Why do people take personal grievances?

Likely you’re at some stage of this journey- maybe thinking about it, researching, having raised it, or preparing for mediation.    You have your reasons, but you’re not sure if they are good reasons.  So let’s talk about why people take personal grievances, so you can see if you relate.

To get money

There I said it.  You wouldn’t have believed me if I hadn’t.  You can be compensated for what they did that they did wrong.  But it’s not amazing money; it’s not ‘buy a house’ money; more ‘buy a car’ money, and a second-hand car at that.  No one is getting rich from raising a personal grievance, who wasn’t rich anyway.  Half of what people do get is compensation for lost earnings, which they would have earned otherwise, and really is just recovering what they were out of pocket from not having their job. 

It's about justice

Some people raise a personal grievance for the money, but for most people what drives them, is the need for justice.  They feel they have been done wrong, that their dignity, their mana, they sense of self-worth and value have been damaged unfairly, and this is their way to get a third party to judge the situation, in the expectation that they will be proven right.  Unfortunately, they won’t get this in mediation because the mediator will sit on the fence (see here for more), so to truly get a judgement in your favour, you need to go the Authority, which may be a bridge to far for you (see here for more).

To speak truth to power

This is similar, but different.  Most employees feel the need to bite their tongue in the workplace; that they cannot speak freely to their boss, and are much more ‘yes sir, no sir’ than they wish to be.  They feel put upon and unable to fairly defend themselves.  This is their chance to speak their truth to this power, as they give up on placing nice, and start defending themselves.  This can be fair, especially in small companies where often the owner (and the owner’s wife/boyfriend/old friend from school) can act like a tyrant.  Just bear in mind in that in mediation, this can go both ways and they can speak freely too (see here for how gloves can come off at mediation).