How to handle employees who despise each other?

I am a new director and I have 2 staff who literally hate each other. One says she feels she's being bossed around, then the other says she doesn't do her share of work. They constantly are in my office complaining about one another. Help!

decide which one you don't like. If it's the one who is bossy that you don't like, give her even more work to do and let the lazy one slack all day.
If it's the lazy one that you don't like, give her more and more work until the bossy one is practically idle.
This way, the one who you hate will quit and leave you free to hire someone yourself. You are never truly a boss until your team is your handpicked crew. Always remember that.

Separate them. If that is not possible, find which one is better for the company and fire the other. That should set a good tone in the office for people working together.

refuse to deal with back stabbing. Say if they have a complaint with another employee, you will deal with them both together, directly. That way you can get both stories at once. They are putting you in the middle and that is not fair. It is easier for them to back stab than to deal head on, but the problem will be resolved more quickly if they know they can't pull that on you. Also keep reminding them of the mission statement, and the purpose they are there. A good leader must have a constant vision of where the group is headed, and not tolerate behavior that detracts from the goal, whatever it may be. You might lose one of the employees, but that may be what needs to happen. No one needs the drama. Good luck!

I'd have a three way conference with them, acting as a mediator. Make it a non-threatening one...tell them in advance that it will be a 'discussion of work styles." Use a book like *The Mastery of Management* by Taibi Kahler, which describes different work personalities in six simple ways, none of which is inferior to the others. Determine how each of the two, plus yourself, prefer working, and prefer receiving and giving communications. Then, come up with a written contract, of specific ways in which the three of you will interact, which may include periodic conferences to work out the "bugs" in your written contract.

It may be, for example, that one should never talk to the other, but only write notes; that one should only e-mail the other, or only e-mail the other's colleague, to tell the other something, for the time being.

I know it sounds inefficient and petty, but based on a "family therapy" model, small changes of just this type may completely repair a relationship between the two of them, in a relatively short period of time!!

Ha ha ha - got to laugh at PS' answer - hope he's not serious.

The one thing you've not mentioned is whether either or both of them are actually any good at their job - that's the first thing you should be looking at if you're a director surely? (Not, as PS suggests, which one you like!)

If one is rubbish, then get rid of them for the right reasons (is one a slacker as is suggested?).

If they are both good at their jobs, then you need to find a way of seperating them. You can either do this physically by moving one of them into a different office, or you can make both of them responsible directly to you and tell both of them that you won't tolerate either of them acting like schoolchildren - I'd suggest you do this with both of them in your office together. Make them talk to each other in the same room about why they don't get on, with you as the intermediary - half the problem here is probably that they are not communicating.

Don't you have an HR Department who can help you out here?

Well you gotta put your foot down, and get serious, let them know that you're not putting up with anymore of this. If possible try to seperate them so they don't kill each other. Also watch them, can you verify what they say of each other is true?

Terminate whichever is least productive and annoying.

I've been in management for over 20 years. The way I handle this situation, is to make them both hate me more than they hate each other. Many times, 2 people with a common enemy will work get along better.