Alma Sisco-Smith, Director
Work-Life Resource Center
University of California, San Francisco
MS SMITH HAS THESE OBSERVATIONS TO OFFER:
“At the time our mediators were trained by Marvin Schwartz, they were in awe of the training and mediation as a process. Now, having facilitated mediation sessions at all levels of UCSF, our mediators have exclaimed how well prepared they are and how much they appreciate Marvin’s training program.”
The UCSF Mediation Program offers a resource to support people in resolving their workplace conflicts. Having a safe, confidential opportunity to talk things through has certainly reduced frustration levels for many who have sought the program’s services.
Our Mediation Program mediators have helped UCSF employees resolve conflicts in cases involving a wide variety of issues including, among others, claims of abusive behavior, disparate treatment, cross cultural misunderstandings, perceived physical threats and dissatisfaction with performance evaluations.
Our mediation participants have included managers from faculty and administrative ranks, support personnel, research professionals, faculty members and students.
After mediation, they have thanked us in these words:
Comments from Mediation Participants:
“I thought you would want to know that the mediation process seems to have had a very positive effect on the lab situation. I think it was extremely worthwhile.”
“I wish to restate how helpful I found your program. [The mediators] were extremely helpful in defining the sources of conflict in my lab, resolving the dispute and preventing further occurrences. We can now get back to our research!”
“Thanks for your support! It definitely helped me stay calm and hold on to the small amount of remaining patience I still had.”
“I’m glad that I had the option to do mediation. I think it gave each of us a little better understanding of what’s going on and hopefully things will be better on the day to day. Again, I appreciate your help with all this.”
“I just wanted to let you know that we’ve completed the mediation. From my perspective it went very well. I was very happy with it. The mediators [were] great, and thanks very much.”
“Please know how much I appreciate your generous gifts of time and expertise in the recent mediation. While confronting the history of miscommunication, misinformation and misunderstanding, was very difficult, the outcome was productive, growth fostering and worth the effort. Bless you.”