After a Year, It's Back to Work

 I stay young, if not in years, but in engagement with life by working as a alternative dispute resolution specialist. My job is to work with people and companies in conflict and guide them to a mutually agreeable solution. With the way of the world right this moment there is always work for me to do and I look forward to being intellectually young for the foreseeable future. 

When Covid came to town, my workload didn't decrease, in fact it got pretty busy. The difference was that rather than talking with people face to face I found myself sitting in my office working with people over the internet. Name the conferencing platform and I think I've spent time on it. They all work much the same, but the end result is that I have been spending long hours helping people who just want to fight over a perceived insult to their viewpoint.

Many of my cases are assigned by the courts and the big difference I've noticed is that where once people were overawed by the gravitas of court and were (sometimes) eager to get the case resolved and be able to go home. Doing my job over the internet removed that sense of responsibility and for many people it became almost a game of seeing who could be more obstreperous and able to take a poke at the other party. Before Covid our success rate was about 85% and during Covid the success rate sank to about 65%.

But those days are about to end since the court will be in full session, and people will need to come to court and required to play nice in a closed room with their opponent and a trained neutral. One thing that will make next week's back to court is that we will be moving into a brand new courthouse. The county has tripled in size since the old court was built in the 50's and the workload (and number of judges) has increased. Now we have lots of bright and airy courtrooms, electronic support and plenty of meeting rooms to work with the people who can't seem to resolve issues without help. 

And maybe ... just maybe, people will be willing to resolve their issue rather than preach their cause.