176 Chapter 6 Employees also reported that there was little hierarchy between colleagues with the same occupation. For several employees, conflicts between colleagues therefore hardly occurred. They said that they were pleased that they had not experienced any conflicts with other colleagues: E13: “No, I never have them (conflicts). Yes, that’s great.” (Woman, 44 years). Although most employees indicated that there was indeed equality at the workplace, this was not the case for every employee. Some colleagues considered themselves more important than others: E14: “There is always a distinction between the employees from the office and employees from the production (….). You have to do the work together, if we (employees from production) don’t do anything, then they (employees from the office) can do what they want, but then nothing happens” (Man, 23 years). Another employee indicated that conflicts with his supervisor sometimes occurred, with unpleasant working conditions being a reason for such conflicts. Other employees also mentioned negative elements of relationships at the workplace. For example, one employee indicated that there was a lot of gossip at work, which he did not like, and which resulted in a poor relationship with his colleagues. Other employees said that there were colleagues they did not like or irritations between employees occurred, which were then resolved by the supervisor. Besides the relationships among employees, interviewees also talked about the relationship with their supervisor. Some employees mentioned that conflicts were relatively quickly resolved by talking about the matter. Such conversations were often initiated by the supervisor. It was also mentioned by one employee that there was a lot of understanding for his work disability from the supervisor. In contrast, another employee felt he was treated like a child and even hated his supervisor: E15: “He thinks he is powerful, that can simply be said. Just a cocky bastard. As soon as things go well it’s all good, but when things go wrong, he will yell at someone. But the mistake is never his fault.” (Man, 20 years). According to one employee, the relationship with their supervisor had positively changed because of the Mentorwijs training. As a result of the training, they communicated more, considered each other in a better way and worked more together:
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