Managing Employees Who Don’t Get Along

Having two employees who cannot stand one another is a real challenge for any manager who has goals to meet. Here are some tricks to help restore communication channels for a well-functioning team.

A surly secretary has been terrorizing the company employees for some time. In response to this challenging behaviour, insults are being made behind their back. An employee will take it too far with inappropriate remarks which will come back to the secretary. Now it’s war. But not necessarily forever. Here are the ABCs of getting back on track when it comes to venomous relations between employees.

 

1. Don’t bury your head in the sand

Are two employees going at it to the point where they lack respect for one another? Do not wait before acting. All it takes is a disrespectful climate to set in, and gossip could spread like an epidemic throughout the team.

 

2. Identify the problem

Before firing the responsible party, we must first fully assess the situation and determine the root cause of the problem. Why is it that your secretary suddenly became discourteous? Are there problems at home? Where they harassed at work? Are they considered to be underpaid?

The causes of any spat can be manifold. Generally, problems arise when an employee is not doing their work, when rumors start to fly, there’s a deterioration in work relations, and employees start feeling jealous that incomes are unfair, as figures are conflicting and stress reaches its peak.

Finding the cause of the problem helps to better understand the behavior of the difficult employee, and makes it easier to implement the right solution.

To see it more clearly, it may not be a bad idea to seek the help of an external party: whether it be the company's human resources department, a mediator, coach or even an organizational psychologist (a specialist in labor relations), involving a third person can help save the situation.

 

3. Tackle the problem head-on, but do so calmly

When they’re going at it, the manager has a duty to sit down with employees separately and discuss the issue calmly.

Each employee will have their own version of what happened. The manager's job is to hear both sides out, to demonstrate empathy for their grievances, but without accepting overt criticism.

The employer will help the employee open up by asking questions: Why are you being disrespectful these days? Why do you think so and so is interfering in your business? What makes you say they are not working properly? What do you think would improve the situation?

The manager helps the employee to unload this weight of their shoulders. He must speak to all involved parties equally. He must demonstrate that he is taking this seriously. This can guarantee that both employees will take concrete measures in addressing the problem.

 

4. Restore dialogue

Once everyone has expressed themselves, it is time for employees to speak calmly to one another. The task of the manager is to play the referee and reach a satisfactory ending. Together, employees will choose concrete and realistic objectives, adapted to the situation and for all to adhere!

 

5. Follow up

Everything went well until now. Labour relations have improved. Now, the role of the employer is to verify that the commitments are met in the long term.

An employer who is not able to calm the situation down only makes it worse. Employees who hate each other may well begin to hate the manager too, considering they are unnecessary and even harmful in some circumstances.

To better follow up on these situations, they may integrate new attitudes within a ‘continuous improvement’ plan, a document that quantifies the employees’ performances. It will describe the performances that need improvement (must be specific and give examples), the resources available to the employee to reach these goals, possible consequences if targets are not met, etc.

Finally, if the disagreement persists despite these efforts, there may just be bad faith in the air! It may be time to rethink the firing option…

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