Your Work Friends
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Your Work Friends
🔥 #5: Greed - From Our Fishbowl LIVE "7 Deadly Work Sins" Summer Series
Help a friend? Tell us how we're doing (we're seriously curious) by filing out this short (seriously, short) survey: https://forms.gle/VG19hQRLy8bCyFMS6
ABOUT THE EPISODE:
From our Fishbowl LIVE series, "The 7 Deadly Work Sins", we bring you sin #5: GREED.
You know greed...that feeling of nothing is ever good enough and you need more - the title, the money, the accolades.
- Maybe you take full credit for the team project to promote yourself.
- Maybe you find yourself unwilling to share information with the one colleague because you don't want them to have a leg up on you.
- Or, maybe you find yourself being talked over in meetings and not getting the credit you deserve.
At work, greed shows itself in a lot of different ways, and we want to talk about it. How you can recognize it, how you can manage it, and what to do if you're a victim of someone else taking from you.
ABOUT "THE 7 DEADLY" SERIES:
You want to know what really messes employees up? Raw human emotions. Listen, we ALL experience them from time to time (we totally have), but if you don't handle them well, man can they be deal breakers. In this series, we break down
• The common spectrum of experiences with each 'sin',
• We talk about real-life (kinda salacious stories) scenarios (yeah, this stuff happens every day),
• How to not ‘commit’ the sin, and
• Most importantly, how to deal with a sinner
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or the management.
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Hey friends, it's Francesca. Can I ask you a favor? Can you fill out a quick survey for us to tell us how we're doing on the pod? Mel and I are finishing our first season. We've loved, loved doing the pod, but we're kind of wondering how we do it. What do you like, what don't you like? What are your ideas for a show? We want to hear it. We put a link to the survey in the show notes. So if you could help us out, fill it out and maybe we'll send you some merch. Okay, thanks Bye.
Speaker 2:Hopefully this is a light addition to your Wednesday afternoon. That's what we intended to be. What do you think, Francesca? That's what we're hoping.
Speaker 1:Listen, we're all wrapping up July. I can't believe it's fricking July 31st. I know we got five months left, folks this year, five months.
Speaker 2:Unreal. It's going to be good, take that trip, get to the beach, do what?
Speaker 1:you need to do, you need to do yeah, yeah. You got a goal. You got any goals that you haven't accomplished this year, mel, of course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just going to pretend that it's not happening. No, just kidding.
Speaker 1:Today I'm like maybe I should start to learn Italian. It's on my bucket list, it's on mine too. Do you want to do it together?
Speaker 2:We should do it, I'll do it together All right, yeah, there you go, that's good, that's good. All right, Well enough Italian for the day, hey friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ciao, friends, friends, it is officially in the US, and what better way to take a fun, lighthearted midweek break with us and from work to talk about all the work shit that we never talk about? I'm Francesca and I'm Mel and we've been working in HR for Mel. Let's do the math a long time, mel. How long have you been working in HR? Over 20 years now, yeah, yeah, yeah, I just hit my two decade mark, so we've seen a lot.
Speaker 2:We have we certainly have, and we've heard a lot.
Speaker 1:We've heard a lot. And here's the deal, friends. If you want the good stories, ask someone in HR, because we've seen it all and we've heard it all. Like the amount of stories where I'm just like you gotta be freaking, kidding me, you didn't watch. I have a whole plethora. I quite fine, it's quite fine. But the thing is, a few months ago, mel and I started a podcast because we wanted to talk about it all. It's called your work friends. It's on all the platforms and listen, we're just two HR friends, we have zero nit filter, which you will hear on this call, and, honestly, our goal is we want to help you get through all the work shit. There are some rules of the game, there's shit going on and we want to get you through it and get you through it in the best way possible so you thrive. But the thing is, throughout our experience, there's an interesting thing that has remained true that there are things that really frickin' trip people up at work and sometimes totally destroy careers.
Speaker 2:What really messes people up, it's that raw human emotion that no one ever talks about the sins, if you will, as we're calling this series and listen. We all experience them from time to time. Francesca and I totally have. We make fun of each other for it and we call each other out for it sometimes. But if you don't handle these emotions well, man, can they be real deal breakers handle these emotions well, man, can they be real deal breakers?
Speaker 1:That's right. So in this series we're calling the seven deadly work sins. We're covering everything and we've already covered. This summer We've been gracious enough and had the best opportunity to be with Fishbowl to talk about the seven deadly sins, one every other week, and we've covered things like lust, wrath, pride. You can find those recordings on Fishbowl or on your work friends as well. But today, mel, what are we talking about? Money, money, no, greed Cash rules everything around me Crude, no yeah thank you.
Speaker 2:Sorry for the reference guys. Yeah, thank you for getting that, Mel. Big greed, Big greed. We see a lot of greed out there.
