Canadian HR Reporter - Sample Issue

CANADIAN HR REPORTER OCTOBER 2018 10 NEWS 87.3 % 48.9 % Nearly one-half of tall poppies said it had impacted their desire to apply for promotion. Lost talent pool More than 4 in 10 witnessed a co-worker being cut down and did nothing. About 1 in 10 participated in the cutting. If you see something, say something 69.5 % Respondents agreed that being cut down impacted their productivity. Lack of trust among co-workers Disengaged from my work Looked for a new job Experienced imposter syndrome 69.2 % 59.2 % 59.1 % 56.7 % Being cut down had the following consequences: High cost for employers Respondents who felt their achievements were undermined by others at work. Jealousy and sexism top list of drivers: Why it happens 83.2 % 68.6 % 59.8 % Jealousy/envy Sexism/gender stereotypes Lack of confidence Tallest The Poppy 64.7 % 60.3 % 46.2 % Lower self-esteem/self-confidence Downplay/don't share achievements Negative self-talk How has this impacted you? It takes a toll The person who undermined you was: Male Female Both 27.6 % 31 % 41.2 % Men, women equally to blame Almost half said friends (43.9%) had cut them down and more than one-third (37%) blamed their social network. With friends like these... Source: The Tallest Poppy, a joint research project involving Canadian HR Reporter, Thomson Reuters, Viewpoint Leadership and Women of Influence. More than 1,500 respondents completed the survey in May and June 2018. See www.hrreporter.com/tallest-poppy for more information. express my feelings and my objec- tives and long-term goals. And I was able to turn that relationship around and manage it," she said. "But it is stressful — when you go home at the end of the day, you're like 'Oh, my gosh, why are people doing this and trying to sabotage my successes? Either I take it, or I try and find something else to make a difference.'" What's behind the behaviour? As to why people choose to cut down others because of their success, most respondents cited jealousy or envy (83 per cent), fol- lowed by sexism or gender stereo- types (68 per cent), the culture of an organization (61 per cent), lack of confidence (60 per cent) or lack of awareness (29 per cent). "It's always been old white men who know other old white men; it's done by Rolodexes rather than by merit," said van den Berg. "It's been such an old-school environment — a lot of those sort of institutional memories linger." For women, modesty and hu- mility are vaunted over success, and many people who feel inad- equate cut down the ambitious folk rather than developing ambi- tion and drive to succeed on their own, she said. "It's those challenges that, in turn, are reinforced by how wom- en are expected to behave in the workplace, and how we're penal- ized for any number of 'masculine qualities' that would otherwise be celebrated." It feels cliché to say someone is jealous, said Petryshen, but there was an element of jealousy with one of her bullies, who disparaged her house and husband. "It really just spoiled the work environment, which was other- wise technically a very interest- ing job and the other peo- ple were l o v e l y . But it's t h a t one person who just sort of poi- sons the well." Sometimes, it's a person's lack of education or self-awareness that makes them want to cut oth- ers down, said Ramsden. "You go back to emotional in- telligence… some of these things are so obvious that if we took the time to have the discussion, peo- ple would realize the impact of their words, or those subtle ways of phrasing things. And, I think it would go a long way in improv- ing," she said. "It's just the courage to have the conversation and the courage to confront someone because, I think, nine times out of 10, they don't even realize (what they're doing) because it is so ingrained in our culture or it is such a part of the culture where they work," said Ramsden. "And sometimes I think they're worried about their own exper- tise being questioned, so a lot of it stems from ego and pride. But if you're just brave enough to have a conversation, we're all pretty rea- sonable individuals at the end of the day." And the thing about poppies is "there's plenty of space for all of us," said van den Berg. "It's not a zero-sum game and one tall poppy doesn't make it impossible for another poppy to grow taller, too." Jealousy, stereotypes, culture drive syndrome ACHIEVEMENTS < pg. 8

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