AT WORK
Workplace competition can both help, hinder performance

By Dawn Sagario
Des Moines Register

It seems like for the umpteenth time your superstar, overachieving co-worker has received another accolade for his/her work.

The bosses are raving.

Your reaction: You scurry back to your desk with a vow to wow the higher-ups the next time around.

According to one survey, workplace competition among colleagues is on the rise.

More than half of executives polled — 55 percent—said employees are more competitive with their co-workers than they were a decade ago, according to the findings of Accountemps, a temporary staffing service.

Experts say there is the good and the bad to workplace competition. In some instances, in-house competition can spur other employees to higher productivity. On the downside, rivalries among colleagues can damage team morale and create an unhealthy work environment.

The rise in workplace competition has come in two forms, says Tom Keating of Career Resources Group in West Des Moines.

First, workers are improving and honing their skills to meet the challenges of job requirements and technological advances. Second, there's also been an increase in what Keating calls "personal" competition.

"It's the fear that I'm going to lose my job if I'm not better liked, or if I don't play the politics or try to be devious and take credit for things I don't do," he says.

Keating says companies are benefiting from increased competition in this tight job market by being able to set their standards higher for new recruits. That's incited job seekers to expand their professional and personal skills in an effort to be more marketable.

He says fears in the economic downturn have prompted a "save-my-own-skin" mentality.

How one-upmanship affects the workplace varies, depending on the industry, says Tammy Cline, president of Career Search Associates in Clive, Iowa.

For example, Cline says, a wannabe superstar in a healthcare-related field might create a situation that's detrimental to a patient.

But in sales, a competitive co-worker consistently striving to reach a personal quota or a higher commission can be beneficial because that will often "stimulate the rest of the team to follow suit," she says.

Daily behavior from someone trying to outdo team members can become irritating, Cline says, and it can ultimately erode team morale.

More workplace competition could also mean a rise in "mobbing," or emotional abuse at work, Des Moines psychologist Joyce Keen says.

Another negative is the message to workers that they're expendable, which can undermine work quality.

"That's a scary, anxious kind of feeling that may interfere with work performance and then, in turn, lead to losing their job," she says.

Keating suggests a three-step plan to deal with nasty co-worker competition:

• Don't get caught up in it. "Stay above the fray," he recommends. That can be easier said than done, when it seems like a colleague has it in for you.

Keating 's advice: Keep your nose out of gossip in the workplace and don't engineer gains for yourself at the expense of others. Be a team player and treat everyone with dignity and respect.

• Approach the person who's in competition overdrive. Tell that co-worker in a professional way what you feel and think is going on. Keating says this "healthy confrontation" is the hardest thing to do in the workplace. Give your colleague a chance to respond.

Going straight to management, without talking to your co-worker first, could worsen things, he says.

• Go to a supervisor. If the situation hasn't changed, or if it's gotten worse, go to your manager to make them aware of what's happening. If that fails to work, head to human resources.

Keating says managers are responsible for setting the tone in the workplace and leading by example.

"The goal is teamwork," he says. "The goal is accomplishing together. The goal is not letting the organization slip to this kind of threatened competition."

Keating says companies need consistent policies to deal with all employees, and work expectations that are free from favoritism.

Cline believes that workers are less inclined to worry about stepping on their co-workers, and more concerned about their own actions and what they're doing to protect their jobs.

"If somebody wants to keep their position, you go back to basic, old-fashioned rules," she said. "You do a good job, you put in a good day's work for a good day's pay and figure out creative ways to help out your company's bottom line."