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When They Say It’s Not About The Money (It’s About The Money)
September 7, 2009
We spent a terrific Labor Day weekend in Highlands, North Carolina hosted by our friends along with the amazing Don and Stacey Schlitz from Nashville. Lots of great music and good times. Don and Stacey (who is a lawyer as well as a musician) sang us a song they wrote with the chorus above. From all my years of litigation and mediation, it’s a pretty good rule of thumb. Truly, it’s never only about the money. The emotions underlying any dispute are complex. That’s certainly the case in employment litigation. Relationships with peers and supervisors at work are important to us and we spend as much awake time with these people as our families. When those relationships turn on us, it’s really hard. And it’s not just the employee who was fired – well-meaning managers or human resource professionals have an emotional stake also. Even if it’s just two businesses fighting, companies are people. Emotions range from competitiveness to anger to desperation to a desire for revenge. And sometimes it really isn’t about the money at all – it’s getting closure. But when they SAY it’s not about the money . . .