Experiencing conflict at work? Are you having a difficult time working with a colleague? Are you having trouble communicating in your professional life? Are you feeling frustrated, vulnerable? Is a working relationship breaking down? Are you avoiding interacting with a colleague? Are you feeling uncomfortable to resolve an issue without support?
As terrible as these situations sound, if you answered yes, you are probably not alone. Sometimes intelligent, articulate, sensitive, and caring professionals find themselves in circumstances that are both surprising and desperate. They feel devastated when they are unable to find a way out of the difficulties.
The STA Mediation Service may be able to help.
The STA Mediation Service is a voluntary and confidential service provided to STA members to mediate challenges between colleagues and coworkers. If you would like, download a Mediation brochure for yourself or a colleague.
A new option that members may consider as an alternative or pre-cursor to the existing Peer Mediation Service is Conflict Coaching (virtual or face to face) opportunities to assist members who may be dealing with conflicts at work. Conflict Coaching as a personalized exploration of your conflict situation that does not require the other person knowing. For more information, please download a Conflict Coaching brochure.
Mediation is a carefully designed process that brings 2 people together in conversations, with 2 mediators present, to help them explore the conflict situation, develop shared understanding of the situation and move to resolution. The goal is to restore functional professional working relationships between parties.
This service is available to any Surrey Teachers’ Association member who needs to resolve a dispute with another staff member who is willing to participate in the mediation process. Our service is only for conflict with STA-STA or STA-CUPE members. The BCTF service includes administrators and parents.
The mediation team is a voluntary, diverse group of your colleagues trained in mediation skills and dispute resolution processes. Where a dispute involves STA and CUPE members a joint team will facilitate the mediation.
For more information about the service, please contact the Professional Support Services officer, Pauline Veto at services@surreyteachers.org or call the STA office at (604) 594-5353. If mediation is the appropriate service, the Professional Support Services Officer will further explain the process, and assist in coordinating mediators and dates.
All proceedings and information shared during the process are strictly confidential between the participants and the mediators. Any notes taken by the mediators during the discussions are shredded upon completion of the process. The mediators report only if there is full resolution, partial or no resolution. The participants are also expected to respect the confidentiality of the proceedings including the time leading up to the mediation, and reason for absence during mediation meetings.
Conversations with the Professional Support Services Officer leading up to the request for mediation and coordinating mediation are confidential. For the purposes of the individual interviews, the provisions of the Code of Ethics are set aside so that each person’s perspective can be clearly presented to the mediators. Names can be used during the confidential individual interviews.
The mandate can be found in the STA Policy and Procedures 2.E. Peer Mediation