The rising pressures of competition in the workplace can leave many employees feeling insecure. Increasing social media presence and usage means it’s even harder than ever to reduce your intake and stop comparing yourself to the posts we are exposed to on these platforms. Healthy competition in the workplace can encourage employees to strive and over-achieve after seeing their peers succeed. Thus, it now seems that we are not only starting to compare ourselves to others in the workplace but also compare the way we carry out our lives, from the clothes we buy to the places we visit, all seems to be one big competition.

The feeling that you’re unable to compete with your colleagues can leave you feeling uneasy. The feeling that you’re falling behind from your peers can originate from different prompts such as; your boss choosing to ask for your colleagues input and opinion over yours; seeing your peers accomplishing something you haven’t been successful in finishing or receiving less recognition and praise than your peers. No matter what your trigger, this feeling of inadequacy that we subject ourselves to can lead to a very negative mindset and can in fact hinder our progression even more so.

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Social media…

Best friend? Or worst enemy?

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Social media can be such an impactful tool, being able to encourage and show your support to people within your network is so powerful and can bring so much confidence to others. Many of us find ourselves flicking from one social media platform to the other and seeing how our followers live their lives.

It is integral that you understand what triggers cause you to feel as though you are falling behind your peers. Once you have figured your own individual triggers, you may initially think that the best option to resolve this issue is to remove the triggers completely to cut out the problem directly from the source. However, this is easier in theory than in application. The likelihood of being able to immediately stop listening when your boss compliments a colleague’s piece of work is not typically reasonable. Similar to this, blocking people on social media or simply stop using social media all together is an option but not always something you want to do! Therefore, it’s important that we tackle these with intent. For example, when you find yourself feeling inadequate due to the career success of a peer, try taking a step back and look at the situation objectively, without judgement and then think why you would feel like that about THEIR success? Do you want what they have? Why do you want what they have? Do you actually desire it, or do you desire it because others have it? Being able to remove the emotional factors can quickly help readjust your view of a situation.

Recapture your sense of self-efficacy by taking small actions to achieve small wins. Focus on your strengths and concentrate on activities that will highlight these and results will follow. Seeing results for your own output acts as a strong intrinsic motivation and reward for your own hard work.

Recognise that you need to surround with a diverse set of friends and peers. Living in a world where you solely focus on surrounding yourself with people in the same job/field you are working in is an unrealistic reality. Diversify your social circle and you will find it easier to stop directly comparing yourself to others. It’s always a possibility that you will compare to others, especially when it comes to careers and in a work place environment. Making sure that you manage these levels insecurities where emotions are heightened is the key to taking control and ensuring that these emotions don’t take over.

If however, you feel as though your role is becoming stagnant with a lack of career progression, get in touch with a member of the Finlay James team here.

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