The Warring Co-workers Mediation Opening Statement

Good day Ari and Frankie. I am Elena. Robert and I are here to be your mediators, and we want to thank you for allowing us to be a part of this and by agreeing to participate voluntarily in today's meeting. I am hoping that you will feel comfortable here.

We want you to know that we will be a neutral third-party participant. We would like to understand your concerns and I am confident that I will be able to provide you with some guidance to find a solution that will benefit everyone here. As we are all employed by WCI Corporation it is our goal to meet the organization's standards and expectations. As well as creating a procedure that we can follow without constraints.

We can take notes if necessary, but we'll destroy these notes at the end of our meeting.

Please be informed that this meeting will be confidential and will not be shared with others. we can communicate openly in the discussion. We encourage to let everyone to finish their statements, without any interruption. Everyone will be given the opportunity to speak and explain. We expect that everyone will listen respectfully.

Can we all agree to participate in this discussion in a manner that is respectful?

The goal of our meeting is to clear any misunderstandings and settle any issues you both have. If necessary, we can create a written agreement which will be signed and become binding.

In case, anyone gets uncomfortable, please let us know and we can speak with you privately.

If our meeting is interrupted, you can decide whether to continue or re-schedule.

We will start by letting you state your sides one at a time.

Please let us know if there is anything else that we must add. If there's none then we can proceed.

Script for meeting

co-mediator(Elena): Good morning everyone. I hope you are having a great morning. We have good weather today.Sunny outside but windy as well. Ok, so we are here today to work on something important which is to settle the issue between Ari and Frankie. The department has noticed your working relationship is not as good as before because you seem to always argue in most of our meetings. So, we are here today to attempt to make things better in our office, especially for both of you and not to escalate the problem any further but to put an end to it. So, I really want to thank Ari and Frankie for attending the meeting. Before we proceed, let us start with a short introduction of ourselves. I shall start, I am Elena and I am working as an assistant manager in the Regulatory Department of WCI. I will be one of the mediators in today's meeting. I invited a colleague from another department and I am not sure if you have already met him also. Robert.

co-mediator(Robert): Hi and good morning everyone. My name is Robert. I will be Elena's co-mediator. I am working as an Assistant Manager in the Public Affairs Department. I would like to thank your department for making me a part of this and I am eager to contribute to achieving the goal of today's meeting. I am employed in the company for just about 2 years so not so old in the company. Also, I don't think I have met Ari and Frankie before.

Ari:Hi and Good morning. Nice to meet you Robert. I am Ari and I am working in the regulatory department as well as an assistant manager in the licensing team.

Franki: Good morning all, I am Frankie, working as an assistant manager too in the licensing group. I have been working here for more than 10 years already. A pleasure to meet you too Robert.

Co-mediator(Elena): Thank you, everyone. That's a good start. Let us proceed, first, by laying down our rules to ensure that we are going to have a smooth flow of communication and be able to end this meeting successfully.

Co-Mediator(Robert): Yes, I agree, it is important that we give one another the chance to speak and finish without any interruption. I hope that we will do our best to be calm for the duration of the meeting and be able to finish successfully. Can we all agree on this, please?

Everyone: sure.

Co-mediator(Elena): Please be informed as well that our discussion here must remain confidential. We have a pen and paper available just in case we need to write down information. But I suggest we all destroy the paper once the meeting has ended. Also, we are here not as a judge but as neutral parties.

Co-mediator(Robert): Let us start with hearing how the dispute started. Can we start with the lady first?

Ari:ok so,sothis started 6 years ago, Frankie played a practical joke on me by sending a Valentine's Day card as if he is a secret admirer. It was sent to the office which included a card with a seductive message written on the card. I thought it was real and so I was very eager to meet the admirer. Like everyone saw my reaction when I received the flowers and the card. I really thought it was real. I just got divorced when this happened. I found out that it was sent by Frankie and it was a prank. It was his idea to prank me. I felt so humiliated in front of everyone else in the department because it felt like he made me look like a fool. I just can't forget about how humiliated I was and so I hate him like I can't stand to be in the same room with him.

Co-mediator(Elena): Ok. Thank you for sharing, Ari. Let us now hear from Frankie.

Frankie:We've known each other for a long time already and I considered Ari a friend already too. So, as a friend, I thought I could send her flowers including a card to prank her. I never knew that she would really react negatively in case she realized its not real. For me, it was kind of like just annoying a friend and it would be like nothing.

Co-mediator(Robert): ok thank you, Frankie, for letting us know your side. Is there anything you would like to say Ari?

Ari: well, yes, I considered him a friend too before the pranking happened. I just can't forget how everyone laughed at me that day because they saw how excited I was about the secret admirer. Now I understand why he did not say anything to me after the prank. He has no regard for my feeling and how I felt bad about it.

Co-mediator(Elena): Frankie, Is there anything you would like to say?

Frankie: yes, it feels now that I really owe Ari an apology. I did not know that she really felt bad about it though I saw she was annoyed. I would like to apologize to you for pranking. I would like to say that it was not my intention to hurt you. I thought I would make you laugh and everyone else in the room because I thought I knew you well already as a colleague. I thought wrong so I am sorry. I really wanted to talk to you to ask why you are behaving badly toward me because you did not say anything too to me that day. but every time I would try, you would shut me off and say that you are so busy that you don't have the time to discuss it. Even in our meetings, you would always contradict my suggestions as if they were irrelevant.

Co-mediator(Robert): any reaction Ari?

Ari: This has been going on for many years already and this stresses me out. I think that maybe it is time now to end this and so, I am going to accept your apology. and I would like to apologize as well for my behaviour in our meetings, it was because you really annoyed me with your prank so I thought that I would get even with you every time I got the chance.

Co-mediator(Elena): Frankie, anything you want to say? Reaction?

Frankie: Again, I am sorry and promise to be more mature and not play jokes on you again even on anyone at all.

Co-mediator(Robert): Ari, any reaction?

Ari: yes, I will promise to be more professional when in front of my colleagues and make sure not to let my emotions get the best of me, especially during meetings.

Co-mediator(Elena): alright, any reaction to that Frankie? Ari? Any last comment on anything? Frankie?

So, if there's none. We can conclude the meeting. Thank you everyone for doing this. Thank you for your cooperation and I think that we can all conclude that we have cleared and settled the issue once and for all. Correct?

Everyone: yes. Agreed.

Co-mediator(Robert): we have learned many things today and in whatever problem, communication is the key to solving it. Thank you once again. We can all head back to our work and enjoy the rest of the day. Thank you

Create a reflection from the above mediation.

Reflection must be of the mediators Elena and Robert.