TomLaForce.com

Whenever I am in a workplace and front-line employees make a reference to “Management,” I think to myself “Oh oh.” The same thing happens when a supervisor calls to discuss team building issues and sums up the conversation with, “So do you think you can fix THEM?”

Over the years I’ve had some bad bosses and plenty of good ones, but have never once thought of management as some sort of unified force of evil. And as a supervisor, I’ve dealt with cranky, under-performing employees, but never clumped them all together.

For me a workplace is made up of people, all individuals who just happen to play different roles. While these roles have different levels of authority associated with them and people aren’t all paid the same, everyone in the organization has value.

This is why it is frustrating to watch the dispute between Twin Cities’ hospitals and the Minnesota Nurses Association. It has become such an “Us vs. Them” battle. Whether I’m listening to the spokesperson for the hospitals or reading the posts and comments on MNA’s Facebook page, it is clear that the parties do not see themselves as being on the same side.

A hospital is a complicated system of processes and roles. Teamwork is essential for it to work. At the core of every successful team are the elements of trust and mutual respect. Based on the public war that these two groups are engaged in, those elements aren’t present. The question is whether or not it can be restored once an agreement is reached. For the sake of patients and everyone who earns a living working in a hospital, I certainly hope so.