Hearts & Minds: Workplace tension - it’s not all Champagne Supernova

Splits are in the public eye this week. There were Rachel Reeves’ tears, fueling speculation the chancellor and prime minister had an altercation. Tonight sees the launch of the Oasis reunion tour and the Gallagher brothers together on stage, but for how long?

Friction at the top of business, in the workplace, is difficult – not only for the protagonists but for those charged with serving them, not least the comms team who must try and present a united front. Ideally the schism should not happen, but it does. Sometimes, with strong egos and forceful personalities in the same room, it is unavoidable.

Newspapers, which ironically love to report clashes when they occur elsewhere, seem to be incubators for internal discontent and anger. There was the proprietor who angrily pushed over a filing cabinet, seriously injuring the senior colleague they were rowing with; the editor and section head who came to blows on a management away day; the reporter who squared up to the editor on the news floor and had to be pulled away; the famous writer who would bellow at the editor asking why his story had not made the splash when he was leaving and chase him to the lift. There is more, much more.

Often, the public explanation is that they’re creative because they care passionately. Of course, this is not believed, as the official reasoning at times like this rarely is.

No one says you must like your workmates but courtesy and decency are essential. It can be managed, just. At a major airline, the chair and CEO were chalk and cheese. The chair was the colourful character but the chief executive was the able technocrat. The company needed them both but they could not abide each other. Everyone knew. Being in the other’s presence was palpably awkward. The body language, rolling of eyes and dismissive words were evident from the outset. Journalists reveled in their discomfort; meanwhile, the PRs would assure everyone they were getting along famously. In the end, they stopped pretending; the corporate affairs director could not deny their rift. What mattered was that they were not actually abusive, and as he highlighted, whenever it was raised, the results indicated their marriage of sorts was successful. Crucially, the stakeholders were content. Their relationship endured, and they even softened, praising one another. They made it work.

As Liam Gallagher will sing later: You gotta roll with it.

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.