HR Professionals Need Conflict Resolution Post-COVID – Here's Why
- Feb 6, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 8, 2025
Written by: Yvette Durazo, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
After the Industrial Revolution work conditions were brutal, and employers were never expected to care for their workers. The only thing that mattered was profit, but then the Fair Labor Standards Act was created. Slowly but surely, human resource management became a crucial part of the modern work culture. It is proved that you get the best out of people when you genuinely care for them. Now we seem to gone to the extreme where HR professionals are abused by the very employees they were hired to protect.
Workvivo conducted a study on HR professionals, and when surveyed 94% said they felt overwhelmed in the past six months, and 88% dreaded work. A theory for these feelings is due to boundaries being unknown. In this article, we will look at why HR professionals have morphed into therapists, how this negatively impacts organizations, and how HR professionals need to pay attention to workplace conflict resolution skills.
Why HR Has Become Like “Therapy” After COVID
When managing people a certain amount of counselling is natural and there are definite similarities between being a human resource professional and being a therapist. However, listening to complaints is not all an HR professional has to, but this aspect of managing people has skyrocketed post-COVID, possibly for several reasons:
Adapting to remote work and virtual communication
The shift to remote work and virtual communication has brought about a range of new challenges for HR professionals such as: facilitating communication and understanding between team members, addressing conflicts that may arise, and supporting employees through the challenges of working from home.
Navigating changing policies and regulations
HR professionals may have to spend more time researching and understanding new policies and facilitating discussions and resolutions to conflicts related to these changes.
Supporting employees through the impacts of the pandemic
Supporting employees can involve providing resources and support for mental health and well-being, mediating conflicts related to the pandemic, and addressing the stress impact on the needs of employees due to uncertainty and isolation.
Managing a changing workforce
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about changes in the workforce, including layoffs, furloughs, and changes in work arrangements. That can be draining for the people involved.
What It All Means For Organizations
The million-dollar question is; who manages the human resource manager? Psychologically, you are more affected by emotions if you are in the position of managing emotions. In other words, the truckload of emotional stress being dumped on HR professionals will only make them more vulnerable by doubling their own post-COVID stress. We all know it is painful to receive a termination letter at work, but it is also painful to deliver those letters.
The challenge is: What if the ones meant to hold us up break down? An African proverb puts it brilliantly; "if the center can no longer hold, things fall apart." HR professionals have to deal with other things like paperwork, work politics, providing training, staying up-to-date with trends, etc., and dealing with their own life. Organizations are sitting on a time bomb if they don't see the need to pay more attention to HR.
How HR Professionals Can Manage Themselves
It's the way of the world; the ones affected by the challenge must bear it first. We have seen it play out in politics, in religion, and even in families; if you don't do something about your challenges, most likely, no one will. Of course, some people carry baggage that does not belong to them. This is where HR professionals need to start…with self-care.
Prioritize yourself
This is a hard one for most HR Professionals, and quite frankly, it is against your job description, but you can strike a balance. Your colleagues are not blood-sucking sociopaths, they just don’t know all the “emotion downloading” is taking its toll on HR, and that's human. It's also human to take your own advice and speak up. Practice strong boundaries and communicate clearly to your colleagues.
Clarify meeting objectives
A clear boundary for HR is to only accept scheduled meetings, and both parties should be clear on the meeting’s objectives. Emotions are dynamic, so it's always good to know ahead of time if the meeting is for venting or problem-solving.
Be a problem solver, but it's okay to not solve it
People expect you to solve problems; you feel bad when you can't, so get work on problem-solving, but don’t overdo things. It's okay not to have the answer.
Be conflict intelligent
Your ability to resolve conflict effectively will go a long way in getting the job done faster and more efficiently.
Conclusion
Overall, while being an HR professional can be rewarding, it can also be challenging, particularly when managing employee conflicts, ensuring compliance with employment laws, balancing employee needs with company goals, managing a changing workforce, and dealing with difficult or emotionally charged situations.
The post-COVID world brought about new challenges for HR professionals, who must adapt to remote work and virtual communication, navigate changing policies and regulations, support employees through the impacts of the pandemic, and manage a changing workforce. These challenges make the HR job particularly difficult, but with the right skills and resources, HR professionals can effectively navigate and support employees through these challenges. However, most importantly, they need your empathy. Ask how they are doing today and be sincere about it. Conflict Intelligence Quotient “Conflict-IQ™ is a good read for people having trouble managing conflicts in a workplace and solving them effectively.
Yvette Durazo, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Yvette Durazo, MA, PCC is the author of the book Conflict Intelligence (Conflict-IQ™) The Missing Piece to Turbocharge Leaders’ and Organizations’ Emotional Intelligence. She is the principal consultant of Unitive Consulting, a workplace organizational effectiveness, strategic conflict management, and leadership development firm.
Yvette brings innovative techniques to promote a positive workplace culture in organizations to encourage trust, productive human capital engagement, and inclusion. Clients benefit from her wealth of knowledge and professional experience in the art of building a trusting workplace relationship. Some of her services include; training, mediating conflicts in the workplace, anti-bullying, settlement negotiations, developing dispute system design, and bringing unique strategies to address the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) to the workplace.
Yvette is passionate about optimizing professionals and teams to engage in constructive problem-solving communication toward instilling respect, civility, and collaboration. She believes that human conflict is one of the most important things organizations must learn to harness and combat to avoid derailing of employees’ performance. Her methodologies are like a vitamin boost to the immunity of organizations.
Presently, Yvette is a UCSC HR Program Co-Chair and an instructor for the Human Resource Management Certification program at the University of California Santa Clara Extension Silicon Valley. She also is an instructor for the University of California Davis Conflict Resolution Program. She also teaches for Portland State University Conflict Resolution and Mediation courses for undergraduate and master’s degree students. She holds a PCC coaching credential from the International Coach Federation, a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution, Negotiation, and Peacebuilding from California State University Dominguez Hills, and an undergraduate degree in International Business from San Diego State University. She is a former Core Adjunct Professor at National University, where she taught courses in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Mediation, and Communication for over six years.
A former Instructor for the Leon Guanajuato Mexico Institution Power of Justice, Yvette has authored many publications and articles on conflict resolutions. Yvette is fully bilingual in English and Spanish and has expertise with cultural diversity and inclusion.
