Does anyone have "children" at work

I work with actual children. If I have to work an evening/closing shift (retail) there is usually a 16 year old with me and more in neighbouring departments. I'm careful to never nag (like a mom). I treat them like a peer and give sincere appreciation when they are helpful. It's sort of the old positive reinforcement trick. I have no idea if this would work with older "kids". Can you appeal to their sense of fair play or something?

Tried that - I think one of these "children" is incapable of fair play.

Ugh. And probably getting away with it for years.

No advice. Just something I ran across today that you can probably relate to...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rz2jRHA9fo

What do they do? Whine, temper tantrum, nagging?

Maybe you need to raise the bar in his/her work, expect more from them
so they can grow into more responsibility. Assert yourself and adopt a more
stern language - "I expected you to do xxxxx by this afternoon!"
Things like these. Perhaps he/she needs more authority and responsibility and only lacks confidence.

Also I am sure the job description is written for a grown-up, perhaps the
employee should be reminded of it what is expected of him.

The less attention is spent on childish behaviour, the less prominent it
becomes.

Very true, dat.

If you treat a subordinate as you'd treat a child, pretty soon he/she will start to act just like a child.

Currently they don't talk to each other. Prior to that one of them complains alot and the person cannot stand to hear her voice (and the complaining) so he makes snide comments back. And yes there is lots of whining.

Unfortunately this is at a different location so I do not see it first hand. When I was there not too long ago, they were on their best behavior, but shortly after I left they had an incident together so thus the move. It will of course be noted in their review and impact their professional rating.

They are both very "strong willed" strong opinionated individuals and really push each other's buttons nicely.

Being a former supervisor, I am going to listen (read) what advice I can get from hear so I can improve my reaction skills to these types of employees.

I can be childish outside of work but when it comes to work, though I'm laid back, I do take my work seriously.

Usually as a supervisor, I would be passively aggressive in my resignation towards childish/bratty behavior at work.

I don't think passive/aggressive behavior is ever a good idea - especially from a manager!

I worked with a crazy person once. It got so bad that my entire department communicated with her through our respective managers - me to Scott, Scott to Diana, Diana to Crazyperson, and back through the chain again. Our overall manager had seen her in action but couldn't seem to do anything about it.

Give a warning to the two of them: grow up or get out.

With SO many people out there needing jobs, why put up with this?

Can you imagine how many work hours are being wasted in dealing with this/

Yes - and we have from my report (direct manager) on through to my boss/her boss and one more level up from there.

I agree I'd like to do that - but it wouldn't be allowed - there is another complication with a recent HR approved LOA that one of these individuals came back from - HR suggests we tread lightly as we don't want a law suit.

So we move one and note on their review lack of being a team player and lower their rating as a result.