The difference between positive and negative work environments
The work place is an emotional cauldron. The emotions envy, jealousy and resentment respectively are seen in most workplaces around the globe, thus making the work environment unfavourable. Unfortunately, it is a dilemma across all corporate settings. These emotions are triggered easily due to position, power arrangement; lack of trust and transparency, miscommunication, time pressures and real or identified scarcity of resources that pit colleagues against one another. Unbalanced competitiveness is the reason for these negative emotions to rise to the surface, creating an unhealthy atmosphere.
There is a direct link between what we think, how we feel and how we behave. In this process when we compare, we trigger a feeling. At the workplace when things do not seem to be working according to one’s wishes, these natural human impulses accumulate together into a nasty fusion, triggering some negative emotions that produce disruptions in the corporate environment. Negative emotions, i.e., envy, jealousy and resentment are inter-related and work in a cyclic motion, one following the other.
All work environments involve some degree of competition. If the competition is healthy and balanced with mutual respect and commitment to achieve the desired goal, it can automatically spur people to bring out their best abilities
Envy starts with the desire for something that someone else has. It is the ‘unmentionable’ emotion that is one of the most pervasive and most powerful of all the disruptive emotions that affect the corporate environment. As a consequence, jealousy is instigated that is usually seen when relationships of any kind, be it work-specific or personal, is threatened by rivals who possess self- defining qualities. Jealousy is often associated with another person and creates ambiguity in the corporate atmosphere. Due to unhealthy competition among the employees, suspicion is often witnessed which leads to jealousy. Jealousy is, therefore, a dominant emotion and can rock systems that were previously stable, causing damage not only to the environment but also to the personality of an individual.
Resentment, on the other hand, is a companion of envy and jealousy. Resentment is a spring board to anger, and then hatred, which later provides a route to depression in some cases. Envy is positively co-related with resentment and, as described earlier, is wanting what another person possesses, resenting it, wanting to take it away, and in many cases wanting to see the person ruined. Resentment cannot be seen visibly when these three emotions are at play, but springs up occasionally, usually sparked off by one of the other emotions. Envious people fail to acknowledge good ideas and instead of supporting internal ideas, they prefer learning from outsiders, sometimes spending corporate resources to serve their own personal agendas.
All work environments involve some degree of competition. If the competition is healthy and balanced with mutual respect and commitment to achieve the desired goal, it can automatically spur people to bring out their best abilities. If however, the competition is unhealthy and involves nasty or ruthless behaviour on an ongoing basis, it can undermine the performances of the employees and group members. Psychological research suggests that individuals who are competitive in the corporate sector are those who have an unstable self-esteem. Their only motive is to impress colleagues and always feel superior to them, whereas when they encounter setbacks, or when something doesn’t go according to plan, a sense of shame and self-doubt overwhelms them resulting in anxiety and vigilance around social status and performance.1
Envy starts with the desire for something that someone else has. It is the ‘unmentionable’ emotion that is one of the most pervasive and most powerful of all the disruptive emotions that affect the corporate environment
Pathologically speaking, some people are self-centred and narcissistic, and do not view an individual as a separate entity rather a reflection or extension of themselves, a source of admiration of for their accomplishments, a potential threat to their own success, or sometimes as an object to use or manipulate in order to meet their own needs or increase their own resources. This kind of diversionist tries to wreck the social group setting and resort to practices like deception, intimidation, manipulation and unhealthy competition.
Nowadays, there is a significant amount of competition in the corporate sector. The difference between a positive and a negative competitive work environment lies in the extent to which competitiveness becomes a zero-sum game. It is essential to learn and gain from healthy competition instead of indulging into unhealthy ways of competing with one another on different forefronts. High productivity is a sign of a competitive workplace and this process can create an upward spiral with past winning performances becoming milestones to be undone. There should be a reason to celebrate every team member’s success instead of unhealthy pressure to improve, bringing out the negative natural impulses, and creating an undesirable work environment. When workplace competition is friendly and supportive, positive employee engagement works in everyone’s best interest; it makes day to day tasks competitive, enjoyable and easier for working personnel to compete on a substantial level.
