcasts.?

This is a weekly compilation of highlights from WorkLife’s daily newsletter. Sign up here to get WorkLife’s comprehensive work coverage in your inbox each morning.

This newsletter was curated by Cloey Callahan, senior reporter at WorkLife. Let us know what you think, or what you hope to see more of, by dropping us a note at [email protected].