From showing your colleagues that you are the better performer to addressing it head-on with all parties involved, here are six answers to the question, “What are ways to get (professional) revenge on a snitch at work?”
- Show You’re Better by Competing
- Just Don’t
- Prove Yourself by Doing an Excellent Job
- Use Malicious Compliance
- Do Not Let Personal Issues Impede Your Professionalism
- Take the High Road
Show You’re Better by Competing
If you have a problem with a snitch at work, the best way to get professional revenge is to compete. Make sure that your work performance outshines theirs and that you are recognized for it. During team meetings, emphasize how your contributions are helping the company progress while highlighting their lack of input or ideas.
This will show your colleagues that you are the better performer, and will make the snitch feel like their attempts to bring you down have failed.
Finally, surrounding yourself with other colleagues who are supportive and loyal is another great way to drown out the negative vibes from a snitch.
Aviad Faruz
CEO,FARUZO
Just Don’t
You’re playing a dangerous game if you decide to go down the revenge route for a professional tattletale. I’d recommend taking the high road in this case because you’re going to be putting your own reputation in jeopardy, which is the last thing you want when dealing with an incident like this at work. If it is a big enough issue that needs to be addressed, do it through proper channels. If it isn’t, you’re better off just having a chat with the person in question and letting it go.
Dragos Badea
CEO,Yarooms
Prove Yourself by Doing an Excellent Job
The best professional revenge on a snitch at work is to outperform them. When someone tries to make you look bad, the best way to respond is to prove yourself by doing a great job. Start by scheduling your work well and asking for more responsibility from your boss. Commit to doing an excellent job and watch for any sabotage attempts while doing so.
Liam Liu
Co-founder and CMO,Parcel Panel
Use Malicious Compliance
Malicious compliance is the pinnacle of petty workplace revenge. It involves strictly complying with a person’s request, knowing that such a strict interpretation will yield a negative result. For example, if a co-worker asks for a document “as soon as possible,” you send them the document immediately, but unfinished. After all, they didn’t say they wanted you to finish the document; they just wanted it as soon as possible, and you obliged.
Malicious compliance allows you to exact petty revenge against offending co-workers while still following the rules. This insulates you from formal grievances, protecting you from disciplinary action. Myriad examples of effective malicious compliance can be found online, with many people posting their satisfying revenge stories for all to read.
So if you need to get even with someone without risking your career, consider using malicious compliance and get the revenge you seek.
Ben Schwencke
Business Psychologist,Test Partnership
Do Not Let Personal Issues Impede Your Professionalism
Show your colleagues and the snitch that you can do more than them. Focus on building positive relationships with other coworkers and showing that you are reliable, capable, and trustworthy. Show that you are an asset to the team and don’t let personal issues impede your professionalism.
Amy Lee
Medical Advisor,Nucific
Take the High Road
By taking the higher road and moving forward with a lesson learned, you can get back at someone at work. They thrive on power and will usually do something like this because they feel incompetent in their work. Since they can’t get to you through their work, they look for other ways where they can make a negative impact on you.
If this happens to you once, I suggest you take the higher road, address it head-on with all parties involved, and move past it. The damage has been done and a counter-strike by you will only hurt you as well, which the other party is hoping for. Instead, address it and move on.
If it happens again, then things are different and more action will have to be taken by you. But, for the first issue, try to take the high road to move past it, knowing you are in a position of power.
Rahul Jha
Managing Director and CEO,Legal Entity Identifier
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