Though rarely violent, the everyday passive aggressions employees exact on each other still do damage, writes Dr. Tom Tripp, a professor of management and operations at Washington State University Vancouver.
Tripp is the co-author of "Getting Even: The Truth about Workplace Revenge – and How to Stop It," which hit stores in mid-January. With Robert J. Bies of Georgetown University, Tripp spent about 15 years researching what workplace revenge looks like, why it occurs and how it can be stopped.
VBJ: What would employers find of use in this book?
Tripp: They'll have a better understanding of conflict in the workplace, why it occurs and what they can do about it. Managers spend, particularly mid-level and above, about 25 percent of their time managing conflict.
VBJ: How would you define workplace revenge?
Tom Tripp: Workplace revenge are the everyday acts, the sometimes mundane behaviors that many workplace employees engage in because they feel offended and feel they need to do something about it. We're talking about badmouthing in the workplace, public confrontations, changing their work behavior. … Most people think this is a book about going postal. We didn't write a book about that primarily because it is such a rare, rare behavior. It's something that's read about and seen on the news but it's something that 99.9 percent of employees have never seen in the workplace. But everybody's been on both sides of bad mouthing, of being offended at work or being treated unfairly and feeling, or watching someone else feeling like there's got to be something they can do about it.
VBJ: Are there triggers for workplace revenge?
Tripp: We find that personality appears to have very little to do with it. … A much bigger part of it is really the situation. The triggers we see in the situation are goal obstruction, breaking the rules or social norms of an organization and reputation attacks. … A lot of people are insensitive and don't realize they've offended somebody. This is how, in a lot of ways, a feud starts. … Victims in particular are very interested in offenders' motives. Unfortunately, what makes revenge such a sloppy form of justice is that people over-perceive others' intentions. We tend to believe that somebody's intentions were a little bit more sinister than they probably were. It's a wild form of justice, a lot like justice in the old West. … In general, if you spend a lot of time thinking about somebody, you tend to believe they spend as much time thinking about you. … But often they're not thinking about you so much.
VBJ: What can employers do to prevent workplace revenge?
Tripp: Because in the avenger's mind, revenge is about justice, employers need to make sure the workplace is really fair. It will reduce revenge. It may not eliminate it completely, but it should reduce it significantly. As a manager, don't be the offender, don't trigger employees' wrath by treating them unfairly. Don't attack them in public or break your own rules. … If employees perceive (there is a fair grievance system in place) they're much more likely to turn to that instead of engaging in Wild West justice themselves. … What people need to do first is go talk to the (offender) and give them the benefit of the doubt. … A lot of people will say they had no idea and that they're sorry, and that's enough. Conflict over. That happens the majority of the time.
VBJ: What does workplace revenge do to workplace culture?
Tripp: It tends to decrease trust. You tend to see lower morale. … We know it reduces organizational citizenship behavior – the willingness of employees to go above and beyond the call of duty to do things that aren't in their job descriptions. It tends to lead to turnover. Occasionally you hear stories of it leading to things like sabotage, but that seems to be pretty rare.
VBJ: What's your advice for employers worried about revenge related to layoffs?
Tripp: There's this real worry by employers that once they lay off an employee they're going to be so mad about it that they'll turn around and sabotage (the company). So they think they'd better surprise (employees) with layoff notices and ask them to clean out their office immediately and have security escort them off the premises. This happens a surprising amount. … This procedure is set up to treat everybody as would-be criminals, when so few of them are. … An attack on someone's reputation, then, ironically, motivates them to get even. The employer may not be so concerned because they're no longer on the premises and they can't damage a computer system. But whatever (the former employee) can do from the outside, they're now far more motivated to do – badmouth the company, talk about the way they were laid off, and in more extreme cases, turn around and sue the company for unfair termination. … If you're going to lay people off you have to make sure they know the process was fair. If they know the process was fair because it's transparent… then they (can better) tolerate it, particularly in this economy. That means managers need to over-communicate about these decisions rather than hide information.
Details on Tripp's book are at www.friendsofgettingeven.com.
Charity Thompson can be reached at cthompson@vbjusa.com.
