Money is always a tricky issue in interpersonal relationships. In my case, there were 4 people involved. The CCA’s president (P), treasurer (T), the marketing director (MD) and the logistics director (me). The MD had been collecting supplies and sponsored products using his private transport and was racking up expenses in the course of his duties for the club. As the amount was getting substantial, he made a request to claim his travelling expenses. I was for the idea, as it did not make sense for him to be penalised for doing his part in collecting equipment, after which I was in charge of storing it. P approved the request, naturally. What came as a surprise was that T rejected the idea.
She immediately went on to justify her stand, saying that it is hard for MD to claim for transport given that he could not justify the exact distance travelled and the petrol costs. P and I then went on to say that this could be remedied, as the petrol per kilometre and the distance could be calculated from Google maps. However, she did not accept our explanations, saying that such methods would be inaccurate. Having done such claims before, I began to lose my patience. As the disagreement escalated, she went on to insinuate that I am not doing my job as I should be taking a taxi to collect the equipment rather than rely on the MD.
Having previously agreed on this issue with the MD, I was immediately enraged and my riposte was that she was the incompetent one for not being open minded with working and not understanding that the agreement between the MD and I was a more efficient approach to doing things (we had exchanged some duties to ensure fairness).
On hindsight, I should have managed my anger, but how could this situation have been better managed?
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Hi Christopher,
I think that the feelings that you felt were justifiable and natural.Having said that, just because these feelings are natural doesn’t mean that we should express them in an uncontrolled way. I’m saying this in general and not pinpointing the blame on anybody.
You said that T rejected the idea and provided a justification. I’m guessing that she failed to empathize with the MD’s situation and was reluctant to come to a compromise. You, having done it before, would be defensive and a little stubborn since she was indirectly saying that your method was not correct.
I think a little compromise and empathy on both parties would have done wonders in resolving or even preventing a problem from escalating into this conflict. Thanks for sharing!
Kel Ley
Dear Chris,
before I comment on your post, please note that the address of my blog has changed:
http://martatextblog.wordpress.com/
Hi Chris,
I liked the way you presented the issue, short and concise.
It seems to me that T did not give a satisfactory reason. Having handled funds for a team in school before, I can relate to T. T might have the fear of overcompensating MD as no receipts were kept (petrol prices do fluctuate a lot too). As a treasurer, T had been entrusted by the CCA group to be accountable for every single cent and T might be just carrying out his/her role. Maybe T might be able to accept the method of calculation but how is he/she going to explain the expenses to everyone in the CCA who entrusted in him/her?
I feel that everyone’s emotion got into the way. Having been able to claim such an expense before, you might have expected everyone to act the same way. As such, it is only natural that you lost your patience because the outcome was something unexpected according to your standards. T sensing that you have lost your patience in him/her would naturally find reasons to push back the blame to you escalating the issue further.
For this situation, I think the best way forward is to ask T to justify his/her reasons. Seeing the matter from the perspective of T might ease the tension. Then, I would try to seek other solutions from T on claiming the transport expenses. Getting T involved and valuing his/her suggestion may be the better way forward.
Hi Christopher
Being part of an EXCO and having my own share of problems, I will have to say money is a very sensitive issue for many of us.
By working with the MD, you have shown interdependence in your work. However, I guess the T just wants to make sure that the money is being used properly as she would be accountable for the flow of money. In your situation, I agree that it is important to manage your feelings as it can be tough to solve a conflict when personal feelings come into the way. You could perhaps propose a solution in such a way that from that meeting forth whoever who collects the equipments will cab back and forth and claim the taxi fare. As for the trips before, you could explain to her that there are businesses who use that method to calculate petrol consumed and thus reimburse their employees (my father is a teacher and he has done it before which his school).
I hope that you will solve this conflict soon if it’s unresolved, but if it is, I hope all will be well in your future meetings.
Regards
Hannah
Thanks, Chris, for sharing this conflict. You do a fine job of describing the persons involved, their duties, the scenario and the point of contention. You also boil down the conflict in such a way that your question seems very appropriate.
I have noted one language problem:
– As the disagreement escalated, she went on to insinuate that I am not doing my job as I should be taking a taxi to collect the equipment rather than rely on the MD. >>> ?
Other than that, this is an excellent response to the assignment.