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The Green-Eyed Monster
Keeping Envy Out of the Workplace
A CEO to whom I reported, a few years ago, entered
my office one day, slumped into the chair across from me and said,
clearly bewildered: "I have done everything I can to make
the staff happy - we pay good wages, we have a rich benefit plan,
we allow people flexibility in their hours, and yet, still there
is animosity and bickering. I don't understand what drives these
people to behave the way they do."
The answer was at once simple and complex. It had to do with
employee emotions - and, in particular, one emotion: Envy.
Emotions are a powerful instigator of behavior, and envy, the
unmentionable emotion, is perhaps one of the most pervasive and
powerful of all the disruptive emotions that affect our corporate
environments. We are not used to talking about envy in polite
society or in our workplaces. Yet it is there, woven within the
fabric of our organizations and it affects employee moods,
organizational morale and culture and, ultimately, it is one of
the causes of employee disengagement and productivity loss.
There are many reasons for envy to manifest itself in the daily
theatre of the workplace: Competing for scarce resources or
limited budgets, and vying for important assignments, are
commonplace situations that can trigger predictable envy; Coveting
attributes and qualities a colleague has that another might lack
is another understandable possibility in the frailty of human
nature; Losing a promotion to someone better qualified can also be
a trigger for envy. Many of these situations are normal
occurrences and cannot be avoided. They are a part of our
workplace scenarios and many human resources practitioners have,
at one time or other, witnessed a manifestation of these
situations.
But there is an overlooked trigger for envy that may very well be
an insidious cause of much discontent and disruption in the
workplace. It is the leader's unwitting behavior towards select
people in the organization.
Let's take one case in point: It is safe to say that many
organizations have an individual who has a great deal of personal
power that is often not associated with any position function or
high level title - it comes from what is often referred to as
"having the boss's ear". All employees, except perhaps the hapless
newcomer, sense that anything that is said within earshot of that
individual will automatically be relayed to the boss - worse still
is the fear that it will be relayed with personal filtering and
self-serving interpretations. This naturally causes others to envy
the person's power and closeness to the boss and results in a
climate of apprehension and distrust of the individual, and by
extension, the leader.
Another common scenario is associated with the hiring of new "top
guns". Here is what happens: A leader joining an organization
inherits a number of long-term employees. In due course, the
leader hires additional employees who are often perceived to be
more liked by the leader because they were hand-picked by him or
her and are viewed as more in line with the leader's ethos and
style. It's not uncommon to hear the leader himself privately
refer to this as "assembling my own team". The existing employees
are still well treated but there are subtle nuances in the
leader's behavior towards the newcomers that signal that the
newcomers are viewed as more valuable to the team: The leader is
seen spending more time with them and is generally more
complimentary and supportive of anything they do or say. In
meetings, for example, he or she will more readily support ideas
and suggestions by the newcomers, will represent them more
favorably to upper management and give them more visibility in the
company.
While it is impossible for a leader to eradicate envy from the
workplace, there is much a leader can do to create an environment
that minimizes its occurrence. The scholar who has done the most
research on the issue of envy in the workplace is Dr Robert P
Vecchio. In "Managing Envy and Jealousy in the Workplace", one of
many articles he has authored on the topic, Dr Vecchio talks about
envy and jealousy as "commonplace in work settings in part because
of the inherent competitiveness of organizational life". He
recommends five initiatives to counteract these pervasive
reactions:
-
Evaluating the emotional maturity of candidates at the time of
hire.
- Incorporating elements of team culture.
- Implementing incentives that support cooperation.
- Encouraging open communication.
- Placing high performers [who often give rise to envy] in mentor
roles.
To this, one can add a note of advice to leaders regarding their
personal behavior: As leaders, we are continuously being observed
by employees who notice our every move and micro expressions -
they know which employees are allowed in the inner circle from
which they feel excluded. Leaders should pay particular attention
that they don't innocently build these chosen few up while
neglecting the others. As my CEO was made aware that afternoon
when he dropped into my office, frequent public praise of only a
select few, heightens employees' feelings of insecurity about
their own performance and causes resentment which in turns affects
productivity. A leader who becomes aware of this stress-related
reaction that his or her behavior causes on employees will be
better able to manage negative emotions, such as envy, in the
workplace and create a more relaxed and happier work environment
for everyone. In turn, this will help avoid the loss of
productivity that accompanies the green-eyed monster.
Copyright © 2007 by Bruna Martinuzzi. All Rights Reserved.
Based in British Columbia, Bruna is the President and Founder of
Clarion Enterprises Ltd, a company which specializes in emotional
intelligence and leadership training. Click
here to contact her.
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