, /PRNewswire/ – Having a supportive group to pick you up after a setback or mistake seems like it should be helpful to get back on your feet. But that may not always be the case in the workplace, according to research from the University of Maryland.

The study, published by Personnel Psychology, looked at setbacks people experience at work where they lose status or respect and admiration in the eyes of their colleagues—like being passed over for a promotion or making a mistake during a client pitch that costs the company the deal. The research, co-authored with, is.

“While you might think it would be better for people to experience these types of failures in more supportive work groups, it actually turns out to be worse,” says Associate Professor of Management and Organization Jennifer Carson Marr at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, adding that the findings surprised her and co-authors UMD psychology professor Edward Lemay and UMD PhD graduate Hyunsun Park at Georgia Institute of Technology. “When we set out to study this question, we thought it would be helpful—at least in some ways.”

The reason supportive groups don’t help is because when an individual in those groups loses status in the eyes of their co-workers, it creates conflicted feelings about those coworker relationships. “They start to feel both positive and negative feelings about their co-worker relationships—both supported and, at the same time, disrespected.”

And ambivalence in your relationships is the worst, she says—even worse than aversive relationships, where you’d just avoid the other person.

Feeling that ambivalence creates uncertainty, anxiety, and hurt feelings that can ruminate. Consequently, it often reduces that person’s engagement at work, Marr says. And it didn’t matter whether the group could offer emotional support or task support, because the ambivalence experienced by the person who had the setback event makes them shy away from leaning on their group members for any kind of support.

Marr says co-workers and managers need to be attuned to this problem. That means when someone experiences some kind of failure, don’t just assume they’ll be fine and bounce back—“Be proactive, reach out, offer assistance, and help them make sense of what happened.”

Marr and her co-authors looked specifically at the status-loss as perceived by the person who had the setback, so it’s unclear what other employees actually think. “Their co-workers probably do not realize, in many cases, that this has created some ambivalence for the individual grappling with the worry that others have lost respect for them.”

Marr says she was surprised how common these experiences are for people in the workplace. “People clearly experience these types of events on a regular basis,” she says. She and her co-authors ran studies where they surveyed working professionals over a seven-week period. Participants recalled multiple instances of status loss during that time.

And these experiences can happen to any employee — even the star performers, who may have more severe reactions, she says.

“Managers need to care about all of their employees and also make sure the people who are producing the most on their team aren’t reducing their engagement. That could be pretty significant to the team’s overall productivity.”

These problems are very addressable, Marr says. Deal with them by keeping these things in mind:

Setbacks aren’t permanent. Realizing that quickly can help you recover faster by igniting your motivation to try and come back from the status loss, rather than retreating, says Marr.

Status fluctuates. You can earn back people’s respect and admiration through your efforts—both through task-related efforts and also through your contributions to the group, like offering to help and being a good team player.

Be a supportive team member. If a coworker experiences a status loss event, step up and show your support. Remember that it can be really hard for the person experiencing the problem to reach out to others, so offer to help.

Share your feelings. It can be tough to admit that you’re feeling conflicted after a setback but reaching out to someone you trust to explain how you’re feeling can be really helpful, says Marr. Your co-workers probably have no idea you’re feeling this way and might be able to help you make sense of your conflicting perspectives and help you address your ambivalent feelings. It can also be helpful to talk about your feelings to a friend who’s outside your work team.

Keep things in perspective. Status loss can occur in one setting, but that doesn’t mean all of your work colleagues think less of you, Marr says. Many could even help you. In one study, Marr and her co-authors found that support from colleagues outside a person’s team after they experienced status loss was really helpful and didn’t create ambivalence or reduce engagement.

Reach out to other colleagues. If you’re the one who’s lost status, reach out to a colleague who is not in the immediate work group that you’re feeling conflicted about. That could be someone from another work group, a colleague in another unit in your company, or even someone outside your organization, like a contact from a professional association. “You may be able to get some objective support that’s helpful, and they may also be able to help you with perspective,” says Marr. “They could reassure you that you’re still well-respected in the broader industry to help you move past this one event.”

Above all, Marr says it’s important to remember you can bounce back from any setback and it’s not the end of the world.

“We all make mistakes sometimes — and often stress about the embarrassment and how others will react,” says Marr. “Knowing it’s possible to recover from a blow to your reputation can make you realize it doesn’t have to be as big of a deal as you might be making it.”

About the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business Located eight miles from Washington, D.C., 35 miles from Baltimore, and situated inside the Capital Beltway, the Robert H. Smith School of Business is a recognized leader in management education and research. Smith’s over 70,000 alumni are part of the 400,000-strong University of Maryland alumni community. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland in College Park, the Smith School is plugged into the business, government, nonprofit and professional networks of the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., metroplex. We offer undergraduate, online and on-campus business master’s, full-time, part-time, online and executive MBA, PhD and DBA degree programs, graduate certificates, and non-degree and executive education programs.

Contact: Greg Muraski, [email protected]

SOURCE University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business

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