As 2014 comes to an end, it is good to reflect. How privileged many of us are. I often remark to others that my “job” is better than “real work”. What do I mean when I say that?

As mediators, we have an extraordinary window through which we view life, other people and what happens in times of difficulty or distress. It is a vantage point which we need to cherish and respect.

In a period of ten days recently, I worked as a mediator in a number of diverse situations. These, anonymised here, have included an evening with townspeople explaining to a quarry operator their distress about the effects on a community of nearby blasting. I have sought to help a national sports body handle a very sensitive issue involving one of its athletes who could not compete at the level she expected, and facilitated meetings in which a long-standing customer of a national bank explained the devastating impact of the termination of funding on his family business, while the bank wrestled with recovery of a large debt. I have spent hours with a senior employee, of international distinction, as she came to terms with the loss of her career and reputation, for which she blamed her employers. I watched the owner of a ground-breaking sports facility plead with the builder to rectify faults which threatened its future, while learning that what happened may not have been anyone’s fault, and I have listened to representatives of a national insurance broker apologise to an entrepreneur who had been denied insurance recovery after her life’s project had been written off following an unexpected flood. And then there was the major corporate entity with a huge international business negotiating with a relatively small but passionate supplier whose company had been forced to close after a change in corporate policy had resulted in loss of half of its business overnight.

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