What does workplace conflict look like and why does it matter?
Updated: 4 days ago
We’ve all seen it before: raised voices in the office or shop floor, people walking away in a huff. Maybe one of the participants mutters something under their breath on their way out. If you ask whether they are OK, they might shrug it off in silent embarrassment or they might share their story of the conflict.
No matter what happens next, this is a typical example of workplace conflict - a tense or stressful situation between people that is due to perceived or actual differences in values, needs, goals, ideas or ways of doing things. The emotional content (stress or tension) in the conflict causes psychological harm. The person who has been harmed may acknowledge the problem and blame a person or group, but they might also stay silent and not take any further action. This would be an example of silent conflict.
When conflict remains silent, there is no opportunity to resolve it and this causes the greatest psychological harm.
According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, 70% of Canadian employees are concerned about the psychological health and safety of their workplace, and 14% don’t think theirs is healthy or safe at all.
Why does conflict remain silent? People worry that raising issues will damage their reputation, or they’ll be seen as troublemakers. They might fear reprisal or feel unsafe if they raise issues, or they might not trust the conflict resolution process that is available to them. The workplace culture might implicitly or explicitly expect people to avoid confrontation.
The psychological harm caused by the conflict is the result of a perception of unfair treatment. When we perceive a harm or threat, our brain is hard-wired to attribute the unfair treatment to the other person’s, or group’s character or behaviour and to instinctively react in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode.
The conflict event may come to an end, and those involved may stay silent, but the conflict itself can evolve through a series of transformations. In the initial conflict situation, people react in their instinctive ways using a variety of tactics to resolve the conflict. When this does not resolve the situation, the participants bring more and bigger issues into the conflict. When that does not settle things, the conflict shifts to attributing blame to the other side’s behaviours and characters. The goals of the conflict can shift from winning to harming the other side. A final stage is when others are brought in to the conflict and factions are created.
In workplaces that are conflict-prone, or that are perceived as unfair environments, employees respond in typical ways:
Some keep their head down, do the work and passively disengage from the organization;
Some leave the organization;
Some exit internally through absenteeism or presenteeism;
Some assimilate or model the negative behaviour and become abusive to others;
Some challenge the negative behaviour in an effort to improve the culture.
These typical responses suggest that there are costs of workplace conflict that organizations are absorbing:
Costs for investigations and legal counsel fees
Employee absences: Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey reported 15.7 days lost in the public sector and 9.5 days lost in the private sector in 2025 due to absenteeism.
Health care and workers compensation claims due to conflict-related stress, illness and injuries
Turnover costs due to stress or conflict—the average voluntary turnover rate is 10.2% in Canada according to Mercer’s 2025 Canada Turnover Survey
Disgruntled employees sometimes damage property
Restructuring costs undertaken to address conflict
Management and HR time spent in resolving conflicts and supporting employees in conflict
Employees’ productive time lost while engaged in conflict, trying to resolve conflict or stressing about conflict while at work
Reputational costs to the organization
These costs can add up pretty significantly. The good news is that existing conflicts can be resolved, and future conflicts can be prevented.
Some standard approaches to dealing with conflict include termination, discipline and investigation. There are times when these approaches need to be implemented. For example, an investigation is required in Ontario workplaces when harassment is reported in the workplace, under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Beyond these standard measures for dealing with specific instances of workplace conflict, there are also ways to restore or repair workplace relationships that have been affected by conflict. These include mediation, coaching and broader workplace health and culture assessment.
There are also more proactive measures available when organizations are looking to prevent or address broader conflict form occurring. Measures include training, policy development, leadership training and development, change management processes, as well as violence and harassment risk management, and workplace health and fairness assessment.
No matter where you are in the workplace conflict situation, feel free to contact me to discuss options and solutions.
