One of My Co-Workers Stole Another's Husband. Unfortunately, We All Still Work Together.

"Two of my co-workers, "Selena" and "Penelope," have been at war with each other for years, but now things have reached a boiling point after Selena had an affair with Penelope's now-ex-husband. Penelope's ex and Selena are now married (he left Penelope for her). It's gotten to the point where they cannot be in the same room with one another, let alone work on projects together. I always end up having to take the place of one of them, and I'm starting to burn out."

"Your boss, with human resources' support, should have shut down the hostilities years ago. Obviously, managers can't make S & P play nice, but they could have enforced minimum expectations for professional behavior. After the divorce and remarriage, they could have transferred one or both of them or rearranged job responsibilities so they wouldn't need to collaborate. This is a manageable problem when you have proper management."

"If you just stop, Caught in the Middle, how would the consequences play out? I assume S & P would blow up at each other, fail to complete their projects, harm your team's performance, and/or embarrass your team in front of clients or other divisions. These are lousy outcomes, of course, but how bad would they be in the long run, and how bad would they be for you, personally?"

Two coworkers became bitter after an affair and subsequent marriage, leaving them unable to be in the same room or collaborate on projects. A third colleague repeatedly covers for one or the other, performing joint-project work and experiencing burnout. Management and human resources have not enforced basic professional standards or restructured roles to separate the two, which would have been a reasonable solution after the relationship change. Without managerial intervention, the colleague is effectively separating them and sustaining an unsustainable workload. Stopping coverage could lead to project failures, damaged team performance, and public embarrassment, so the personal and team consequences must be weighed.

Read at Slate Magazine