How to Squash Jealousy on Your Team

Promotions and bonuses are ways for you to recognize a top performer on your team, but this kind of attention can also provoke jealousy in employees who have to watch their co-worker get something that they did not.

Like other negative emotions, jealousy can contribute to a toxic environment that can sap employee morale, lower productivity and increase worker turnover.

While it’s hard to completely eliminate jealousy on your team, there are a few things you can do to keep it from having a significant negative impact.

Consider Whether Employees Have a Right to Be Jealous

If you are getting the sense that your employees are becoming increasingly jealous of one employee in particular, put some serious thought into whether or not there is a legitimate reason.

For instance, is one person always getting recognized while others are being ignored? Does the person rub their recognition in the faces of other employees? Did the person really do enough to earn the recognition they received?

If you determine that one employee is benefitting from favoritism, or they aren’t being gracious after being rewarded, you must quickly address this root cause to keep the rest of your team from becoming disengaged.

Support Other Employees

While rewarding everybody in the workplace defeats the purpose of an incentive program, that doesn’t mean you can’t show support for the rest of your team after recognizing one person in particular. Something as simple as dedicating a few extra minutes of your workday to help out your team, or upgrading a frequently-used piece of equipment can go a long way to showing your team they’re all appreciated.

Recognize More Than Top Performers

Too often, management falls into the trap of rewarding the same handful of employees over and over. When incentives are based on hard numbers, like sales figures or units produced, these rewards are very justified. However, workers that come in every day and put in a solid day’s work can start to feel left out, and that can be demoralizing.

Remember that your business needs these dependable employees just as much as your top performers. Your incentive program should be geared to recognize these oft-forgotten workers.

Hold Regular Team-Building Sessions

It’s easier to fall into the trap of feeling jealous if the person experiencing success is not your friend. One effective way to squash jealousy is to bond your team tightly together, making it easier for co-workers to feel genuinely happy for one another when they succeed.

Hold regular happy hour events or luncheons if you don’t want to mix work and alcohol. Not only will these social events keep jealousy to a minimum, they’ll also help to reduce conflict and boost overall morale.

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