Do you view your colleagues as allies or competitors? And how do you think they view you? A survey conducted by the Creative Group, a head-hunting firm for the marketing industry, sought to find out what executives in marketing and advertising think about the issue.
The most recent survey showed that a third of executives say that coworkers have tried to make them look bad on the job. It's hard to know whether those reporting such behavior are indeed working in shark tanks, and not just paranoid.
The good news, according to the poll, is that the percentage of marketing pros who felt wronged by coworkers has dropped significantly since 2008, when half of respondents reported being shown up by a colleague.
Recommended For You
Why the drop? A logical explanation would be that workers taking the poll in 2008 the time were in the midst of a global economic meltdown, in which pending layoffs might force otherwise friendly workers to throw coworkers under the bus to keep their own jobs.
Advertising executives in 2008 were not only more negative about their coworkers, but they displayed very different attitudes about how one should respond to slights at the office. While 70 percent of respondents in 2008 said that the appropriate response was to confront the person directly, only 41 percent said the same thing in 2015.
In contrast, 40 percent of respondents in 2015 said that contacting HR or the person's manager was the best response, compared to only 10 percent in 2008.
The Creative Group divided saboteurs into three distinct groups. The first, "Credit Thieves," are those who seek to take credit for the work done by others. Then there are the "Belittlers," who try to tear down coworkers with frequent slights. Finally, the "Sly Sharks," who strategically leave coworkers in the lurch by withholding key information or resources to set the other person up for failure.
The Creative Group suggests that keeping written records of your work can help prevent sabotage from credit thieves, and that standing up for yourself is the best way to defeat belittlers. As for the sly sharks — they exploit confusion and ill-defined roles, so make sure that duties and tasks are well-defined when working in teams.
"Some professionals are so competitive that they'll do just about anything to get ahead," said Diane Domeyer, executive director of The Creative Group. "Being able to handle challenging or difficult coworkers — and maintaining healthy working relationships — is crucial for career success, particularly in environments that require a great deal of collaboration."
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
