How to prepare for mediation
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If you’ve raised a personal grievance with your employer, you’re likely to be going to mediation, and it’s unlikely you’ve been to mediation before. It’s a pretty unique scenario, so let’s discuss how you can get yourself prepared.
What do you want?
Think about what you want on deep emotional level. I’ve discussed this more here but generally it’s an emotional decision. Often these emotions are pushing back, getting even, speaking truth to power- your employer did something to you, and you shouldn’t have to take it.
Think about what you want to feel afterwards, a feeling that you are: right? Even? Successful? Clever? Vindicated? You probably won’t get exactly what you want, but to get closure on this dispute, you need to end up in an emotional state you’re comfortable with.
Are you prepared to go to Court?
Mediation is an opportunity to strike a deal before it goes to court, where a decision is a made about who is right. Whether it’s a good idea is an equation of risk, reward, chances, and perception of your opposition’s willingness. But first, you need to decide: are you prepared to go to court? Yes or no. write it down, email your representative, but force yourself to decide if you’re prepared to go. Not if you want to, but if you’re willing to if it comes to it.
What outcomes do you want?
Most of the outcomes of mediation are financial- a monetary settlement. You can get a positive written reference, but whether that is worth it is debatable (see here for more). Some people want an apology. I’ve heard one mediator talk about how a settlement included a pig (for a pet or a hangi I’m not sure). I talk about it more here but you may not be able to prevent any career implications of taking a PG, and reference may not stop that.
Even though you’re very unlikely to achieve these outcomes, understanding what outcomes you want other than money is important, because they are weighed against what money you do get.
How much do you have to spend, and how much are you prepared to risk to go to court?
To read about how much you could get see here but remember these are ball-park figures for how much you could get; first you need to establish your resources, and how much you’re prepared to risk them.
The specifics will vary significantly, largely due to differences in how your representative charges (see here). But because the courts arbitrate and hand down ‘winner takes all’ decisions, and mediation is a prior opportunity to compromise and settle, inevitably the question becomes a risk question. A risk question of how much you’ve spent so far and how much you might gain, weighed up against how much you might spend if you go to court, and what you stand to gain? Plus the fact that you might get costs awarded for you if you win, or against you if you lose (see here for more).
I can’t answer these for you or give you much guidance because each case is too different. The best I can do is encourage you to think about this in advance. How much you are prepared to spend, how much you think you stand to gain, and how much you’re prepared to risk to go to court.
What’s your bottom dollar?
This is the same as going to an auction (although bottom dollar not top dollar). What is the minimum you’d take? What is your walk-away point? To walk away is to go to court, so if you’re not prepared to go to court, then anything on the table should be considered.
Setting a bottom dollar doesn’t mean you can’t get more. You don’t even need to tell your representative (or tell them the true number) because (as discussed here) their interests aren’t perfectly aligned with you. But you should know what number is your walk-out point, your go to court point.
