“Jealousy is, I think, the worst of all faults because it makes a victim of both parties."     - Gene Tierney

Jealousy is a difficult subject to discuss, primarily because we have all been on one side or the other of a jealous situation in our lives, and most of us felt it was easiest to pretend that the situation simply didn't exist.  

But jealously is an important aspect of the human condition.  We should all be able to talk about this emotion openly. 

Merriam-Webster defines a jealous person as one who is: 

    -  intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness

    -  hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage

    -  vigilant in guarding a possession  

The magazine Psychology Today goes into more detail: 

As emotions go, jealousy is neither subtle nor kind, but it is definitely complex, encompassing feelings from fear of abandonment to rage to humiliation. It strikes both men and women when they perceive a third-party threat to a valued relationship, and that distinguishes it from envy, which involves wanting something someone else has. Conventional wisdom holds that jealousy is a necessary emotion because it preserves social bonds, but it more often destroys them.

I recently read an open discussion on “How to deal with jealousy in the workplace” at Helium, a freelance writers' website.  I found the articles written by seven different writers from seven different backgrounds to be informative.  Most of us have been involved with, or have witnessed, workplace jealousies in the past, and we all know how difficult, yet important, it is to deal with these situations directly. 

I recommend reading all of the seven articles.  They provide interesting and different points of view.  Below, I’ve summarized what I feel to be the major points made by each author:

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Jean Sidden 

Tom Hicks 

Maria Papadopoulou 

Maria C. Collins 

Sun Meilan 

Greg H. Huffman 

Cody Hodge 

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These articles provide us with some good (and some not so good) advice on how to handle workplace jealousy situations.  IMHO, I feel that it is best to try to understand and deal directly with this natural human emotion than it is to ignore it.

Your thoughts?

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