Managing Sticky Situations at Work

Sticky E-situations 187God’s love through his Son, Jesus. I love the people here as if theywere part of my own family, and—’’‘‘It would seem to me, then, Nichole, that you would not want tooffend anyone in the company, right?’’Her eyes widen. ‘‘Of course not. How could sharing the love ofJesus offend people?’’Mickey sighs. ‘‘That’s the problem. We are a very large companywith layers of people from different cultures and walks of life. Noteveryone considers themselves Christian—’’‘‘Then, I need to help them see the Light.’’‘‘No, Nichole, that is not your role. When you say that you need tohelp people see the light, it feels as if their way is wrong. Doing that isprejudicial because it shows a bias against other people’s religions. I’mcurious to know what you thought you were doing when you quotedverses of the Bible that suggested certain lifestyles were inappropriate.’’(Invites Nichole to talk.)‘‘The Bible is clear about homosexuality.’’Mickey sits back. ‘‘In your view the Bible’s clear. In other views, it’snot so clear. The New Testament calls us to love one another regardless.Some might say that means love everyone, even gay people. But,I’m not here to argue points of the Bible. I simply want to bring toyour attention how some of your blogging might offend people.’’(Respecifies the problem.)‘‘I know what the Bible says. I wanted to share the message with allthe wonderful people here who helped me get through Jamey’s illness.That’s all.’’‘‘If I understand, then, your goal was to share your religious viewsbecause people helped you get through Jamey’s illness. I’m sure thatmeantalottoyou.Howcanyouremainopenwithoutoffendingothers?’’ (Invites Nichole to talk about resolution.)She shrugs. ‘‘Are you going to censor my blogs?’’Mickey says, ‘‘I’m frustrated because I don’t want to censor anyone.The intent of the company blog was to create a sense of open communication.We’ve been quite successful with that. People in other partsof the country feel closer to headquarters and vice versa. It’s been agreat success. The external blog has helped us keep a good pulse onour customers. If we allow people to vent on controversial or prejudicialtopics, which might offend others, we might turn people off;they’ll quit reading the blog and quit posting. I want openness, but I