Envy is one of the most harmful feelings in the professional environment since camaraderie is real when a person is happy about the successes that happen to others. On the contrary, envy shows the disgust and sadness felt by those who experience the brilliance of others as a threat to their own personal excellence. How to protect yourself from envy at work?
At Psychology-Online we give you ideas that can help you create a positive climate in the office, minimizing the risk of feeling affected by the vision of jealousy since you can transform this point of view into an attitude of admiration that is more resilient.
Tips to avoid feeling envy at work
- There are always people with better preparation and qualifications and that should not be a reason to distrust one’s own potential. There is simply an inexhaustible source of talent in a society that stands out for the qualification of the most specialized profiles. Therefore, Do not obsess with the idea of being the best because this affects your own well-being.
- Work success is not measured in relation to the qualities of other colleagues but rather with human resources. competencies. That is to say, the most suitable profile for a job position is not the one with the most titles on the resume but rather the one that best fits the skills that the employee must have to carry out the tasks of that specific job position. For this reason, a resume may not be chosen in one company, however, it is the one that stands out the most in another company.
- Each person has their own difficulties, therefore, when you envy other colleagues, think about whether you really know all the information about their situation to have an opinion. objective view of their circumstances. For example, you may not take into account professional disappointments, hours of effort, perseverance and improvement invested in a goal.
- Change the focus of envy to the admiration. When you are envious of a person you position yourself before them as if they were your enemy, on the contrary, when you feel admiration for another person they become a reference to follow. Envy clouds your vision and prevents you from learning; on the contrary, admiration is an ingredient of mentoring.
- Invest time in training because this preparation is the best option to apply for better jobs with better salary conditions. When you feel envy of another person you underestimate your own reality, on the contrary, when you put into practice your personal improvement you adopt a different concept of luck by influencing your destiny in that which depends on you.
- When you feel envy of a partner, try to have empathy with your position. Imagine that it is you who has achieved that goal. How would you like people to react to you in that case? This imagination exercise can help you put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
What to do when they envy you at work
However, envy is a feeling that not only you can experience as a protagonist, other people can also envy you. Obviously, you are not in control of the situation when it comes to preventing anyone from feeling this way about you. However, you can influence create healthy bonds of camaraderie and:
- Don’t change your treatment of others even if your circumstances change. This is one of the most important premises. Maybe you have achieved success, however, your personal core remains the same because your value as a person transcends this concrete fact. When humility and simplicity In your treatment of others they describe your way of being, so these qualities are truly admirable.
- Help others and ask your questions when you need it. In relation to the previous point, a natural consequence of humility is to have a active willingness to collaborate by sharing one’s own knowledge, but also, to have the interest of obtaining new ideas thanks to the point of view of others.
- Be careful with the desire for prominence in meetings or in teamwork. You have your space, but you also have to respect that of others. Use your own common sense by not monopolizing the speaking turn in any context. Learn to listen.
- Try to stay out of any conversation in which the topic is destructive criticism of someone who is not present. That is, be a transparent person in your dealings so that others perceive the authenticity that exists in you in your behaviors.
- If you have the opportunity to present innovative ideas to improve work in the company, then propose solutions that can be an overall improvement for you and your colleagues. Beyond any type of individualistic vision, it also finds space for the common good.
- Not everyone can like you, therefore, when a partner is envious of you, do not enter into the game of believing that you have to do something to change this situation. Try to treat that person with cordiality and focus your main attention on those colleagues who are your main support.
Causes of jealousy at work
To understand envy and know how to protect yourself from it, it is also advisable to understand why it occurs, that is, diagnose the reasons that accompany it:
- Favoritism. When employees observe visible differences in the treatment received by the organization, when many of them feel in the background compared to the frequent prominence of one or more colleagues, then this unequal treatment must be corrected by the human resources department. .
- Internal deficiencies. Employees also transfer to their daily work in the company the insecurities they accumulate around their own professional performance or the way they perceive themselves. One increases the risk of suffering from envy at some point in one’s professional career because the affected person constantly compares themselves with others. Envy is a consequence of this tendency to compare.
- Psychological game. Some people love to boast about their merits, they put their value in their own desire to feel admired by others. It is the profile of the vain person. That is, they seek constant recognition from the other. But, without a doubt, in addition to admiration they can also arouse envy.
- Absence of teamwork. A group of people does not constitute a team by itself. When in a company there is an environment of individualism and rivalry against others, while a human environment encourages its members to give their best, on the contrary, an environment marked by these emotional vampires produces the opposite effect.
- be very far from that ideal state that one day you dreamed of achieving. Having the feeling of having been stuck at a point on your path. In that case, this frustration can also increase the risk of suffering jealousy towards those people who have achieved this goal.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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