Building bridges | Fixing a work relationship that has gone sour

Workplace relationships with colleagues are forever held in the balance.

On one hand, the need for harmony and amiability is essential to create a harmonious working environment, free of the anxieties of having ‘workplace enemies’ or people who refuse to action your requests for help. On the other, if you’re relying on another individual to get a project completed and they botch it, it’s important that you’re able to properly communicate your annoyance and request that it’s done properly. There are occasions in which the latter is necessary, yet it causes ‘sourness’ in your working relationship and makes your job harder.

Yet it doesn’t have to be that way. It may not feel like it at the time, but it is possible to rebuild this relationship and retain your ability to talk honestly to them in the future. Some experts have even stated that going through such a period of strain and then rectifying a working relationship can actively make it stronger and more dynamic.

“Going through difficult experiences can be the makings of the strongest, most resilient relationships,” Susan David, Founder of the Harvard/McLean Institute of Coaching, recently told Harvard Business Review.