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!

Feedback and Peer Feedback
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
In reply to Feedback and Peer Feedback by Todd Puccio
Thanks so much! This is very
Thanks so much! This is very helpful.