Blog Post 4: Peer and Co-worker Relationships at Kohl’s Department Store

Part One:

One of my peer relationships at Kohl’s I would consider to be a special peer relationship.

There are high levels of self-disclosure on both of our ends. I have told her a lot about my family and some of the personal struggles that I have had and in turn, she’s told me about her family and her struggles. We have talked a lot and she’s become a true friend that I can confide in.

With this level of self-disclosure, it leads to high levels of emotional support from both of us. Since we know a lot about each other, we can tell if we are having trouble trying to get through the shift due to personal struggles. There have been a few times she’s struggled to get through the shift and I so listen to what she’s going through and offer her advice, so it could boost her morale. I had recently had to call off and she reassured me that she knew what I was going through and she did not blame me for calling off.

Part Two:

a)    Proxemics does influence my relationship with my co-worker to develop it into a special peer relationship. We tend to work in the same department when we are working on the same day.

b)   Similarity definitely influences the relationship. While we are different in a lot of aspects, there is quite a bit we have in common like our personal struggles. Out of the four factors, similarity is probably what influenced the workplace relationship the most.

c)    The relational balance is symmetrical meaning that we tend to delegate tasks equally during the shift and we trust each other’s judgement on what takes priority over another task.

d)   The personal needs in our workplace relationship mostly depends on inclusion. We tend to include each other about the goings-on in our lives outside of work and it tends to relieve stress by being able to talk to each other about it. In a way sometimes, we are like each other’s therapist and we depend on each other’s point-of-view when we give advice to the other.

Part Three:

There was really only one time my peer relationship was misused and there was one time when I saw another co-worker’s peer relationship being misused.

The one time my workplace relationship was misused, it was due to information retrieval. I had told her I was planning to get a second job and the money there would be a bit higher. Later, she had told someone else about the position and they went for it too. Me telling her had jeopardized my chances and I had felt a bit betrayed by it even though we both ended up not getting the position.

There was also one time when I saw another co-worker’s peer relationship misused and it had been from peer support used as a commodity. My co-worker was working two jobs and somehow happened to get scheduled to work both jobs on the same day at the same time and she needed someone who could fill in for her shift at Kohl’s. At first the co-worker said she would be happy to fill in, but then went back and blamed her for not calling off at her other job and made it seem like she done it deliberately. She stated that she had to take her shift, so she had one up on her to use in the future.

Work cited: Modaff, Butler, & DeWine. (2017). Organizational Communication: Foundations, Challenges, and Misunderstandings. Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson.