Saturday, July 4, 2009

Envy in the Workplace

While researching this series, I read an article by a psychologist on dealing with envy at work. A person will get a promotion, and someone is bitter, feeling that they should have gotten the promotion.

The promoted employee tries being nice, but it doesn't work. Why not? Because the envious person feels that he is a victim of the successful person. The envious person doesn't have to take it personally, but he feels that the promotion is rightfully his (or hers) and the friendliness of the "winner" doesn't change that.

So what should the victim of envy do? After being nice and not succeeding, the person with the promotion needs to go on. But if there is a conflict, the person might need to say "I got the promotion because I'm better than you."

But you can't do that in Christian service; we're supposed to be humble, remember? So how do you deal with envy in the church?

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