Watch Out for Pride in the Workplace

Pride is a term that is used to describe two different feelings. Pride is used to describe a feeling of respect and worth, but it also describes enmity toward others. In one way, pride is an expression of our finding joy in the actions taken by ourselves or by others. In this sense pride is an action verb and is often described as "taking pride in ..." We may take pride in the fact that our report was well received by company, or pride in the success of our new assistant. In these examples, we have expressed pride in ourselves and pride in others, neither of which is inherently wrong. The act of taking pride in something is not the pride that is seen as the great deadly sin in scripture. In fact, the great sin of pride is very different in nature, though the manifestation can appear quite similar to the outsider.

The difference between taking pride and committing the sin of pride is in the intent of the heart. The sin of pride is having a selfish attitude toward yourself, the people around you, and the world in general. In the scriptural context, pride is manifest as enmity toward god. Pride is the belief that you don't need god to reach heaven. You have the power to do it alone, and you spend your life fighting against god. Likewise, in the workplace, pride is manifest as enmity toward others. Pride in the workplace is the belief that you don't need others to succeed. Consequently, you spend your life fighting against your coworkers. Fundamentally, it is a desire to prove to yourself that you are successful; but success is a relative metric and to the proud the success of another consequently cheapens the value of yourself. This fosters resentment, ill feelings, and greater enmity towards the people around you.

You can recognize the people in your workplace who are struggling with pride through some basic behaviors and attributes. First, prideful coworkers generally prefer to work alone. Any time the work is done together, the credit must be shared which the prideful person does not want to do. This leads to the second symptom, which is the prideful person is quick to take credit, or quick to correct someone if the proper credit is not given. They also find ways in regular conversation to tell you how smart of successful they are.

While the act of pride (taking pride is oneself) is typically a result of having a high self worth and self opinion; the sin of pride is often a consequence of having a low self worth. When we have a low self worth, that lack of personal worth fosters resentment towards those around us. It angers us inside not because others are better than us, or happier than us, but because we want to be better but have failed. Resentment fostered as a consequence of low self esteem is fundamentally a desire to be a better person. Anger is initially turned inward, but is manifest as anger outward, and once the anger is directed outward, we begin to shift blame from inside out towards others.

Modern business is a team effort and employers actively seek people who work well in a team environment. However, one of the primary reasons to seek this attribute is because it as an easy way to avoid prideful candidates. There is no better way to destroy a good work environment than to introduce pride.

If pride has shown up in your workplace, identify those individuals, and then help them understand how important they are to you and the rest of the group. Often, pride arises simply because the person just does not feel needed anymore. Their pride may simply be their way of trying to show you and themselves that they are an important part of the team.