Speaker 1:Greed yeah, we see it in the news all the time. Theranos, Wells Fargo and sometimes the biggest instances of corporate greed in the last 25 years can be traced back to actions of specific individuals. Right, we see it in the news and the companies. But let me tell you, friends, it comes down to individual behaviors that really trip organizations up. Enron, you can trace back to three people Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Andrew Faslow. Volkswagen, Oliver Schmidt, got thrown in jail for it. That Martin Shreckley, that guy interning for pharmaceuticals, Speaking of Wu-Tang, didn't he buy the Wu-Tang album? He did, he did.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Just Wu-Tang is a theme for this today. But here's the deal. All of these big corporate cases can be traced back to individual behaviors, because greed happens at the individual level, and even this week we have podcast listeners that write in. All the time we ask for stories about how people have experienced all of these sins, and just this week two podcast listeners wrote in with these stories. Again, that happened at the individual level. An employee at a mid-sized company got canned for chronically inflating their expenses, things like travel and meal expenses. Each instance seemed minor. The cumulative effect result was $3,200 of unwarranted unreimbursed over time. Okay, so this guy got canned for basically $3,200.
Speaker 2:What a way like. Come on for the. I'm not worth it. Come on.
Speaker 1:Here's another one. A project manager at a tech startup completely crashed his brand for manipulating performance metrics to make their project appear more successful than it was. Overstated completion percentages, underreported issues to secure additional funding for personal recognition and to make sure that the project and the company knew how well he was doing even though he wasn't.
Speaker 2:Oh geez yeah.
Speaker 1:This stuff happens all the time and we have our own stories. Mel, have you experienced greed in?
Speaker 2:the workplace. Yeah, yeah, I think on a more minor level, directly, I've witnessed greediness with I'll just put it like with resources in work before. So especially during volatile times when the market wasn't good and layoffs are happening, I've really I witnessed two folks specifically who I worked with, but I was on the peripheral competing one for the same project work, so trying to do like work grabs and then to competing for the same resources to do that work and on calls, one of them would consistently try to undermine the other and vice versa and as a bystander it was like honestly just exhausting to watch and listen to and in hindsight I know the climate seemed to bring out the worst in the both of them because that truly wasn't who they were. It was all fear driven.
Speaker 1:But that and that's on the more minor side of the greed- yeah, listen, what's interesting in all of these situations, and why we call this the seven deadly work sins, is because there's always a victim of someone sinning, like Mel saw this right, she saw it, she saw what was going on. And then there's also the sinner. And I've experienced this as a sinner, this as a center. Yeah, listen, I'm not perfect. I'm in my forties and realize I'm not perfect. That sucks, that's a shitty realization. But listen, friends, it happens to all of us.
Speaker 1:And I will say, early in my career, reflecting back on, have I been greedy at work? When have I been greedy? And I think the thing that really for me, that I did was I withhold information, thinking it would help me get ahead. Right, I have a certain level of expertise in a few things and I would hold back sharing my expertise with my peers because I always thought I'd have a leg up if they didn't know certain things or if I had this information that they wouldn't have. And that's a form of greed, because I'm not willing to help you, because I need to make sure that I get this for myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the self-serving stuff. Yeah, so it happens, right, greed, we all know it, right, mel, and I know it, if you are wondering, if you're feeling it. It feels like this it's like that nothing is ever good enough and you need more. You need the title, the money, the accolades. Maybe you take full credit for the team project to promote yourself. Or maybe you find yourself unwilling to share information with that one colleague because you don't want to have that leg up on you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Francesca.
Speaker 1:I don't know, maybe you need to figure it out, god.
Speaker 1:I'm such a little asshole. Sometimes you live, you learn, you live, you learn. Or maybe you find yourself being talked over in meetings and not getting the credit you deserve, right Sinner and victim of the sin At work. Greed shows itself in a lot of different ways, and we want to talk about it today with you how you can recognize it, how you can manage it and what to do if you're the victim of someone else's sin. So buckle up. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to cover how you can recognize it again and how you can manage it.
Speaker 1:One of the things that we are really loving is hearing from all of you, hearing your stories. Throughout our series to people have come up on stage and talked about their experience, either as a sinner or as the victim of a sin or a bystander, like when you're just seeing it in your company and you're like what the hell's going on. So we're going to pause periodically and see do you want to talk about it? Come on up on stage, and at the end, we'll leave some time for Q and A, right? So if you have questions about greed, you can anonymously DM us or you can come up on stage. I think if you come up on stage, though. We see your name so it's not anonymous, just FYI. Sound good. Yeah, let's do this, let's do it.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about greed. Many of the problems that we face in business and in the world today stem from greed, either on the employer's end or on the employee's end. Right, greed is really, it feels like more and more, especially now. Right, there's this kind of tone in the news where businesses feel very greedy and then we also feel like it's happening individually. What's interesting is, 99.9% of us have experienced greed at work, either as an individual or just being in a company.
Speaker 1:Here's some examples. For example, wage theft. The Economic Policy Institute talked about how wage theft costs US workers more than $15 billion a year on things like unpaid overtime, minimum wage violations. Do you remember, mel, when we interviewed Attorney Ryan on the pod talking about lawyering up and he said the number one thing that is totally systemic, more cases than ever is wage theft. Wage theft it's the number one thing. Employee theft on the individual side, businesses lose an estimated 5% of their annual revenues to employee fraud and theft. That costs the US economy about $50 billion annually. Yikes. Let's talk about executive compensation. This is a thorn in my side. But what's really interesting, economic Policy Institute CEO compensation, which includes stock options at large US companies, increased by 1,167% between 1978 and 2019, compared to a 14% increase in worker compensation.
Speaker 2:Think about that that's me. It's so ridiculous.
Speaker 1:It's insane. That's a 320 to 1 rate ratio. That's insane. That's insane. And burnout and overwork, Greed one of the things, from a company perspective, right Making your employees work more because you want more. Deloitte, 77% of professionals experience burnout at their current job because they have unmanageable workloads. This element of greed is just happening all around us, again on the employee and on the employer side. So what is greed?
Speaker 2:Mel, what do you think? Well, I wanted to add to that because we did that special too on even the taking advantage of salaried workers. Right, and I know they just recently did that bump in the certain level of salaried workers that get overtime pay. But when you really calculate the average number of hours that people are working at the salary level and how much they're missing out on compensation, that's just another example of contributing to burnout and not getting compensated for it. Lots of greed happening Greed of time, people's time.
Speaker 1:Excellent point. We're seeing this all the time, freaking grease with the six day work week, right? Yeah, no thanks, yeah, come on, come on, yeah. What is greed? What is greed? We know it when we see it, we think we know what this is, but the origins of both employer and employee greed are the same. You're wanting more than you deserve, right? Okay. For employers, this looks like squeezing every last drop out of your employees without fair compensation or care for their wellbeing. For employees, this means disproportionately prioritizing their compensation over creating value for the company. Okay, and there are three main factors that drive greed in the workplace. There are more, by the way. It is a very multifaceted view of what causes greed, but in the workplace typically, what drives it? One, corporate culture when you have a culture that's focused on profit maximization, aggressive reward systems, you can incentivize unethical behavior really quickly, right? Absolutely, we've seen it. Q in Wells Fargo. Yeah, pressure to perform unrealistic performance targets, job insecurity we all see it.
Speaker 2:This happens especially after layoffs or when there's rumblings that they're going to happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and leadership and role models. Listen, if you're seeing your leaders have, quote unquote, greedy behavior, any kind of lack of accountability, it's going to create an environment where unethical actions are more likely to occur. So it's again if it's in the system, if it's in the air, it's more likely to happen. I have seen, quote unquote, good people make the shittiest decisions because of the context that they're in.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. A lot of the human behavior that we see is due to environment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a thousand percent. Nature nurture right Greed. Like any of the work sins that we've talked about, it's uber complex. It manifests in various ways. But what's interesting as Mel and I were thinking about what we've experienced as HR leaders, what we know about the research all of this shit happens on a spectrum. Okay, greed is no different, so let's talk about it. What we want to do is talk about how greed manifests in individuals, right From the low end of the spectrum. What does this look like when you're starting to have quote unquote greedy behaviors? We'll move up to medium, we'll talk about high, and then, mel, what do we end with? Always Illegal, ah, illegal. This shit always turns into illegal. It does. Yeah, we like it, bernie Madoff. There you go.
Speaker 2:Right, there you go.
Speaker 1:So let's. So we're going to walk you through the spectrum and then we'll also talk about what the frick do you do about it. Right Cause, listen, we've all ended on the spectrum. We're all potentially have all been victims or bystanders of the spectrum, so we want to talk about it. Let's start with the low we call petty gains. At the lowest end of the spectrum, we have petty gains. At the lowest end of the spectrum, we have petty gains. These are little, small acts of self-interest that might give someone a little benefit but don't really hurt others in the organization. These are super common to have done this or to witness someone doing this. This is things like, for example, personal use. Are you using office supplies for personal tasks Like printing? I have been known to? I don't know. Take the postage. No, who owns a printer anymore? You've got to print those concert tickets out. No one owns a printer anymore. Toner costs more than the damn printer.
Speaker 2:It's insane. It's insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's come on, come on, okay. So this is interesting, though, right. Yeah, it's come on, come on, Okay. So this is interesting, though, right. Personal use Again, we're not immune. 62% of us admit to doing this. So, like you're not alone. If you've done that, I have a drawer of post-its. I'm not going to tell you where I got them. Okay, Timesheet tweaks right.
Speaker 1:Slightly adjusting your work hours, maybe adding a few more, making it look like you worked a little more right? 40% of us have done this. Extra perks, you know, taking more office snacks or resources I talked about this in gluttony, but I remember when I worked at a high-tech firm in Silicon Valley that held all the freaking free snacks and the kombucha and all this shit. I walked into the break room one night and this person was loading up a ginormous bag of snacks, like she was going shopping and she's oh, I got to pack my kids lunches, really. And I'm like, is it worth it? I don't know. I was just going to Costco and then I'm like there's the snack lady. Every time I saw her, it's fine. Or performance spin right, adding in a little extra flair on your achievements 50% of people have done this. Right, this stuff happens, mel? Have you ever expressed one of these or seen it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course. Look, I'm not going to give up free snacks, but I'm not going to go shopping in the break room either.
