Fighting To Work

Yesterday there was a bit of a blow up in my office. My two receptionists were arguing about who works more. Now here is where it gets absurd. They were not arguing about who works more in the sense of one doing more and one doing less. The fight was that both of them wanted to do more to help the other out with their workload and were not allowed to. The conversation went like this, "You never let me answer the phones when you are busy". "Well, you never let me do your timesheets when you have a desk load of work". One called the other hostile and that is when I intervened. I explained that wanting to help each other is a good thing and that they both have such a high work standard that they feel like they are not pulling their weight when they are not in control of the work flow. I told them that they have to relax with each other and not resent the other person for wanting to help. I told them that they were both ridiculous and anyone watching the argument would have laughed at them. Things settled down and we are back in business...for now.