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I have a question that I can't seem to find a great answer for. I have found many sites that offer tips for how to resolve conflict between 2 employees, however I struggle to find resources for times when one employee is frustrated at the other, but the other employee is unaware or has no idea.

 

Here's the situation with 2 of my directs:

 

Employee A let me know that they feel frustrated that Employee B hasn't got back to them regarding an email Employee A sent several days before. This led to Employee A telling me that Employee B has done this before and it is very frustrating. Employee A deserves to have their inquiries answered in a reasonable amount of time, but Employee B has no idea they are not responding quickly enough. 

 

How do I as a manager handle this scenario? I don't want to play "parent" and get on Employee B for something they didn't know they were doing that was negatively effecting Employee A. I want to encourage Employee A to let Employee B know how it effects them negatively when they don't respond to their inquiry soon enough. If that conversation either doesn't go well, or things don't improve after that, I would get involved directly.

 

Should I be getting involved more in this scenario? As it stands, I recommended Employee A to give Employee B the chance to "know" about the issue before I have to get involved. 

 

Thank you!

pucciot's picture
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You have a couple of options.

1 - You can do a kind of 3rd party Feedback.

Third Party Negative Feedback- How To Decide
https://www.manager-tools.com/2010/07/third-party-negative-feedback-how-to-decide

"Can I Give you some feedback ? When you don't get back to a co-worker in a timely manner it frustrates them and slows down the entire team - Can you improve that?"

---

2 - Encourage Employee A to engage in Peer feedback .
Have them listen to this PodCast

The Peer Feedback Model

https://www.manager-tools.com/2006/10/the-peer-feedback-model

"Hi, Jack,  When you don't get back to me within 24hrs on this kind of request it frustrates me and slows me down"    --- (remember Peers can _not_ ask for improvement they can only state how it affects them)

 

 -- I think you should Go with Option 2 - first

--- Encourage better communication between your employees.

Good Luck

 

TJPuccio

 

 

hustlelikerussell92's picture

Thanks so much! This is very helpful.