Speaker 1:A thousand percent, right, listen, the risk factor here for individuals it's light, right, it's not illegal, it's not necessarily something that you shouldn't be doing at work, but it's a slippery slope. Okay, because a it has a cultural impact, right. When we start allowing kind of these small selfish behaviors, it makes them a little bit of a norm and could lead systemically to bigger problems. And listen, if you're not applying rules consistently as well, it adds to a level of feeling unfair, right? So it's a little bit of a slippery slope. Petty gains that's number one, right, let's stop here. Audience have you ever seen this? Any kind of petty gains stuff? What have you seen? Have you done it?
Speaker 2:We're the only ones using the printer. Yeah, I feel like the number has got to be higher than just 62% of us using the printer, but anyway, I know, yeah, listen, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 1:All right, we're the only ones. Mel Cheese stands alone. All right, cheese stands alone.
Speaker 2:All right, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:All right, okay, petty gains low, let's move up to medium. Medium is overreach. This is moving along the spectrum. This is where we start having noticeable and that's a key word here noticeable self-serving actions that can have moderate impact on employees, on colleagues and the org. It can lead to reduced trust or morale and really damage your brand and, honestly, if you are the victim of it, it just sucks ass, honestly, truly.
Speaker 1:So what does this look like? What is this? This is undermining others, right, deliberately undermining a colleague's work or reputation to advance your own position. This is playing favorites. If anybody has been a victim of favoritism, this can absolutely happen. Consistently, giving special treatment to certain colleagues, which can cause massive resentment, or withholding info or resources this is the Francesca Ranieri special, which is you're keeping crucial information or resources or your own skills from colleagues to benefit yourself. Yeah, you know this. When you see it, it is again starting to be noticeable and it has an impact on other people, right, for those of you that have seen this'm curious, have you? What's the impact when this kind of stuff happens at work? What have you seen happen when you want to?
Speaker 2:talk about that. Yeah, if you want to come up on stage and share your own story, please do or dm us, we'll check that as well. I know I've seen this happen before. I've seen people over embellish their contribution to a project, especially when they're in private conversations with leadership and think no one else can hear it, and they almost take credit for the work to get themselves ahead. And it's it sucks to see and it sucks to witness when you experience that, and especially if you did the work. So yeah, I've seen this before.
Speaker 1:Especially and also for the kind of the quote unquote victim of this sin. It is also just did they just? What is their intent? Am I reading it the right way? Because this is still a little gray, but you're like that felt shitty. I get that my spidey sense is going up that this isn't right or that they're playing favorites, but maybe I'm right so maybe I'm wrong. So it's really gray and that gray can F with you really big time.
Speaker 2:The thing is that I think there's a really another really good example, cause we had a listener write into us this week about having challenges in stakeholder meetings where they have a colleague after each. Everyone has equal time presenting in front of this massive stakeholder group at the executive level and they have one, so it's equal time across the team. But she had mentioned they have one colleague at the end of everyone's presentation segment, this one colleague jumps in to give their own point of view and then to say I'd like to provide a little more context. And I would say that's another example of greediness because it's trying to get that extra face time, like even that something that you might think is so minor. It's that grabbing the extra face time or adding context which infers you may have contributed to that work somehow in front of this audience of people. So overreach is very self-serving. But I also think it's very common I think people live this is a very common space to experience greed in the workplace.
Speaker 1:Can I add another one? That just senses me. Please do what I think Francesca was trying to say oh yes, have you ever had that happen to you? I have had that happen. What I think, yeah, what I think they were trying to say. I knew what I was trying to say because oh yes, have you ever had that happen? I have not happened. What I think, yeah, what I think they were trying to say.
Speaker 1:I knew what I was trying to say, because I said it, yeah, a thousand percent, like it's just to your very good point, it is self-serving, right, it is absolutely self-serving. Here's the deal with overreach. The risk factor goes way up here because, to your very good point, mel, we see it, we feel it, we as in plural, your colleagues, your team, your peers, your stakeholders. I will tell you, if your boss is human centered and someone that really wants to have a healthy team, they're going to see it as well.
Speaker 1:Overreach like favoritism or undermining others. If not, chaps, listen, I will tell you right now. It leads to low morale. It can eventually lead to things like a damaged reputation, high turnover, toxic work culture if it's really systemic and for the individuals, these behavior can, like strain relationships, harm your reputation and hinder your career growth. Quite honestly, because I have led teams where I see this happen, it's one of the first things I want to nip in the bud, because you don't want that happening. But I also question someone's integrity when they start doing that shit Same 100% yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, overreach, ugh Gross, gross. We see it all the time though right All the time.
Speaker 2:I think that's the most common thing I've witnessed.
Speaker 1:Jeez, all right. Low, petty, medium, overreach. Three Aggressive ambition. As greed intensifies, it can turn into aggressive ambition. We're getting high here, people. Sorry, I lived in Portland, I should go. It means different things. We're sweating, yeah, sorry, we're getting high on the spectrum.
