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Victimhood Mentality in the Workplace


We all have been a victim of something at one or another point in our lives. Those situations can widely range in scale from an atrocity such as rape to being affected by a questionable change in the workplace. This post particularly addresses that latter piece and purposefully does not seek to put down great atrocities at all.

(I hate having to begin posts that way because I hope you'd naturally trust me and assume that I have no ill intentions.)

Change in the workplace really is never fun, even for us folks who are more comfortable with change than others. It means a required shift in our regular, day-to-day practices, adopting a new way of thinking, and perhaps working with a new group of people. Regardless of who you are, all these things post a new challenge to us on some level.

The difference between these people are how they approach this change, and at a high level, they fall into two categories: champions and victims. Champions are the folks who champion the change by helping themselves and folks around them adopt the new change as smoothly as possible.

And then you have the victims.

This is the much more common group. These are the people who complain (quietly or overtly) that the new change is unfair, drag their feet on adopting new practices, attempt to keep their old practices (again, quietly or overtly), and much more.

It should go without saying that these people aren't helpful. This group doesn't want to change, yet I've never seen action out of this group that truly causes a business to keep its former business practices. (Champions may have some effect here; we'll get to that more down below.)

The first thing we need to keep in mind is that a job is NOT an entitlement. Even for you folks that have worked for a company for 30+ years. People like to blame Millennials for being entitled, but the people who bellyache about change and say that "I've worked for this company for X number of years..." are exercising an entitlement mentality. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't honor people who have worked in a company that long, but honor shouldn't come in the form of adopting / keeping poor business practices. (Because, ironically, a business could go under if they stay that way, and then everybody is out of a job.)

Change is a reality of life. It happens, and we can choose to either get on board or hold everybody back.

Champions see change not as a barrier but as an opportunity. Notice the word choice of "opportunity". That word was very intentionally used because even champions aren't a fan of change. Becoming a champion doesn't mean you have to be happy about an incoming change. What it does mean is that you take initiative in making the change work to your advantage.

In a sea of victims, champions rise above and take charge. They encourage people to think of the best ways to incorporate change for the benefit of their team and benefit of the organization as a whole. Even in a change where people want to keep some of their former business practices, champions will do what they can to negotiate and make compromises when possible. After all, not all change is good, but a champion is going to give reasons to go another direction rather than merely complaining about it.

While the company certainly benefits from having champions around, I would be remiss to not mention the selfish benefits of being a champion. We already know these folks are in the minority, so their actions are noticed immediately. By whom? Leadership. Leadership sees when a person is taking charge, so that gives them a good idea of who to turn to when the next change rolls out. Like I said, champions see change as an opportunity: an opportunity for themselves.

Think through these things the next time your company rolls out a change, and especially give that last point a thought. Have you been looking for an opportunity to get noticed by leadership? Times of change provide so many opportunities. Take advantage of them when they come so that you will be purposefully placed in a better position when more change inevitably comes in the future.
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