schadenfreude \SHOD-n-froy-duh\, noun: A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others
Feeling guilty already, aren’t you? Who doesn’t have moments (hours, days, months...) of schadenfreude when our enemies and competitors get their come-uppins? They deserved it, right? What goes around comes around. It’s even better when we didn’t do anything to cause their misfortune. There are no fingerprints at the scene, so to speak.
I’m not going to try to tackle the rightness or wrongness of this feeling when it is derived from our enemies and competitors. Lots of gray area there. But what particularly interests me is how commonly this feeling is directed at people who are on the same team as us. They have the same goals and objectives as us, but we want them to stumble. Why? The two most common reasons are competition and resentment.
Competition
While competition can be a positive and healthy thing for a team, we don’t always know when to turn it off. It works when we are competing against another team, but we often think we are in competition with those on our own team. Among the variety of reasons for this: organizations often promote competition within teams to increase quality, quantity or speed; promotional opportunities are scarce compared to those who are interested in them; individuals often measure their worth by comparing themselves with those around them.
Resentment
Holding a grudge about a perceived wrong done to us makes it difficult for us to see the guilty party succeed. We want justice. We want fairness restored. They slighted us, attacked us, overlooked us, punished us..., and we are righteously indignant. Failure, embarrassment or difficult obstacles in their path would make us feel like the scales had been returned to their proper positions.
Hopefully, it’s obvious that this isn’t healthy for a team interested in accomplishing shared goals. It leads to all types of passive-aggressive and aggressive behaviors, ranging from negative thoughts to gossip to rumors to Tonya Harding-inspired pipes to the knee. Even at their most “innocuous” levels, these feelings lead us to withhold assistance and advice that might help the other person. Schadenfreude spells “cancer” in German. It will rot a team from the inside out.
As team leaders, we need to be diligent to spot the signs of schadenfreude when they surface, and we need to deal with them quickly and decisively. But more than that, we need to eliminate the organizational conditions that lead it. Competition should be saved for the competition. Team members should be clear about what their chances are for promotional opportunities in and outside the team. If we already have someone in mind as our replacement or for our next opening, we should communicate our intentions clearly to prevent jockeying for position.
I had a new boss once that realized shortly after her arrival that her team had a culture of gossip and schadenfreude (though she wouldn’t have used that term at the time). She called all her directors into a room, and in no uncertain terms, told us that it was unacceptable and grounds for termination. In fact, she said that she wouldn’t have a problem firing one of us if that’s what it took. Within a few weeks, one of the directors was gone. Now, I don’t know if it had anything to do with the culture of gossip or not, but she had our attention, and behaviors changed.
Make a strong stand against schadenfreude within your team. You’ve got enough enemies and competitors without adding them from the inside.