Speaker 1:Excuse me, this is significant self-serving actions driven by self-interest that can harm the organization, that can harm your colleagues and potentially lead to ethical violations or some major ass conflicts. This can look like manipulating financial statements or accounting practices to show better performance than reality. It can be things like implementing risky business strategies that prioritize short-term gains over long-term stability. It can look like pressuring the hell out of your team right Pressuring employees to meet unrealistic targets or engaging in unethical practices. This is what it looks like. Let me ask you this If you're wondering if you're doing this, if you're wondering if you're experiencing this, here are three examples that really happen very commonly in real life.
Speaker 1:If you feel like you need to ride the hell out of your team to make yourself look good, if you're changing results to make your performance look better than it is, if you're cutting corners to meet your numbers or goals, that could put people's safety at risk and I'm talking about psychological safety, emotional safety, physical safety, if you're doing that or if you're feeling like that is happening, this is aggressive ambition. This is greed right. Risk factor here goes way up because whether you're the center or you're on the receiving end of the sin or just a bystander, this is bad news, it's unhealthy here, because here's the deal with being in the high level of this spectrum You're not rational, you're not thinking in a really rational way, you're thinking in me, siloed, blinder on focus, and they're not like if you're the center, you're most likely thinking more about the gain than you're thinking about the risks and the impacts as well. In this stage, this is where you become a massive liability to your company because of the demonstrated behavior and because this can again potentially really be on the cusp of that illegal. This is aggressive, it's a danger zone, it's a danger zone.
Speaker 1:And number four here is corporate crime right, illegal, illegal. Okay, listen, friends, get your turtlenecks out. That's my Theranos joke. Here's the thing Once someone has reached this corporate crime illegal stage, it almost certainly becomes not only a liability but illegal right, because it's not only unethical, it's illegal. It leads to severe consequences not only for the individual, and I named off right those folks that like from Enron and Wells Fargo and all this good jazz, but it also has massive impacts for the organization. It can look like what happened at Theranos. It can look like what happened at Wells Fargo. It can look like Bernie Madoff. Yeah Right, insider trading, embezzlement, fraudulent financial reporting, accepting bribes that's all greed, right, that's all jail time. So I hope you have, if you're the center here, lawyer up, because you're going to need it.
Speaker 1:Let me give you some fun facts about this too, because I was like in my one of the things you'll know about Mel and I if you ever listened to our pod. I hope you do. One of the things we love to do is have a conversation about our own experiences and stories that are going on, but we always love to come with the data as well, and I was wondering how many people go to jail for this shit every single year? Oh, that's an interesting stat. What is it of those? And then, on average, 10 to 15% of those individuals get jail time. It's a ends up being about 400 to 500 people go to jail for this every single year. And if you're yes, and if you're wondering, who is it? Typically this is typically folks that are at the manager plus level, 29% are at the executive level and 29% are at the manager level, and they're typically with the organization more than six years. Fun facts. Oh, that's so interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the six years thing is like a comfort. There's like this comfort of a thousand percent.
Speaker 1:So listen, friends, that's the spectrum. Right, that's the spectrum. Here's the deal. Don't be one of them. It's not only bad for your resume, but it's bad for your organization and bad for your brand as well. We love stories, friends. I'm wondering curiosity before we get into what do you do about it if you find yourself on this spectrum?
Speaker 2:What greed situations have you seen? Yeah, we definitely want to hear that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we love the good stories.
Speaker 2:And it can be anonymous. This is Vegas in our mind. I will say this, like I just think these. We are starting to see more and more of this and hopefully this brings awareness right In our own. The goal of this session folks, as a reminder, have a little fun right, because we know these topics. This stuff happens every single day and to have an open dialogue about it is something that we love to do, so appreciate you joining us. If you are just joining us, we're at the halfway mark. I'm Mel and I am Francesca and we are from your work friends podcast to HR friends with no filter, just trying to get you through all the work shit Before we get into what you should do if you're the center or if you're finding yourself on the sidelines. Francesca, can I share a listener story that I received?
Speaker 1:this week. Yeah, yes, and here's the deal, friends. Every story we're telling you here is actually real stuff that happened. This one, mel, it's a doozy. It's a doozy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it escalated quickly. So, look, I have to give you the very high level version of this story. Because of our time, I have named this the ambition trap. And look, folks, names have been changed here. It's anonymous, but our listeners did write in a story this week and they were the bystander of this story. It involved their close colleagues and peers, but they thought this is a really good example because they felt this could happen to anybody. No one's immune, right. So key players, hopefully get a pen and paper. Write it down if you want to keep track of who these key players are.
Speaker 2:try and keep it short, all right. There is Alex, who this listener noted was a mid-level manager at the company, super ambitious, determined to get to a top leadership position. Had been there funnily enough, francesca for seven years, so right over that six-year mark Six-year age.
Speaker 1:They're like I'm telling, telling you there's something happening there, yeah.
Speaker 2:We got to do some more studying on that. There's Beth. Beth is Alex's mentor. She's a well-respected leader in this org. She was known for really being a no nonsense leader who was very big on team integrity like integrity and her brand connected to that for the people who worked for her. There's James. James was Alex's colleague and friend, more of a go with the flow teammate, also successful.
