Not having conversations became a toxic trait of a dysfunctional relationship. It ended up in high conflict when needing to establish coparenting agreements. Avoidance and dishonesty are ultimately very dangerous and can be used as manipulation tactics.

Anonymous

Feedback convos - I've had a manager explode on me about something that happened months ago because she didn't want to tell me when it happened and put off having the conversations in a timely (and likely more productive) manner.

Jane, USA

Worked with a team that left a meeting with clear agreements. We met a month later, no action had been taken. Group members assumed the person would was the owner were acting, and they were not. They didn’t think it was their place to surface the fact nothing was happening.

Rich, Australia

I avoided giving constructive feedback to a team member because they were doing well in all other areas. By avoiding this, the issue continued to grow and I lacked the respect in the end of the relationship to correct it.

Jill, California

I had a manager take away some big projects that were under my remit in a back-handed and not transparent way. I didn't address it. This just kept me frustrated and upset for many months. I ended up going to HR to faciliate a meeting but more about how she handles management vs. addressing the actual projects. However, looking back if I would have discussed it with her early on, I bet we could have found a resolution.

Matt, Chicago

The supervisor that I reported to was not interested in understanding what my job really was or what it entailed. She was mostly interested in making sure that everything "appeared" to be in order. This created problems because I was responsible for handling projects for 5 different groups within the department, and it was being left up to me to determine priorities when I was definitely not in the decision-making position

Dan, Mexico

Asumí que el equipo estaba alineado en cómo hacer las cosas. A los pocos meses, nos juntamos para discutir avances y me dí cuenta que cada uno había entendido algo distinto.

Marcos, Spain

Salary conversations: I eventually left the job because I was being paid significantly less than male counterparts doing the same job.

Maren, Canada

Two team members were having a difficult time with each other. Both were emotionally upset and 'blamed' each other for failures. I offered to talk to them together, but they wanted to wait until after the holiday. Waiting meant the tensions worsened, when we sat down, the relationship was quite fragile.

Heather, USA

When not being clear on when and how I could take the next career step.

Sebastien, France

Feeling left out of team events led to hurt my feelings, which turned to defensive behavior on my end.

Penny, USA

In healthcare business discussing or warning management about surgeon's personality and behavior caused problems with surgeons' relationship with the clinical staff.

Rachel, Scotland