A disagreement between two employees often starts with a small issue: a missed deadline, an unexpected change to a file, or both employees expecting the other to handle the task.
For example, one employee may change a file without telling their colleague. A report may be late because one employee did not send the data needed to complete it. Two employees may also receive different deadlines from their manager and each starts working according to a different date.
At first, the problem may stay between the two employees. They may stop sharing information, stop asking each other for help, or delay tasks because they do not want to work with each other. If the problem continues, the manager may start hearing complaints from both employees.
At this point, the manager needs to address the conflict before it starts affecting the rest of the team.
The manager does not need to decide who is right or wrong. First, they need to find out what happened, what each employee expected, and where the problem started. They can then decide what needs to change so the same problem does not happen again.
That might mean deciding who is responsible for a task, agreeing on a clear deadline, deciding how one employee should pass work to the other, or addressing behavior that cannot continue.
Understand What Happened
Do not put both employees in the same meeting before hearing from each of them separately.
Speak to them separately first.
Each employee may describe the same situation differently. One employee may say:
“I couldn’t finish the report because he didn’t send me the data I needed.”
The other may say:
“I sent the figures two days ago.”
Hear both sides before deciding what to do next.
Ask questions such as:
- What happened between you and your colleague?
- When did the problem start?
- What did you expect your colleague to do?
- What did you do when the problem came up?
- Has this happened before?
If the disagreement is about a particular task, check the emails, messages, deadline, or project notes related to it.
You may find that neither employee is completely wrong.
For example, the data may have been sent, but it was sent to the wrong person or too late to complete the report. The manager now knows what went wrong instead of treating it as a problem between the two employees.
Focus on Specific Actions
Managers may hear comments such as:
“He’s lazy.”
“She’s difficult.”
“He doesn’t respect my work.”
These comments do not tell the manager what happened. Ask for a specific example.
If someone says, “He is lazy,” ask:
“Which work was not completed?”
If someone says, “She keeps interfering with my work,” ask:
“What did she change?”
If someone says, “He never listens,” ask:
“What happened in the last meeting?”
This helps the manager decide what needs to change.
Find the Real Cause
The argument between employees is not always the real problem.
Two employees may keep arguing about who should complete a report. After speaking with both of them, the manager may find that neither employee was told to complete the report.
Another team may have two employees checking the same work because reviewing it is part of both employees’ responsibilities.
In another case, one employee thinks the task is due on Friday while the other thinks it is due on Wednesday because they received different deadlines.
These are different problems, even though the employees may think they are having a conflict with each other.
Focus on what the employees disagree about:
- Who is responsible for the task?
- Who makes the final decision?
- When does the work need to be completed?
- What information does each person need?
- Who should approve the work?
- How should changes be communicated?
- What happens when someone cannot meet a deadline?
If the manager can answer these questions clearly, some conflicts become much easier to handle.
Speak to Each Employee Separately First
Separate conversations give each employee a chance to explain what happened, what they were told to do, and where they believe the problem started.
The manager should speak to each employee separately before arranging a meeting with both of them.
The manager should not assume that everything either employee says is correct.
If one employee says the other missed three deadlines, check the project records.
If someone says they sent an important document, check the email or message to confirm when it was sent.
If an employee says they received different instructions, check who gave the instructions and what they were told to do.
The manager is not trying to prove that one employee is at fault. They are checking the facts before deciding how to handle the disagreement.
Employees may describe the same situation differently, so the manager needs to hear both sides before deciding what to address.
Bring Both Employees Together
Once you understand the situation, decide what needs to be discussed with both employees.
Keep the meeting focused on the work problem, not their personal differences.
Decide what the meeting needs to resolve.
For example:
“If one employee changes the report, they should tell the other employee before the file is used.”
This gives both employees something clear to discuss.
Let each employee explain what they need from the other. If the conversation turns into:
“You always do this.”
or
“You never help.”
Bring the discussion back to the incident that caused the problem.
Ask:
“What happened with this report?”
Then ask:
“What should happen next time?”
The goal is to agree on what each employee should do when the same situation comes up again.
Clarify Who Is Responsible for What
Once the problem is understood, decide who will handle each task and what each employee is responsible for.
For example:
James prepares the first version of the report.
Priya reviews it and lists the changes in the project management tool.
James makes the changes.
Priya gives final approval before the report is sent to the client.
That is much clearer than telling them to “communicate better.”
The same approach works for other disagreements.