Speaker 2:Didn't outwardly display ambition, though this. We have co-workers like. Some people are just like yeah, whatever, I'm here to get paid, thanks. And then Sarah this is a small company, by the way, I would say it was less than 1,000 people. So the CEO of this startup. She's sharp, direct, known for being really strict on policy, just given where they were in their startup business. So let me share the beginning. So let's get back to Alex, that manager super ambitious Alex. Over here.
Speaker 2:Alex had been described as always being ambitious. Since joining this company, he had his eyes set on reaching the top. His mentor, beth, admired his drive, often cautioned him about the perils of overreaching, especially when she caught him doing it right. So we're talking about that medium end of the spectrum where a lot of people sit quite honestly in this behavior, and so they consistently had conversations around his overreaching and where that might be leading. Alex's colleague James, the more laid back friend, really preferred more of a steady climb over a meteoric rise as opposed to Alex, so he wasn't really with Alex on a lot of these efforts.
Speaker 2:The company was preparing, though, for a major merger, because now they were about to grow, they were getting acquired. This was a huge deal, and Alex saw this as his golden opportunity to make his mark. How do I this merger's happening? How do I get there quick? How do I get to this leadership spot more quickly? Right, standing apart from everybody To impress the higher ups here, alex started small, taking a few extra hours of resource time to support some of the projects that they needed to complete. He was exaggerating his contributions in team meetings dumb things like minor things that we just talked about, so things that usually go unnoticed, but it gave him the small edge over his colleagues. Bragging about recognition he was receiving for the work he didn't directly do beyond delegating started to cause minor resentment among his peers, but nothing that seemed too serious just yet. Morale was still fine. People were still buzzing around. It was fine. What this person noted to me was that Alex began to cultivate relationships with the higher-ups, often volunteering for high-visibility projects to position himself as indispensable for this merger. He often spoke over his colleagues in meetings and his ambition began to strain his relationships with James and Beth, who felt increasingly sidelined by some of his aggressive tactics. So they're just saying.
Speaker 2:As time moved on, as this merger got closer, alex really started to amp up this behavior. As the merger approached, more, everything escalated. He began inflating his expense reports slightly, justifying it as a means to better network and secure future deals for the merger. He also started fully taking credit for some of the team's achievements when he was in one-on-ones with new leadership, overshadowing the contributions of his colleagues like James. James finally, fed up, tried to talk to Alex about it, but Alex brushed him off, believing he was just simply being strategic. And if James was smart, he said he would do the same. That was his guidance. How would you feel if someone said that to you? If you were smart, you would do the same.
Speaker 1:I would. First of all, I'm a big fan of being leading with kindness, but when you need to do a periodic punch, that's not a bad thing, but I think the important thing to note here is look, merger happening.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, with mergers, layoffs happen. Right, you're fighting for your spot. What's your future look like? So you can start to see the difference in how that environment impacted someone like Alex versus someone like James, and James seemed to have a little more control here, right when Alex is starting to spiral out a bit. Look, as I mentioned, alex felt after all, what's the big deal? Our jobs are on the line here, potentially, and I need to get I want that spot.
Speaker 2:Eventually, though, alex began misusing company funds. They started reallocating some budget monies to their specific projects, cutting some of the resources for others. He was pushing the team to their limits, often demanding long hours without proper compensation to complete things for new leadership, all those visible projects he was signing up for. He wasn't doing the work. He was stealing resources and having them do it without properly checking in with his team, and he wasn't even asking his other teammates if he could take some of their resources away from other competing work, putting them in a compromising position. Beth, his mentor, noticed this change in Alex. She shared her concern for him and she warned him that his behavior was starting to really impact team morale but also business, because he was taking resources away from people with other priority projects. He was putting their reputations on the line but also impacting business deliverables and deadlines. He ultimately brushed her off. He brushed her concerns off and he was convinced that what he was doing was necessary to succeed. Unfortunately for him, the final straw came when Alex falsified some financial reports to make his department appear more profitable to senior leadership, hoping again that this was going to secure him that senior position.
Speaker 2:Post merger. He also started accepting some bribes and kickbacks from vendors that he was working with, looking to secure contracts in the new corporate structure through some of those projects that he volunteered on right. And Alex wasn't being exactly quiet about it. Unfortunately, he was bragging to some of the overworked team about the personal financial gains he was making and would make with those vendor kickbacks once the merger took place would make with those vendor kickbacks. Once the merger took place, beth started to hear those whispers obviously because people talk and Alex his activities kicked off an internal investigation. As I mentioned, beth was known for no nonsense and had zero tolerance for this unethical behavior. So the investigation quickly gathered evidence against Alex, revealing the extent of all of his activities where he was and this level of greed and ambition. So here's the deal Alex received an invite to meet with Beth and the CEO, sarah, for what he thought would be an announcement of a promotion, but instead he found himself in a meeting with Sarah, beth and now Andy, the HRBP. They were there to have a conversation about the evidence they found supporting what they suspected was criminal activity and unethical behavior that could have hurt the merger and the organization.
