Why is it as humans we tend to be cynical, non-trusting and jealous of anyone that outperforms us?
That was meant as a rhetorical question with a dose of sarcasm for those that don't catch on quickly.
I see it on a daily basis. Because someone is better at a task than we are we automatically assume they must be cheating the system. If someone is able to produce more, it must be because they aren't doing things by the book. There's no way that you could be taking good care of our customers and be done that quickly.
I have no doubt that regardless of the task or the industry the thoughts and actions are the same.
Think about it. A new employee starts. They come in with a certain amount of excitement and anticipation. They very likely came from a job that they didn't like or feel appreciated in. They want to get started on a good foot and earn the respect of their peers and supervisors. So they perform, and usually perform well. Many times performing better than the "old timers." And rather than encouraging that behavior we take pot shots at them.
As old timers, we don't like being shown up. We don't need some young whippersnapper coming in and making us look bad. We protect our turf. Initially we try to persuade the newbies on "how WE do things." We try to get them to conform to our lower standards. Sadly most old timers are pretty good at this. It is after all how we were initially treated.
It's a lot like the hierarchy in high school where the freshman is scum and not entitled to an opinion, whereas the senior rules the halls and can do no wrong. As you progress through the ranks from freshman to senior you slowly learn how to treat those younger than you as though they are incompetent and incapable of an intelligent thought.
But even worse than trying to coach newbies into slowing down to our level, we start taking direct shots at them in an attempt to keep from having our own weaknesses exposed. We do it in a friendly way initially by just making management "aware of a possible problem." Usually we don't have anything to support our assumption other than the need to protect our weakness. We justify it by the fact that we are looking out for the company, but are we really?
Before I go too far to the extreme, I will admit there are times where people don't perform at an appropriate level and need to be dealt with. In those cases we shouldn't look the other way, but should confront things head on. But that is usually the exception rather than the rule, at least where I work.
When friendly fire doesn't work, we break out the big guns and go into assassination mode. We nit pick everything they do. We gossip about them. We form our cliques that the newbies can't be apart of, hoping to somehow shame them into performing below their capabilities. Sadly we are pretty good in assassination mode.
How cool would work be if instead of being jealous and trying to hold others down to our standard, we swallowed our pride learned from each other, regardless of how old or young the individual is. How much could we learn from a fresh set of eyes or someone who isn't stuck in the pattern of doing things a certain way just because that's the way we've always done it.
Do you learn from star performers or are you on the sidelines taking aim? Just a thought.
