What To Do When The Management Doesn’t Get Along

Two office managers on my team have had an impaired relationship for 12 months now. Their animosity has grown to an extent where even their supervisors are allegedly implicated in the tension, is it wise to threaten them to reconcile or they lose their contract?

The Team Doc Says…

If these managers report to you , it’s high time you took some action. It doesn’t sound like you’ve had any type of discussion with them at all at this point. After 12 months of the same behavior, it’s going to be tough to effect some change. Here are a couple of options.

1. You can talk with each one individually about what you have observed and define what behavior you expect of these people. Then you can put them on an action plan to track the progress.

2. Another approach is to get both of them in a room at the same time to sort out the problem. You will need to facilitate and control this discussion and make sure you have an idea in mind of the outcome before you ever begin the meeting.