Speaker 2:I'm going to share more about the outcome of what happened here with Alex in just a second, but first we'd love to hear from you in a pulse check what do you think about this situation, what do you think may have happened next and what would you do if you found yourself in this situation or any other area of the space of greed? You can come off mute, you can come up on stage, you can send us a DM and while we wait for your stories, I'm going to move on to what you should do. We discussed upfront. This stuff happens on a spectrum. What defines what you should do next requires you to really take a look at the spectrum that we outlined, and we'll post this for you folks. You'll have access and decide where does your unique situation fall, where is your behavior or what are you witnessing? So if you find yourself on that low end of the spectrum here, petty gains. If you're the center, listen, we get it. Petty gains is pretty common. After all, we're human. You just don't want to get into the habit of petty gains because that quickly moves you into riskier business.
Speaker 2:Now is a perfect time to pause and reflect. If you find yourself in this space and really asking yourself why am I doing this? Why am I printing my concert tickets every month off at the printer? Dumb things, right. Just pause and reflect here, guys.
Speaker 2:If you're on the sidelines so you're the victim, or you're an indirect observer of this activity, look. If it's your work, friend, and you notice a pattern and you feel comfortable chatting with them about it, then do so, but only if you're comfortable. You're ultimately not responsible for other people's behavior here, so you're not obligated to do anything. If you find yourself in the medium space, remember medium overreach and overreach is a pretty common space to experience, whether you're the center or you're on the sidelines it's time to really do a gut check. This stage seems innocent enough, but it's not without its own impact. So, if you're the center, recognize triggers cultural pressures, time pressure, external pressures, attitudes about success and self-worth these are typically the root of why someone might begin to do things like undermine others' achievements, play favorites on projects, but this isn't okay and you're going to start to destroy not only your reputation here but also negatively impact the organization. If you're oh yeah, go ahead. You know what else?
Speaker 1:It just feels like shit when you're doing it. It feels like shit. It is a much better feeling If you want to be self centered. It's much better feeling to help somebody out or to have a communal, collaborative view. It feels like caca, even though even if you feel like you need to, or you want to afterwards yeah, I think it's such a good call out.
Speaker 2:It never feels good. It never feels good. That's a. I think that's a recognizable trigger, though Do you feel good about it? If not, maybe it's greed.
Speaker 1:Look at you, mel Look at you.
Speaker 2:It's a good, it's grief. Look at you, mel. Look at you. It's a good call out for you. If you're the victim at this stage right, because I think we likely have all been the sinner and we've all been the victim of the sin I think that's a fair statement. If you're the victim here, you might first consider talking to the sinner, especially if they're undermining your work or passing you over on projects or taking resources from you. But and this is a but if you don't believe you can have a constructive conversation, we recommend speaking with a mentor or a leader for support or guidance at a minimum. And if that doesn't work because maybe they have a leader who's playing favorites, then by all means reach out to HR for further support and guidance here.
Speaker 2:And if you're on the sidelines, if you're witnessing this happen but it isn't directly impacting you, you really have two big three options here. If you know the center and you feel comfortable chatting with them about what you're observing, do so. If you witness it for example, someone's taking credit for someone else's work in a meeting speak up. Support the person that is the victim of the sin here. You can do that in a professional way. I'll just give an example for credit stealing in meetings. Right, you might say thanks for sharing your input here, but, jane, you also contributed to this output. What do you think there are ways to help someone out in this situation? And three, if you don't feel comfortable with those two options, you can always go to the leader to share feedback and get support. Again, you are not obligated to do anything. Do what you're comfortable with. We're just sharing some options.
Speaker 2:If you're in the high zone and you're watching this from the sidelines as your friend or teammate is reaching aggressive ambition, you want to consider this. If you're the center, just stop, kaput, kaput, kaput, kaput, kaput, stop, just stop. Not a good look for you and it's certainly not a good environment for your team, for your colleagues, for you. At a minimum, you're compromising others for your own personal gain and at a maximum, you're also starting to get into some potentially borderline illegal activity or HR violations in this space. If you're on the sidelines, report it, report it to their leader, report it to HR and document. That's all you're obligated to do. And if things aren't checked in the high zone here, or if nothing changes, we're reaching corporate crimes and I hope you have money for an attorney because you've entered illegal. If you're the sinner, you really need to get it together and we hope you have money for a lawyer in unemployment, because this is really hard to recover from and you don't ever, you don't ever want to find yourself here again, mad off anyone. Bueller, just putting it out there. If you're on the sidelines, look, we hope you're never on the sidelines of criminal activity. We hope you're never on the sidelines of criminal activity and we hope that you recognized it early enough and started to report it or address it once you saw it in the overreach stage, especially if you're on the sidelines. But if you weren't and you find yourself on the sidelines at the corporate crime level, immediately report this to HR. We do not recommend ever confronting the sinner in this scenario. It is potentially not a safe thing to do because they're in a space of delusion, they're not thinking or acting rationally and it's likely actions out of desperation and you don't want to be in the crosshairs of that ever.
Speaker 2:I want to finish up our story with Alex. We have just a few minutes here left by chance. Does anyone have any thoughts on where they feel Alex ended up on the spectrum? Or do you have any recommendations for Beth or Alex? We'd love to hear your thoughts. While you're thinking about that, I'm going to share the real outcome here.