If the problem is missed deadlines, decide who needs to send the information, what they need to send, and when they need to send it.
If two employees are doing the same work, decide which employee will handle each task.
If one employee keeps changing another employee’s work, decide how changes should be requested.
If the problem is conflicting instructions, decide who makes the final decision.
The solution should address the specific problem that caused the disagreement.
Do Not Force Them to Like Each Other
Managers sometimes try to fix conflict by asking employees to become friends.
That is not the manager’s job.
Two employees may not like each other. They may have different ways of working, and they may not agree on everything. They can still work together.
What matters is whether they can complete their work, share the information they need, discuss work problems, and follow the agreed process without causing problems for each other.
The manager should make this clear.
The message can be simple:
“You do not have to agree on everything, but you do need to work together professionally and follow the process we have agreed on.”
The goal is not to make the employees like each other. It is to make sure they can work together without the same conflict affecting their work.
Follow Up After the Meeting
A meeting does not mean the problem is solved.
If the employees were arguing about deadlines, check whether the next few deadlines are being met.
If the problem was work being changed without notice, check whether the agreed approval process is being followed.
If communication was the issue, check whether they are sharing the information needed to complete the work.
A short follow-up conversation after a week or two can also help.
Ask:
“Is this working?”
If the same problem comes back, find out why.
The first solution may have stopped the argument without fixing the problem that caused it.
For example, two employees may keep arguing because their work is being delayed by urgent tasks from different managers. Telling them to communicate better will not solve that problem. Their managers need to agree on which tasks should be completed first and when they are due.
When the Manager Should Involve HR
Some situations should not be treated as a normal disagreement between colleagues.
If an employee reports harassment, discrimination, threats, retaliation, bullying, or serious misconduct, the manager should follow the company’s HR process.
The manager should also involve HR if the issue may require a formal investigation.
In these situations, the manager should not simply put the employees together and ask them to resolve the problem themselves.
The manager’s role is to make sure the complaint is passed to HR when it needs formal action, rather than trying to resolve it alone.
What Managers Should Avoid
Managers should avoid a few common mistakes when dealing with employee conflict.
Taking sides too early
If the manager decides who is right before hearing from both employees, the employee who feels ignored may be less willing to explain what happened.
Telling them to “work it out”
For a small disagreement, employees may be able to sort it out themselves. If they have already tried and the problem is affecting their work, the manager needs to step in.
Making the Meeting About Personality
Calling someone “difficult” or “uncooperative” does not solve the problem. Discuss the specific behavior that is causing the problem.
Bringing Up Every Old Complaint
If the current issue is a missed deadline, focus on that deadline unless there are earlier missed deadlines that need to be addressed.
Giving vague instructions
“Communicate better” is not a plan. Tell employees what information they need to share, when they need to share it, and who needs to act on it.
A Practical Example
Imagine a marketing team where two employees keep arguing about blog content.
Emma writes the articles. Rahul checks them before they are sent to the client.
Rahul says Emma does not follow all of his requested changes. Emma says Rahul keeps making new changes after she has already completed the earlier ones.
The manager speaks to both employees separately.
After checking the project history, the manager finds that they do not have an agreed review process. Rahul sometimes adds new changes after Emma has already completed his earlier requests.
The manager changes the process:
- Emma submits the first draft.
- Rahul reviews it once and puts all requested changes in one place.
- Emma makes the changes.
- Rahul checks the revised version.
- If Rahul wants further changes that are not corrections, he discusses them with Emma before she makes them.
The manager has not decided that Emma or Rahul is the problem.
Instead, the manager has changed the review process that was leading to repeated arguments.
This gives both employees a clear way to handle the work without repeating the same disagreement.
Conclusion
Many conflicts between team members can be resolved by changing how the work is assigned or handled.
Sometimes two team members simply disagree about how to handle a task. But when the same disagreement keeps affecting deadlines, tasks, communication, or other employees, the manager needs to step in and decide what needs to change.
Start by speaking to both team members separately. Check the emails, messages, deadlines, or work records that relate to the problem. Then bring them together and agree on who will do what, when the work is due, and how they should handle the same issue in the future.
The solution may be to assign responsibility, change the approval process, set a clear deadline, or agree on how the employees should communicate.
And if the problem involves harassment, discrimination, threats, bullying, retaliation, or serious misconduct, use the company’s HR process rather than treating it as an ordinary disagreement.
The goal is not to make two employees become friends. It is to make sure they know who does what, how the work should be handled, and what to do when the same problem comes up again.
