more and more of our waking hours at work.

This isn’t always a bad thing—the workplace can be a source of pride, accomplishment, and teamwork. However, it can also be a source of disputes and tension—and lawsuits. So it’s no surprise that workplace disputes—between employers and employees, workers and managers, or coworkers—make up an ever­growing percentage of the caseloads of state and federal courts.

The good news is that more and more employers and employees are turning to mediation to resolve—and even prevent—workplace prob­lems. And with good reason—the process is well-equipped to handle the special issues and concerns that often accompany employment disputes. Here are some of the benefits mediation offers for dealing with work­place problems:

• Relationship building. Particularly if the parties will continue to work together as coworkers or as supervisor and employee, mediation offers a valuable opportunity to air problems, work together towards a solution, and figure out how to deal with each other in the future. Even if no future relationship is in the cards (for example, an employee has quit or been fired and will not return to work), mediation allows the parties to make some sense of what hap- pened—and to move forward with some peace of mind.

• Confidentiality. Employment lawsuits can get pretty nasty—the em­ployee wants to show that the company is truly awful and should have to pay for it, while the company wants to show that the em­ployee is a bad egg who deserved to be fired. Mediation allows the parties to keep these kinds of accusations out of the public eye. It can also help protect a company from unwanted publicity and allow for the confidentiality of trade secrets.

EXAMPLI John is fired from his job as a chef for a catering company. He believes that he was fired because he complained to his boss about unsanitary food preparation conditions, and the company was afraid he would make a report to the health department.

• Low cost. Mediation is always going to cost less than full-scale litiga­tion, but this is particularly true in employment disputes. Experts estimate that employers pay tens of thousands of dollars to defend against a typical employee lawsuit—and that’s just on legal fees. Employees pay a high price as well. Although they don’t have to pay a lawyer by the hour, they can expect to fork over to their lawyer a large percentage (between 25% and 40%) of any money they recover. Mediation is a much cheaper alternative. In fact, it’s often free if the parties mediate through a court-required program or a program sponsored by a government agency (such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), and it may be free to the employee(s) if the employer offers an in-house mediation program.

• Speed. Because of the significant role work plays in our lives—and because of the nature of the work relationship—employment disputes are often quite urgent. An employee who feels she is being sexually harassed doesn’t want to keep coming into work to con­front her harasser day after day, month after month, until her lawsuit is heard—she wants the problem taken care of right away. Similarly, an employee who has been fired often can’t afford to wait a couple of years for a jury to award damages. Because mediation can be scheduled right away, it offers a much quicker resolution.

• Creative solutions. Mediation offers the parties a chance to work out a settlement that deals with everyone’s actual needs, not just the rights and remedies recognized by the legal system. It is a great way to work out nonlegal disputes—for example, coworkers who just can’t seem to get along, or a manager whose style grates on her reports.

EXAMPLE: Sheila worked for many years as a secretary in a large company. As the company became more dependent on computers, Sheila’s performance started to falter. Finally, the company decided to replace her. Sheila claims that the company fired her because of her age; the company claims that she was fired because she couldn’t handle the job’s technological requirements.

In a lawsuit, the jury would have to decide whether Sheila was discriminated against based on her age. If the jury found that she was fired for discrimina­tory reasons, it could make the company pay her a sum of money. If the jury found that the company had legitimate reasons to fire her, it could give Sheila nothing—and the judge could even make her pay the company’s legal fees, if her lawsuit was found to be frivolous.

Instead, Sheila and the company decided to mediate. During the mediation, both sides agreed that Sheila had done excellent work in the past, and that they wanted to reach a solution that worked for everyone. As the mediation progressed, it became clear that Sheila didn’t really want her job back. Her main concerns were maintaining her health insurance coverage and getting a new job that didn’t require as much computer work. The two parties worked out a deal whereby the company would pay Sheila’s insurance premiums for six months, write an honest letter of recommendation, and give Sheila the equivalent of a few months of pay while she searched for a new job.

This chapter explains the special issues that tend to arise in employ­ment mediation, for employers and employees. It will help you figure out:

• whether you should mediate

• how to find a mediator or mediation program

• how to prepare for the mediation, and

• how to come up with a workable agreement.

A.