Conflict Management

Once upon a time a little girl named Charity was in her sophomore Health class. One of the first units in the class was on conflict management. Little did young Charity know that she would really have to use these skills in her future college life.

That's right, I am grateful for my conflict management skills. Thank you to public education for teaching me how to deal with other people and their irritating habits. The conflict at hand? Dishes. The dreadful chore that no one wants to do. Here's the thing: I do my dishes. Always. Immediately after their use. Guess what? No one else does. I have briefly mentioned this before, but the gross pile of dirty dishes in the sink has reached an unbelievable height. So, what do brilliant masters of conflict management do? They call a meeting. A meeting in which people may discuss their apartment concerns without singling out by name. A meeting where solutions may be proposed and implemented. This all sounds perfect, right? A flawless plan. WRONG.

We had an apartment meeting Sunday. We discussed the dishes situation and suggested a solution. Perhaps if the dishwasher were emptied immediately after it was done people would be more likely to place their dirty dishes in the dishwasher rather than the sink. So everyone chose a dish day. On their dish day they are responsible for emptying the dishwasher and starting it when it needs to be started. The first couple days went just dandy for the most part. Today...not so much. One of the roommates doesn't get out of bed until one so the breakfast and lunch dishes were piled in the sink. Jocie and I hand-washed ours so they wouldn't pile up like that. It's now after eleven pm and while the pile has become smaller there is still a pile. So the next step in conflict management? Jocie and I are probably going to end up removing all of our dishes from community use at the end of this week. We're sick of taking care of everyone else's dishes and having our pans ruined because they're left with food in them. Eew.

So that is my new conflict management method. Instead of being frustrated with everyone for leaving my dishes in the sink all covered in slime, I will remove my dishes from the situation. That's right. My conflict management method is: AVOID. In my defense, I have tried more direct methods and they did not yield any results. So here's to evasion and avoidance! :)