Quantifying the Cost of Conflict
The annual tab for violence, as well as stress-inducing hostility in the workplace, comes to about $13.5billion in medical costs, and 500,000 workers missing 1.75 million days of work.- National Center for Health Statistics, 2002.
84% of people believe that efforts to improve workplace civility would increase their personal productivity. - 2003 Baltimore Workplace Civility Study.
- The typical manager spends 25-40% of his or her time dealing with workplace conflicts. That’s one or two days every work week. — Washington Business Journal, May 2005
- More than 50% of employers report having been sued by an employee. — SHRM survey cited in USA Today, 2001
- The national average compensatory award in employment practice liability cases rose from $134K in ‘97 to $250K in ‘03. –JuryVerdictResearch.com, 2004
- Ernst & Young estimates the cost of replacing an employee as high as 150% of the departing employee’s annual salary. –Workforce.com
- Organizations adopting conflict resolution processes, like mediation and arbitration, report 50-80% reductions in litigation costs. — Thomas Stipanovvich, ADR and the “Vanishing Trial”: The Growth and Impact of Alternative Dispute Resolution, 2004
Our Favorite 15 Workplace Quotes
- If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. — Bishop Desmond Tutu
- He who controls others is powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still. — Lao Tzu
- You don’t have to manage people, you have to manage things. You lead people. — Iika Chase
- Listening is different from agreeing.–Barry & Emily J McCarthy, Getting It Right the First Time
- What you do speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we are judged by only one thing - the result. — Vincent Lombardi
- An authentic villain … One rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary bad hat is always in part a decent fellow. –Colette
- A knowledge of communication patterns is ineffectual when it is not accompanied by respect. — Barbara Madonick, I Hear What You Say But What Are You Trying to Tell Me
- Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. — Madame Curie
- Everything that irritates us can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. — Carl Jung
- Conflict emerges when people have difficulties in dealing with differences… –Michelle LeBarron,Bridging Cultural Conflicts: A New Approach for Changing the World
- The highest reward for our toil is not what we get, but what we become by it. — John Ruskin
- I just realized that there’s going to be a lot of painful times in life, so I better learn to deal with it the right way. –Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park
- Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. — Martin Luther King Jr.
- No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. — Aesop
