Workplace
Mediation
Independent workplace mediation in Geelong, the Surf Coast, Western Victoria and Melbourne or online nationally. Dr Bree Gorman is a nationally accredited mediator working with employers, employees and their representatives.
What exactly is
Workplace Mediation?
Mediation is a voluntary, confidential conflict resolution process where an impartial third party helps people in dispute have the conversation they haven’t managed on their own, and reach an agreement that works for both of them.
Bree is a nationally accredited mediator, accredited under the Australian Mediator and Dispute Resolution Accreditation Standards (AMDRAS). Sessions are held in person across Geelong, the Surf Coast, Western Victoria, and Melbourne, or online anywhere in Australia.
Common matters include interpersonal and team conflict, bullying and harassment complaints, grievance resolution, return-to-work and performance disputes. Referrals are welcome from HR teams, employee relations advisers and legal representatives.
Why Bree as your workplace mediator
For eight years Bree has been brought into organisations to run the conversations people find difficult. Confidential focus groups on exclusion and harassment. Workforce consultations across whole organisations. Workshops on topics like LGBTIQA+ inclusion, gender equity, respect@work and inclusive leadership. The work means managing disclosures, holding conflicting ideas, beliefs and perspectives in the room at the same time, and getting to something people can actually agree on.
Most of it happens across power differences. Bree works with executives and boards as readily as with employees, and has served as the equity adviser responsible for fair and impartial processes in high stakes decisions. Bree has also coached managers through team conflict and difficult conversations.
Workplace conflict is rarely just interpersonal. It sits inside reporting lines, workload, how decisions get made, and organisation and industry culture and norms. Bree can hear those things in the room and work with them, asking the questions that help the parties explore the conflict through a systems and interpersonal lens, which increases the chances of a lasting outcome that meets the needs of both parties.
Bree has training in trauma-informed practice, and works consistently with people from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. Hearing the same situation through the lens of employees and employers means less groundwork explaining workplace dynamics, and more time for the conversation the parties need to have with each other.
Unresolved conflict is a psychosocial hazard
Why act early?
Under Victoria's psychosocial hazard regulations and the positive duty, employers are expected to identify and address workplace conflict rather than wait for it to escalate. Ongoing interpersonal conflict, bullying and poor workplace relationships all sit within that obligation.
Mediation is one of the ways an organisation can act on a conflict early, while the parties still have options and while the outcome is still in their hands.
How it works
1. First conversation
A short, confidential conversation about what's happening, who is involved and what you're hoping for. No cost and no obligation. You'll get a quote and a recommended process from this.
2. Intake with each party
Bree meets each party separately and confidentially. Intake establishes what the dispute is about, what each person needs, and whether mediation is the right process. Not every matter is suited to mediation, and it's better to know that before the day.
3. The mediation
Usually half a day, in person or online. Parties may be in the room together or in shuttle format, depending on what intake indicates. Support people and representatives can attend by agreement.
4. Agreement recorded
Where the parties reach agreement, Bree prepares a written record of the terms for each to review and sign.
5. What happens next
Where it would help, Bree can recommend follow-up options such as conflict coaching or a facilitated team conversation. Mediation itself stays separate from any of this.
Organisations Bree has worked with
Common Questions
What is workplace mediation?
1
A voluntary, confidential process where an impartial mediator helps people in a workplace dispute reach their own agreement. The mediator manages the process but does not decide the outcome or make findings about what happened.
Is mediation the same as a workplace investigation?
2
No. An investigation determines facts and makes findings. Mediation does neither. Where a complaint needs to be substantiated, an investigation is the appropriate process. Mediation can sometimes be useful afterwards.
Most mediations run for half a day, with separate intake sessions beforehand. A matter can usually be scheduled within a few weeks.
3
How long does it take?
Yes. Mediation is conducted on a without prejudice basis, which is what allows people to speak openly. The terms of confidentiality are set out in the agreement to mediate before the session.
4
Is it confidential?
Usually the employer, though costs are sometimes shared. This is settled before the mediation is scheduled.
5
Who pays?
Do the parties need a lawyer?
6
No. Parties can bring a support person or representative by agreement. Getting advice before signing anything is sensible where significant rights or entitlements are involved.
What if we don’t reach agreement?
7
Parties keep every option they had before mediation. Nothing said in the session can be used against them later.
Next Steps
If a workplace conflict is consuming management time, affecting a team, or heading toward a formal process, a short confidential conversation will tell you whether mediation is the right next step.