Competition in the workplace can be a good thing, but it can also be a really really bad thing. I was hired for a position that was also filled by someone else... awkward! Let me tell ya - pay means nothing if you're living in fear of losing it.
When the woman arrived to work I already had a bad taste in my mouth. To make things worse she was 20 years (give or take) older than me and had been working in the industry for about the same amount of time.
Over the next three months the other woman and I lived in a constant state of competition. Whether it was all in my head or not she was the enemy.
Competition can be good and bad for a company. In this case it was bad, but I did my best to manage it with grace. If you ever find yourself in the position of fighting for your place be sure to constantly scan your moral compass. When I compromised my values for the sake of safety in my job or winning the task at hand I took away from the opportunity to build up instead of tear down.
Later on the other woman and myself had a chance to talk about what had all happened and we both realized had we let the competitiveness go we could have built an empire between our two sets of skills. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was sad to know that I had let three months of opportunities go because I was afraid to lose the job I ended up leaving anyways.
God was so good to mend that relationship before I left, but it won't always work like that if collaboration and kindness can't break through harmful competition.
See you next week. It's going to be a good one.
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