BY: THE OFFICE MANAGER
In an increasingly competitive and maybe dog-eat-dog world, in an era of globalisation, jealousy and envy among people have invariably taken on many shapes, hues and forms like never before in the history of humankind
Having stated this, the next question a person might want to ask is – if this social condition is manageable and controllable as extreme cases of jealousy and envy leads to other forms of social ills and dilemmas.
In examining jealousy and envy, it is prevalent in schools, colleges and universities, in the homes of people and at the workplace, and it is the latter, or professional jealousy at the workplace which this article is pursuing.
The green-eyed monster syndrome
Work flow in an office must be humming along smoothly, if possible, all the time, and there should and not be any disruption to productivity at the workplace and in ensuring this, there emerges rivalry, animosity or even acrimony.
The green-eyed monsters are to be found in every workplace and they must be spotted and accordingly managed by those responsible for running and organising offices or the productivity output could be in jeopardy.
Bosses, managers and superiors must exercise tact, sensitivity and maturity and wisdom in ironing out the kinks associated with jealousy and envy among their staff for workflow to tick to perfection.
Understanding envious behaviour
A person responsible for his or her employees should, by monitoring and observing staff, or through the grapevine in the office, note down workers who are likely to grow envious and jealous owing to better performances by certain personnel.
These people in higher authority should proceed to keep the peace and harmony at the workplace by counsel and advice in subtle and indirect ways to eliminate rising envy and jealousy in a worker.
This is an unenviable task as it requires certain management skills and knowledge which is likely within the capacity of those who have a proven track record in managing people at various kinds of work environments.
Learning to adopt a “give-and-take” policy
Capable managers usually adopt a “give-and-take” policy and they implement this at the workplace effectively to ensure the friction, the jealousy and envy does not lead to factions and cliques being formed in the office.
They have the understanding of knowing they must nip the rise or emergence of jealousy and envy while it is at the budding stage, and to ensure it does not take root in an employee under his jurisdiction and control.
While there are other measures also that can be implemented to manage jealousy and envy, it takes courage and common sense to use these ways and means to bring about the highest possible level of productivity at the workplace.
-THE MALAYSIA VOICE
** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher
