”…the manager needs to set the tone by making cooperation (“playing well with others”) a performance expectation.”
- People who work closely together don’t always get along. Being in close proximity and needing to cooperate to complete most work, employees often cannot simply ignore each other when they don’t get along. It is inevitable that a manager will be called upon to intervene when employees are in conflict with each other.
- To mitigate these situations, the manager needs to set the tone by making cooperation (“playing well with others”) a performance expectation.
- If direct intervention is necessary, talking to each person individually is the first step. When talking to the employees, the manager needs to avoid being drawn off the subject with side issues. If the side issue is valid, the manager needs to acknowledge it and deal with it at a later time. The second step is meeting with both parties. Have some options in mind before meeting with the co-workers in conflict.
- Advise them that their behaviour is disruptive and corrective action may be necessary. Formal process is the next step. This entails laying out specific ground rules and ensuring clear, result-oriented performance expectations.
- If individuals continue to not get along, if appropriate, try avoiding assigning work where the two parties will not have to work closely together, or adjusting their work locations so they aren’t physically near each other.
- Transferring an employee may be an appropriate solution if the employee is performing at an acceptable performance standard.
- Transferring an employee whose work is poor to another supervisor is not an effective tactic and sends poor messages to co-workers.