Meet the Fockers

Some days I'm more invisible than others, like today (not really today as I wanted to create some distance before posting)... when I overhear things in mediation that shock.
So what does happen when you overhear stuff that you don't want to hear in a mediation (not that you shouldn't hear or that somehow puts you in an ethical dilemma -that's easy)

...but that you really don't want to hear - either because its nasty/distasteful/probably got an element of low level dishonesty about it/reflects badly on apparently decent folk. Or all of the above?

It's sort of as if they break the contract they have spent the day painstakingly assembling with you.

Sure mediators need to build trust with parties (audio)

I hear that all the time, 'build rapport and trust with the parties' but hey! the parties so need to build trust with the mediator too.

Its not a one way street, we build with them; they build with us.

And it hurts on some level when that trust is fractured, especially in those mediations when there's a lot of me on the table.

Like this time a struggling CEO fell out with the Board and we sweated all day (at his insistence that money was not the fix here) on the relationship.