Communication Blocks In The Workplace Are Created By Lack Of Understanding And Connection

Jobs in the retail or food industry typically have two or three different sets of shifts. In most cases, each employee will stick to the same shift they prefer to work whether that's mornings or nights. For example, in my workplace, I have two sets of employees who either only work mornings to afternoons or who work afternoons to close.

Businesses in these industries have the flexibility to work with what each employee's availability and preferences are in scheduling. That is excellent for the employees because they can work a job that works with their lifestyle, however, it creates a huge communication block between two separate groups of employees due to same daily deployment.

These two separate groups end up not having a complete understanding of each other or the duties they perform at the other time of day. It is impossible for them to build a workplace relationship in those quick passings as they trade off. This results in two sperate teams while a business should operate as one big team.

I have dealt with this communication block among openers and closers that is created through this separation at my current and past job. It results in a continuous feud between Team A and Team B. Both teams deal with different duties and different levels of customers during peak times where business jumps quick.

However, every day is different and Team B may come in to mess because of the level of business Team A may have had or it could have been from a lack of organization their team held throughout their shift. Since the two teams have almost no workplace relationships built because they never work together, they tend to lack the comfortability to communicate issues amongst each other.

If the feuds created from this block are anything similar to my current and previous job, then it will always result in passive-aggressive behaviors and petty doings from each team in hopes to create some kind of change or to simply try and get a rise out of one another. That simply rips a business's entire staff apart and will continue to create conflict due to the absence of any understanding how they store runs from open to close.

I, a business major, find myself analyzing conflicts at work a lot more since my recent shift management promotion. I want solutions for my team so we can all operate peacefully. The flexibility of each employee being able to work the hours they are able to or prefer to is great for us all, but if the tensions among the shifts continue, I believe it could be best to have each employee be required to work a few shifts on the other side to learn what each side deals with and to build a better connection with those they don't work with. This could create a mutual understanding and break the communication block.

That is my insight on how i'd like to go about fixing a workplace feud amongst shifts. How would you fix a feud amongst shifts at your workplace?