Speaker 2:So what our listener shared with us was and just a refresher when we left off Alex, he was in with Sarah, the CEO, beth, his mentor, andy, hrbp, for what he thought was a promotion discussion, but instead Andy laid out the details of their evidence. Alex was given a choice he could resign quietly or face legal consequences, and he chose to resign. His once bright future, a company that he invested seven years of his life into, is now in shambles, and as he packed his belongings, he saw James watching him a look of pity. Beth was standing nearby. Her expression was hard to read, but he realized he lost everything by letting greed for success get the best of him.
Speaker 2:This listener shared with us that she felt this was a really good cautionary tale within the company, and it was a reminder for how unchecked ambition and greed could lead to someone's downfall, no matter how promising their start. And Alex's journey as a lesson to others here is highlighting the importance of integrity and ethical behavior, especially in the pursuit of success. Your success can also shine on others and you don't have to do this route to get to success. I will say, about a year later they all ran into Alex at a conference which got super awkward, francesca it always does when you're like, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she said they ran into him, made some small talk. He was noting how he was their network. He was still unemployed. Although he couldn't prove it, he was certain that what happened must have gotten out, because anytime he entered final rounds within his industry for interviews, he was eventually passed over. Beth noted they declined dinner with Alex. They're nervous about associating with him, quite honestly, after what he'd done and they just they didn't want to. They just lost trust in him, respect in him and didn't want to spend time with him. So again, no winners in this situation, and it's just a quick example of how greed can really escalate pretty quickly. I know we have about five minutes left here. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, yeah, five minutes left here, oh go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I saw here I don't know if Harry's still on, but I saw his hand go up, so I didn't know if he wanted to put his hand back up and come up on stage. I think maybe Harry might've left. They didn't call me up, I'm out.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:I missed you, harry. That's my bad, harry, but we had a few questions come in too, but if you have any questions. Raise your hand, we'll put you up. Oh, what questions did you get? Okay, it feels like corporate sets us up to get at least overreach mode in order to succeed, do you?
Speaker 2:agree? All right, I'll share my personal opinion. I think it can. Yeah, yeah, depending on. Sometimes it depends on the organization and the culture that's there. Sometimes it depends on the team that you end up on. There's so many external components that can put you in the mode of overreach for like almost like a survival space, right? What do you think? Francesca?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I do. I think this happens a lot, right, Especially when you have an organization that is highly competitive, or if you're an organization that's like up or out or highly political to your point. This is the culture is going to stoke that, for sure, for sure. Yeah, I think when you're in flatter organizations, when you're in organizations that have like more human centered leaders, that are really big on coaching and feedback and all that good jazz less, but certainly the organizations that I've been at, yeah, absolutely, I agree.
Speaker 2:I always go back to what I think is a super handy tool. It's like that what is it? The circle of control, so what's in your control versus what's out of your control. And I think it goes back to what recognizing those triggers then. So you're not in overreach mode, what's triggering that in you and how can you manage that? I think it's, if you can focus on what's in your control, it will help you stay safe and out of that mode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll tell you too the other thing not to be super TMI and personal, but I'm going to go here when I find my yeah, and then, when I was six, yeah, no. But I find myself when I'm in overreach, where I'm feeling it right, where I'm about to do it. I to your point, I'm like checking myself, and a lot of times it's because I'm in a fear state or in this survival state, and what I know about myself is I need to get out of fear and get into the sound super cheese, but like love mode, if you will. So it's or more of like collaboration or no. The goal is this. The goal is not me, or winning or zero sum. It is on team, because my natural proclivity sometimes is any means necessary. That's not right.
Speaker 2:That's just human behavior, though I think that's like a natural place to be. Yeah, I think. Oh, we got another question in here too. I got a DM that says I have a colleague who is trying to assert themselves on a project. They just joined, but they haven't been a part of this from the start, which was a year ago. They often speak over other work stream leads in the meeting and it's clear they're trying to make a play to take this project over. There's growing resentment on the team, but this person is a leadership darling and we feel they're untouchable. What can we do here?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah that's a gnarly one. Yeah, I have found in these situations one of two things typically happens a that person crashes and burns really quickly because they're a talker. They're not necessarily a doer right, so give it six months and come back to me and tell me what happened. This gets a little political sometimes because if they're a leadership darling, you gotta.
Speaker 1:That's a yeah that's a little bit tough, I think, if you can talk to a mentor or a coach to see what you can do there to navigate that situation. But I wouldn't. I wouldn't confront that person necessarily. I'd be leaning on your own network and your own mentors, mel, what would you do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would do that. I think that's the same thing. I would recommend the same thing, especially given the darling. Yeah, that's like yeah Tough, it's a tough one.
Speaker 1:The other thing is you might not know what you might not know. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I also. I think you're right where people will crash and burn if they don't have what it takes.
Speaker 1:Every time people come in with pot for ammo and they don't do the work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great questions. Greed, greed happens. Thanks so much for joining us today. Subscribe. Wherever you listen to podcasts. You can come over and say hi to us. On the TikToks and LinkedIn community. It is up at yourworkfriendscom.
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