Competitive behavior in the workplace

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I know that there are some people in the workplace that try to take credit for someone else's work or try to make some coworkers look invalid and when things like this happen to the person that is being targeted they might lose their job or get paid less.I haven't had very many different jobs myself so I was wondering how often this really happens. Is it constant in most places? How do you deal with it when it happens?

It has happened to me in a previous job.

I've always been told I'm like a machine when I work. If I have a task to get on with, I work through it at immense speed with almost 100% accuracy. I can get more done in one day than most people do in three.

At my old workplace there was a very spoiled and arrogant individual that would argue with everyone to make herself look like the victim, would steal ideas from people and tried to get involved in absolutely everything to make herself look more important than she was. She took a particular dislike to me, because everyone commented on how quickly I worked and it was something she couldn't do better at. I could see her trying, but she never succeeded.

To me there was no competition or race - I was just doing my job, I wasn't there for office competition. I think that frustrated her even more.

Eventually she ended up sitting next to me in the office. She became more friendly after that. People commented on how she seemed to have changed. Then, one day I made a minor mistake - my first - and she jumped straight on it. Clearly she had been watching my computer screen constantly, waiting to see me slip up. She quietly tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out the mistake - I thanked her and fixed it.

A few days later I found out from my manager that she had spoken to my manager about it. She'd gone in saying that the reason I work so fast is because I'm making mistakes, and she gave this example.

Honestly? How did I deal with it? By continuing as I was - I didn't have to be friends with everyone in the workplace, I wasn't trying to compete. I was paid to do a job and I did it. I think the best thing I could have done for dealing with it was to show her that I genuinely didn't care, I wasn't trying to show her up, I was simply better at doing my work than she was.

I agree completely, they often want a big reaction. This will make you look bad.
Pretty soon that sociopaths' lies will catch up to them.

I find that it happens in every workplace, from low labour jobs to the highest of scientific academia. A sole charge position is better (sales is also good as you can prove your worth in $$$$ for the company).
Women tend to be more vicious with words & gossip. But if you show no sign of weakness they will often begin to respect you, of course sometimes this turns into affection, then when you do not reciprocate they can get angry, and jealous (even if you are not attracted to anyone else, simply talking to a co-worker can cause jealousy).
I've had to tell of a coworker for treating me unfairly (she did it many times, a real antagonistic attitude). After yelling at her, she was always nice to me thereafter. Some people try to boss you around and you need to let them know you are not weak & will not tolerate it.

I've also had to backstab some people, three times, I hated it - but only did it in my defence when they used information that I trused them with to backstab me.

^ How do you not appear weak without turning into a b***h or having to talk to people all the time? I do try to be careful not to reveal too much information about myself that someone could use against me later on.

Yes, I usually try to ignore it and not care. It sounds like that's best thing to do when it happens. The competitive behavior might cause other problems though like less pay, getting laid off ect.

I don't worry about it--I give away ideas all the time. The idea is that if you give enough away often enough people will eventually figure out where it is coming from.

The main problem in the workplace people who are autistic have is that they do they're job. The problem with that is supervisors often expect you to take on more work by asking and showing intuitive

I don't understand. Are you saying that autistic people don't do as much work as what is expected of them or that they do, but don't ask enough?

I've seen both, for sure.

I've heard of people like this but I've not encountered anything, thankfully. I did work with a guy who had once accused me of stealing his idea, but he only thought this because he hadn't remembered the idea had previously been discussed. When this was pointed out to him, he apologized.

Autistics get into trouble because they do too much work which makes the other workers look bad.

They also get into black/white thinking issues--the customer comes first, so I must stop what I'm doing to help the customer. No, your job is to sweep the floors and put stuff back where it belongs. You can't be "bullied" by your boss into doing your assigned job. You boss is just doing her job, which is to insure that you are doing your job.

Neurotypical people expect you to do or act a certain way without really speaking it out out loud your pretty much given hints you'll never understand.

A neurotypical boss sees it as good if you rush and do your work and then ask for more. An autistic person comfortable with his or her work do it as directed but when it comes to unassigned work that they don't ask us to do but expect us to request that can become an issue for us

I don't think it's too common. Depending on the workplace, it might be. Different locations will have a "culture" of their own and tend to attract similar attitudes, and their own standards of what's acceptable on a social level. One place I worked (retail store when I was young), favored workers could easily spend time socializing with the boss and push any work that came up during that time onto others who weren't idle themselves. Not so in other places.

Competitive people in general have strong passive-aggressive attitudes because they always think they are right, being cocky and popular/better than everyone.