The story of oneupmanship.
From the days of my boyhood what has annoyed me most of people is how they must score a point or two above you. As a young boy, walking home with school friends, the other little bugger would brag that his house is bigger than mine is or that his uncle is the captain of the Navy and sort of owns all the ships in the country. Alternatively, he would say that his father is a doctor and that meant a lot in Sri Lanka on the prestigious scale.
Joining the work force gave me the impression that this oneupmanship will zero out. To my surprise, it had grown with the people and sort of carried forward to their adulthood. Yet, you meet folks at work and they brag how one uncle is a CFO or CEO of this big company or how Aunt Jill just returned from taking a big course in a big university in America. These are dull conversations but the other party was happy to gain the oneupmanship and was happy for the day.
Of course, in developing countries status of office rank plays big time. As a young management accountant trainee in Sri Lanka, one senior officer was mad that I had passed him walking on the corridor. Another was mad that I sat at a chair in front of him. Junior people must stand not sit was the order of the day.
Starting a career at the UN as a junior professional meant some uneasy moments because of this oneupmanship. In the field then, at least in the 1970’s anything less than a P4 in a large field office or regional office meant exclusion from some office parties and a corner seat at a meeting table. At New York headquarters at a big meeting, you sit or stand some yards away from the meeting table if plenty of senior staff is attending. I guess some of this is acceptable office etiquette as the most senior staff gets priority in the pecking order.
There have been some jewels in UNICEF who went out of their way to ensure that junior staff never felt stepped on. The late Karl Eric Knutson was one of them. Attending a budget review meeting one representative had arranged for only Karl Eric to arrive through the VIP lounge with the rest of the team going through the normal channels. Karl Eric disclaimed VIP status and joined the team through the common airport channel even helping them carry their bags. On another occasion, myself (a P3 then) and another GS staffer from New York remained uninvited to an office party in Bangkok. Karl Eric felt so bad about it that he personally offered his apologies to us. He noticed and spoke.
Whether it was in the private sector or the UN, seemingly only the Asians were conscious of the office rank structure. The Europeans and North Americans did not care too much of it and tended to treat juniors more at their equal at least. The UN office party was the best place to see how these faces placed. Most UN office parties had a large crowd of junior staff and a very small crowd of senior staff. The senior staffs were mostly European or North American and tended to enjoy themselves very much throwing away their seniority positions for the moment. The Asian bosses would rather walk around with a stiff collar, have a drink and disappear after a short while. I am sorry if I am stereotyping, but at least that was my experience. I may be wrong, as the sample could be too small to generalize about continental types. Nonetheless, it reminds me of an old wish in good old Sri Lanka, the locals would say, the best bosses we had were the English. Local bosses were partial, rude and did not treat their subordinates as human beings.
I think that sometimes work has to be conducted according to the pecking order otherwise it would be difficult to run an organization. When certain important matters need discussing, then only the most senior staff can attend an important meeting and their rightful place is at the table. More junior staff must play supporting roles. However, that does not mean that junior staff should be spoken to with disrespect, because if not to them, who will do the junior work. Everyone is valuable in the organization and each person is as important as the other is whether junior or senior.
Oneupmanship occurs also in the various departments of an organization. In engineering companies, those who work for engineering think they are the superior departments to other functions as the emphasis of the company is engineering. In the UN agencies, the program sections claim superior status. In fact, one program staffer in UNDP Sri Lanka haunted me that there was no future in operations. He finally proved to be wrong. Even at UNICEF NYHQ, if you work for program, gain the lead over, for operations one-down. You are GS, one-down, IP gain an advantage over, and the pecking order continues from IP all the way to ASG and SG.
The story of oneupmanship is even practiced by flocks of birds where the one of lower rank is pecked, hence pecking order. In the social hierarchy, it is about the senior staff having the dominating roles and assuming power over junior staff. However, it is the mistreatment of the supposedly lower ranks as lower species is the troubling of issues. Think why women keep fighting for equality, equality at work, equality in social structures and equality at domestic levels. UNICEF has been fighting for years to increase the percentage of women in senior positions as men only represented senior staff once upon a time. Racism is a troubling issue in social structures from nationality traits, race, caste, and country of origin. How could I be responsible for my race and my religion?
At least we can try to work in small ways to diminish the burden of oneupmanship in our own surroundings and carry that experience to our homestead. Wherever, you notice a senior officer making a conscious practice of treating others as inferior and gaining status as one up on them, it should view as a serious matter in total violation of HRM ethics. Perhaps, it is time to add some ethics to HRM in addition to the normal rules and regulations. There should be no ifs and buts about group dynamics in the work place, there should instead be an ethical order of it.
Work requires interaction with other people at the same level, higher levels or junior levels. More often than not, there is no problem with interaction at senior and same levels, as most people will honor and respect. The troubling issue is not treating junior staff as important people. Junior staffs are human as senior staff. They too want to belong, to contribute and influence and senior staff owe them that inspiration.
I think the mental behavior of senior staff, even in the UN, need a bit of checking on, now and then. Let us keep the pecking order to run the hierarchy, however do not use the pecking order to peck and peck on those regular members to ridicule and disrespect.
Finally remember this; the next day after you retire the pecking order is gone as far as office title concerns. What remain in the pecking order may be height, color, wealth, and race. However, this too is all gone the day you die. To heck with the pecking order, I would say. Be friends with those you like, and feel comfortable with (for whatever reason), yes the comfort zone is very important. I have some very good ex-UN ex-Senior staff friends, but most of my ex-UN/current UN friends are GS, some lovely folks.
Really the choice is yours. You can stand above the rat race and pecking order, not outside of it, if you do so by choice.
Glossary:
IP = International Professional
GS = General Service P = Professional
D = Director
ASG = Assistant Secretary General
SG = Secretary General
UN = United Nations UNICEF = United Nations Children’s Fund
NYHQ = New York Headquarters
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