The Most Dangerous Emotion in the Organisation? Envy
You discover someone in the team is being paid more. Quite a lot more. Not because they are doing a different job. Not because they have greater responsibilities. They simply negotiated a better pay rise at their annual appraisal.
Then a new recruit casually mentions their starting salary. It is higher than colleagues who have been doing the same job for years.
So much for loyalty.
Elsewhere, the organisation introduces golden hellos to attract people with scarce skills. Existing employees receive no such reward.
Nobody storms out. Nobody submits a grievance.
But something changes.
Jealousy fears loss. Envy resents advantage.
And envy is everywhere in organisations.
It sits behind far more organisational behaviour than leaders would like to admit.
This is hardly surprising. Organisations encourage people to work together while constantly comparing them against each other.
The most obvious example is promotion.
A management post becomes available. Several people believe they are ready. One person gets the job. The others are told they performed well but not quite well enough.
Officially, everyone is pleased.
The successful candidate receives congratulations. Colleagues wish them well. Their manager talks about a strong field of applicants and a difficult decision.
Unofficially, another conversation begins.
Why them?
What do they have that I don't?
Was the decision really based on merit?
Did they have an advantage?
Who was backing them?
Sometimes the disappointment is sharper. They may have helped the successful candidate prepare for the interview. Shared advice. Offered encouragement. Acted as a sounding board. Now they find themselves reporting to them.
The organisation sees a promotion.
Colleagues see a comparison.
The newly promoted manager may have gained a bigger office, a larger salary and greater responsibility. They may also have lost something else. Trust. Goodwill. Cooperation.
Envy is at its strongest when people conclude not simply that someone has more, but that they have not earned it.
Once people reach that conclusion, every success looks suspicious and every setback feels deserved.
Promotion is only one trigger.
Training opportunities create envy.
One directorate funds managers to undertake MBA programmes. Another decides the money is better spent on internal management development courses. A perfectly reasonable decision. Except the organisation continues to advertise senior management jobs with an MBA listed as an essential requirement.
Recognition creates envy.
The same names seem to appear in newsletters, awards and presentations. The same people are described as future leaders. The same individuals are invited to represent the organisation at conferences and events.
Influence creates envy.
Certain people always seem to have the Director's ear. Discussions at senior management meetings can feel strangely familiar because the real conversation appears to have happened beforehand in a corridor, over coffee or during a quick phone call.
Opportunities create envy.
The Chief Executive establishes a number of high-profile corporate working groups. Membership is seen as a chance to build networks, raise visibility and strengthen a CV. Yet somehow the invitations seem to go to the same people.
The organisation sees sensible decisions made for practical reasons.
Employees start drawing conclusions. Favouritism. An inner circle. Different rules for different people.
The problem is not that envy exists.
The problem is what happens when nobody talks about it.
Envy rarely appears openly.
It emerges in more subtle ways.
Information is not shared.
Advice is withheld.
Good ideas receive lukewarm support.
Helpful criticism becomes a way of cutting someone down to size.
The success of others becomes harder to celebrate.
Their mistakes become easier to notice.
Leaders often see these behaviours as resistance, negativity or poor performance.
Sometimes they are.
Sometimes they are envy.
Leaders are often the last people to notice envy because many of the advantages being envied originate with them.
Most organisations like to think envy is a personal failing. An individual weakness. Something that belongs to the employee rather than the organisation.
But organisations are remarkably good at creating the conditions in which envy thrives.
Opaque decisions.
Inconsistent rewards.
Unequal access to opportunities.
Different rules for different people.
The language of fairness combined with experiences that feel anything but fair.
The irony is that organisations spend years trying to build teamwork while simultaneously ranking, comparing, rewarding and promoting people in ways that make comparison unavoidable.
The wider the gap between what an organisation says and what people experience, the more fertile the ground becomes for envy.
Few organisations measure it.
Nobody admits to it in an engagement survey.
Nobody includes it in a wellbeing strategy.
Nobody discusses it on leadership programmes.
Yet it quietly shapes how people interpret decisions, judge leaders and decide who deserves their support.
It weakens trust, undermines cooperation and erodes commitment.
Most organisations think they have a performance problem.
Sometimes what they really have is an envy problem.
And unlike performance problems, nobody wants to admit it exists.
blairmcpherson.co.uk
