Diffuse Bitter Feelings Between Two Of Your Employees

Posted on: 6 November 2017

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If you own and operate an advertising firm and two of your colleagues have varying ideas when it comes to designing and promoting advertising materials which leads to heated arguments, you may feel uncomfortable during the dramatic moments and believe that the lack of professionalism that each person exudes could hurt your company's reputation. Attempt to diffuse the bitter feelings between the two employees and prevent future arguments by using the tips below. 

Hold An Impromptu Meeting In A Comfortable Setting

Hold an impromptu meeting with the two employees during a time that no other obligations need to be handled. Ask your workers to sit down in the break room or outdoors on the patio and offer each person a cup of coffee and some light snacks.

Avoid placing blame on either worker, concerning past arguments, and merely state that you have observed some tension between the two of them during work hours. Allow each person to voice any concerns that they have and encourage both parties to apologize to one another and agree to be more understanding when it comes to job duties. 

Delegate Specific Tasks

After taking some time to think about how you operate your business, you may come to the consensus that you haven't assigned specific tasks to each worker and may have provided your workers with unclear expectations which has lead to animosity between the two workers. Create a list of tasks that need to be handled each day, including contacting clients, preparing orders, advertising specials, and ordering supplies from vendors.

Assign one person to each task so that confusion does not become an issue when it is time to complete work duties. Tell each of your workers what is expected of them and check in with both of them periodically to make sure that job assignments are being completed as desired. 

Offer Counseling Sessions

If all of your attempts to resolve conflict in the workplace seem to be to no avail, contact a dispute resolution counselor who has experience helping business owners and employees work together to reach a common goal. Request separate appointments for each of your employees and discuss the counseling sessions with your workers prior to the day of the appointments. During counseling sessions, each worker can voice their opinion in a private setting and will receive encouragement from the counselor.

After counseling sessions are complete, speak with the counselor to receive feedback concerning the initial appointments. The counselor may advise you to set up a group appointment with both employees or they may offer other suggestions that will help eliminate discord during each work shift.