Absenteeism
Late arrivals, unplanned days off, and time lost to calls, emails and legal updates during the working day.
The gap
Your EAP is built for breadth. High conflict needs depth.
What your EAP does well
Broad coverage, across the whole workforce
- Short term counselling and assessment
- A wide range of personal and workplace problems
- Referral into other services
- Access for every employee, at scale
What it was not built for
A narrower kind of preparation and strategy
- High conflict divorce and custody
- Manipulative relationships and family conflict
- Difficult workplace dynamics and negotiations
- Anxiety and wellbeing under sustained pressure
Neither a counsellor nor a prepaid legal attorney helps someone build a strategy for dealing with a difficult person. That is the part I do.
The business case
The cost of high conflict is rarely a line item. The company still pays it.
It usually appears under four different names.
Distraction
Focus drops, decisions turn reactive, deadlines slip. The work slows down and nobody says why.
Manager time
Managers absorb the situation, step outside their role, and create internal friction while doing it.
Turnover
Burnout, disengagement, and the loss of a capable employee the company had already invested in.
None of these arrive labelled as conflict. They arrive as a performance conversation.