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How does family justice respond to ground zero resilience? Earthquakes. Pandemics. Flash floods. Landslides. Loss of lives. Loss of livelihoods. Loss of possessions. Destroyed homes. Power cuts. Communication cuts. Loss of internet. Destroyed crops. Disconnected and divided communities. Misplaced tangata whenua. Widespread catastrophe. Aotearoa New Zealand has seen it all in recent times.

This is the first instalment in Fair Way’s new Separation Series, focusing on the experiences and challenges families face during separation.  This piece was written by Samantha de Coning. 

Travel came back on the cards in 2022, with a phased border reopening starting with Australia in late February. The full re-opening of New Zealand’s border at 11.59pm on 31 July 2022 signalled the end of a two year long, unprecedented domestic lockdown. While a proportion of New Zealanders quite content to keep sheltered in the “hermit kingdom” remained, it was mostly a case of the opening of the flood gates on 1 August 2022.

The question of whether a matter is suitable for mediation is often grappled with by those working in the family justice system. Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) mediation is mandatory for families seeking to air their parenting disputes in Court unless the matter is deemed “inappropriate” for mediation. What is deemed appropriate often depends on the judgment call of one individual.

As mediators and facilitators involved in addressing workplace bullying issues, Fair Way has developed a significant level of experience supporting people to resolve issues and helping organisations to foster meaningful change. So, based on our experience of the modern workplace, how can organisations support their staff and shift their workplace culture?

Wellbeing is more than aspirational; it is a legal responsibility and commercial reality. We now know that telling someone who is struggling mentally or emotionally to ‘harden up’ does not help them. Some leaders still see wellbeing as an aspiration, viewing a wellbeing strategy as something nice to keep their staff feeling looked after and to show their stakeholders they are caring employers.  

Each generation has its own culture formed from its period in history. This affects each generation’s values, beliefs, and identity. Our workplaces are made up of people of many generations. Millennials, born between roughly 1981 and 1996, comprise the largest group. Their managers are most likely to be Gen Xers, people born between 1965 and 1980.

Recently, much has been made of quiet quitting - a phenomenon that actually became viral on TikTok. So, what is quiet quitting and how is it relevant in the modern workplace? Quiet quitting has been defined as: “An informal term for the practice of reducing the amount of effort one devotes to one’s job, such as by stopping the completion of any tasks not explicitly stated in the job description.

The latest Human Rights Commission research exposes New Zealand’s sobering statistics on bullying and harassment in our places of work and learning. Bullying has a significant impact on those both directly and indirectly involved, and the complaints made often represent the tip of the iceberg, with only 24% of workers affected raising a formal complaint. 

Recent government reports have sadly confirmed that New Zealand has a significant problem with bullying behaviour in our schools, and workplaces. In fact, in a school context: “New Zealand has one of the highest rates of bullying in the world.” This has been confirmed in the nationwide survey conducted by the Human Rights Commission.