{"id":29137,"date":"2015-09-18T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=29137"},"modified":"2016-05-23T02:23:35","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T09:23:35","slug":"how-do-i-deal-with-younger-competitive-people-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/dear-gt\/how-do-i-deal-with-younger-competitive-people-at-work","title":{"rendered":"How Do I Deal with Younger, Competitive People at Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You describe yourself as cooperative, gregarious, and caring. These are the strengths I hope you will use to help yourself and your colleagues\u2014the old ones and the new ones\u2014so you can work together to develop a new work family system.<\/p>\n

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It is very difficult when a few new people join a workplace at about the same time, especially as they may seem to have more in common with one another than with the longer-term employees. You write that their age range is roughly 25 to 40 and that they are younger than you and your \u201csofter\u201d friends. I\u2019m guessing there is a generation gap, and that different styles and ways of being are in conflict. If so, it might help to talk things out together, perhaps with a professional mediator if things get too hot.<\/p>\n

Perhaps those people who have been working at your office longer may feel that their status is threatened. This is not an uncommon response to change in the workplace<\/a>. The task for each and all of you is to find common ground so you can work together and get along.<\/p>\n

You describe the new people as strong personalities<\/a> with a \u201csense of entitlement\u201d and a zealous approach; overbearing but also competent, equally competent to you and your friends. Is there parity in your compensation and benefits? I am curious as to all the reasons they seem so \u201cother.\u201d<\/p>\n

You have a lot to offer, and can use your personality, experience, and wisdom to nurture the new arrivals and help create a warmer work space.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder, too, if the new people have new ideas, new approaches, and new ways of doing things that may seem to challenge the more established procedures. This can be annoying and shake things and people up, but you can all also benefit from their \u201cnewness\u201d by seeing things from a different perspective, which might be an asset. If the new crowd has new ideas, it would benefit everyone to give those ideas a forum where they can be explored and perhaps even worked out.<\/p>\n

So my advice is to take some deep breaths and take a step back. You have a lot to offer, and can use your personality, experience, and wisdom<\/a> to nurture the new arrivals and help create a warmer work space.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re describing an \u201cus vs. them\u201d situation, which never works. I\u2019m hoping that your \u201csofter\u201d personality may be just the thing that helps people work together and blend the lines between the \u201cold\u201d and the new.<\/p>\n

Best wishes,
\nLynn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lynn Somerstein, PhD, E-RYT, responds to our latest reader-submitted Dear GoodTherapy.org question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[625],"tags":[522,25,424],"class_list":["post-29137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dear-goodtherapy","tag-dear-gt","tag-psychotherapy-issues","tag-workplace-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}