Nobody Wants to be a Sucker
By Christina Sanders
Imagine you are working on a team to complete a project. After a couple days you notice that some, or all the other members are not working as hard as you. What do you do?
Two common outcomes of being in a situation like this are “the sucker effect”, and “social compensation”.
The sucker effect is a term Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychologist use to describe when a person on a team lowers the amount of effort they are putting in down to the level of the other team members (Levy, P. 2017). It can feel like you are being taken advantage of if you are working harder than others and not receiving the credit for it. To avoid feeling like a sucker, lowering effort can seem like a reasonable solution. However, there are downsides to this approach.
Projects may be completed poorly, the team underperforms which can make you look bad, and you don’t get to reap the benefits of challenging and developing yourself.
If your reaction to hearing about the sucker effect just now was “no way, if others aren’t going to help, I’ll just have to do it myself”, then you could be doing what I/O Psychologists call “social compensation”. This is the opposite of the sucker effect. Social compensation is when you pick up the slack of your team members and put in extra effort. Unfortunately, this approach also has downsides.
You may have less energy for other aspects of your work, feel underappreciated, and risk looking like a control freak. Not to mention both options can leave us feeling annoyed, not respected, distrustful, and resentful.
So, what are we supposed to do when our team members are not putting in enough effort? It seems like we are screwed if we decrease effort, and we are screwed if we do all the work ourselves. Well, my answer is the same answer I have for most of our problems in life: Communication!
To have a team work well requires excellent communication. Ideally, excellent communication starts with leadership. If that is not happening at your work however, let it start with you. You will be the one gaining the skills, and you can take them with you everywhere you go! Here are some powerful tips on how to avoid the sucker effect, and social compensation:
1. Develop your assertiveness skills.
Being assertive is speaking up for yourself in a respectful way to others. This means you will have to confront others sometimes. I hate confrontation personally, but I have learned to do it because it leads to better results than keeping silent. Check out this blog on PositivePsychology.com to learn more about what it means to be assertive.
2. Do your part to create a psychologically safe environment for yourself and others.
This article by Greg Barnet with The Predictive Index, breaks psychological safety down into 8 pieces.
3. Develop better relationships with your team members (even if you don’t like them).
Something my boss used to say was “you don’t have to be friends with everyone at work, but you do have to be friendly”. HR and Management Consultant Susan Heathfield gives the top 7 ways you can refine your skills in being a great person to work with.
4. Talk with your team members about the task at hand.
When you talk with them, only talk about behaviors and duties. Example: “Parts X, Y, and Z of our project need to be completed. When can we meet to talk about divvying up those duties?”.
5. Talk to your boss.
Be strategic about how and when you talk with your boss. Typically, you want to do this after you have tried to solve the problem yourself. Keep notes on the behaviors of others that are impacting your ability to do your job and keep notes on what you have tried in attempt to remedy the situation yourself. Alison Green, a blogger on Ask a Manager, gives 5 tips on how to talk to your boss about co-worker problems.
Any company would benefit to have someone who can do these 5 things. So, instead of slowly sinking into hating your job/co-workers, practice these tips. You might find that by learning to avoid the sucker effect and social compensation you can transform your situation into something much better. At the very least, you will gain more clarity on what it looks like for you to be an excellent communicator.
References
Barnet, G. (October 8, 2019). 8 ways to create psychological safety in the workplace. The Predictive Index. https://www.predictiveindex.com/blog/psychological-safety-in-the-workplace/
Green. A. (March 5, 2014). How to complain about a co-worker. U.S. News. https://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/03/05/how-to-complain-about-a-co-worker
Heathfield, S. M. (September 30, 2019). How to develop effective work relationships. The Balance Careers. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/developing-effective-work-relationships-1919386
Levy, P. (2017). Industrial/Organizational psychology: Understanding the workplace fifth edition. Worth Publishers.
Selva, J. (September 9, 2020). The quick guide to assertiveness: become direct, firm, and positive. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/assertiveness/