Streaning Star Trek: Insurrection Full Movie
6 years ago
Monday, October 20, 2008
“Natural Competition” of the Market (Ch 10)
I understand how encouraging competition can benefit an organization. By trying to perform better than others, people increase their productivity and it helps the bottom line. While the short-term benefit for the company are obvious, I am not so sure about long-term benefits. A few years ago, one of my previous manager could not make up his mind about who to promote. He hesitated between me and my co-worker. So he decided to spit up our group of 6 people in two identical groups of 3 people. My co-worker managed one of the group and I managed the other. This was one of the worse decision I have seen. My co-worker and I started competing for the management of the entire group and the competition became very ugly. She, of course, never played fair. I remember about her spreading lies about me or taking credit for my ideas or always interrupting me when I was speaking at meeting to repeat exactly what I was saying. Eventually I decided to leave. My work environment has become to unhealthy for me. I was spending all my energy fighting her or defending myself. Neither one of us, nor our manager, was really thinking about what was best for the company. At the end, the company lost productivity and motivation and a great employee.
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3 comments:
That sounds like a terrible situation! I am sorry you were foced out of a job because of a lack of leadership on the part of your boss. Competition between employees who are supposed work for the benefit of the entire department can indeed be corosive. Years ago I had a part-time sales position that was based on comission. I was recommended for the position by a neighbor who worked in the same dept. At first things were fine, but soon enough the pressure was on to increase sales. One day a group of international clients came in and placed a very large order - with payment to be made once the order had been received. My neighbor was not working on the day I took the order, but when the order came in I was off. He then called my customers and collected payment using his sales id. When I found out you can imagine the fireworks. Initially management's attitude was: doesn't matter who makes the sale (to them) as long as the dept. makes the sale. I persisted however, and eventually received credit for the sale.
Wow, that sounds like the worst situation ever. I can imagine how bad the environment and your morale would have been during that time. Your boss made an extremely poor decision and as a result the organization suffered. The organization lost a good employee (you), the group suffered, and the overall environment was unhealthy. It's good to have a little competition because I think it keeps employees on their toes and forces them to do their best, but in your situation, the competition was not "natural" or healthy. It should have been the manager's responsibility to determine who was to be promoted and it was not appropriate to leave it up to you guys. I agree that this is a case of poor leadership and decision making.
I think friendly competition is often a fun way to get everyone motivated and worked up but if it taken too seriously, like in the situation you described, then it can end up damaging the organization. I can see how the desire to win, envy, and jealousy could easily lead to lies, sabotage, and unshared information. And even after it is all over, there will still be some uncleared air and hurt feelings left behind that cannot be forgotten. In your case, it seems like the damage was done and you could no longer go back to the way it was. How unfortunate.
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