Several interesting sessions have been planned this summer to improve the working environment and relationships at the employee and faculty level.

Rosemarie Ostberg, NIU’s training coordinator, planned sessions which she feels are relevant to the people working at NIU.

All sessions are held at the Human Resource Service Building on the west side of campus, near the NIU water tower.

“Coping With Difficult People I & II” will be held from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. today to teach how to deal with different types of difficult people, such as the “tank” and the chronic complainer.

“Stress Management” will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, July 21, focusing on understanding what stress is, how it affects people and what they can do about it.

“Male and Female Communication” takes place from 10:30 a.m. until noon on Thursday, July 15. The session will explore the similarities and differences between the sexes in workplace conversation.

“Stepping up to Supervisor II” will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 22. Faculty will learn how to supervise friends effectively and to handle overbearing staff members.

Ostberg said she takes great interest in the sessions and plans each one with care. “We are all somebody’s difficult person,” Ostberg said. “The better we work on improving problems, the better for the office.”

Learning a more efficient way of getting work done is only one goal of the sessions. Work relationships also need to be handled with care. “Male and Female Communications is an important session because a lot of time is spent churning instead of constructing,” Ostberg said.

According to Ostberg, conversation is often misused and abused in the workplace. It is also a growing interest to people involved in making the workplace a better place to be in, she said.

“Most people don’t even realize that they have offended someone,” she said.

Ostberg said learning to identify problems in verbal communications is imperative to any workplace.

“Women often cloud what they want to say,” she said, adding this is natural. “Men are more competitive (when speaking). In general, women are more accepting so there needs to be understanding among the two.”

The sessions are created to help solve some of these and other problems. The four sessions that still remain this summer are free of charge.

“We are all somebody’s difficult person. The better we work on improving problems, the better for the office.”

osemarie Ostberg, NIU’s training coordinator