Generally speaking, agony aunts have been used widely and by all kinds of media for the past century. These have covered all sorts of subjects, from proper dinner etiquette to… well, just about any subject that is treated in a publication.

For better or for worse, company communications are rarely covered in such columns; the outcome of this is that, for a professional experiencing communication issues and conflict, there are not many tried-and-tested ways to get advice on a specific issue, prior to attempting to resolve it.

However, there are some philosophical perspectives one might follow: the preventive, or „teaching“ approach and the palliative approach, which aims to deal with overwhelming, existing problems without requiring the employee to have any personal skills.

The former is the approach followed by the ECo-C: in attempting to teach people how to communicate but also how to recognise and isolate conflict, ECo-C graduates should be able to defuse conflicts and prevent them happening. As to the latter, it appears to us to be embodied in the policies of AE… that is to say, the AnonymousEmployee website.   

In a recent article, a survey was presented, whose results suggested that millions were lost due to poor communication practices in Austrian company, practices that taking the ECo-C remedies. The AE website constitutes further proof of how critical this matter is, since nine of the 24 major concerns listed on the site’s home page are by-and-large topics covered by the ECo-C (Workplace Bullying, Workplace Violence, Overworking Issues, Poor Employee Morale, Lack of Training, Discrimination, Favouritism, Poor Supervision, and Poor Communication).

The aforementioned organisation is, in its own words, dedicated to the „resolution of concerns“, going so far as to offer employees an anonymous platform where to voice their issues without fear of retaliation. However, from our own perspective, we can ask ourselves: when an employee dares not communicate with their supervisor or boss in person, can information truly flow? What does the business in itself actually lose when an employee prefers anonymity? It seems likely that this approach may be better suited to resolving issues such as fraud or sexual harassment. Yet, as advocates of prevention, not cure, it may also seem to us that the general inability to make a point in a manner that is personal, impassionate, but also respectful and properly communicative would create a cycle that would harm a business.