It will come as no surprise to faculty at private and public colleges and universities that there are those among us who obsess about whether everyone is contributing equally to the running of an academic department.
I’m talking about the people who crave to formulate measures, create matrices that try to judge equivalent effort in order to make a case that others are not ‘doing their part’. The supposed failing is usually in a particular area of work that consumes their own compulsive attention and just happens to be the one they themselves do best.
They are far more interested in these metrics than are the rest of us, so they often take leadership roles in the department which involve reports and measures. They might not recognize their own degree of influence in reported outcomes, but if they do they will want to take charge of any further measures so that they can stack the deck in their own favor.
In the book The Myth of Freedom, Trungpa Rinpoche describes such people as Jealous Gods. It is one of the six ‘realms of existence’ in Buddhism (asura). These are people who focus on a Game of Life. Every situation becomes an opportunity to move themselves ahead in that game. They are deeply concerned about what they think other people are doing and how it will affect their own interests.
I have stumbled over this type frequently in academic settings. Academicians are self-governing and constantly evaluated. It’s not surprising that a Jealous God personality might find its way into our tightly monitored ranks.
The difficulty stems from the fact that such people don’t seem to recognize the bias in their own measurements. Despite what the rest of us would predict, they always manage to come out at—or near—the top of their own comparative lists.
If an alternative list doesn’t rank them highly, they will fight that list, hard. They will explain in great detail, publicly, why the measures used in that list are flawed. They will then make an exhaustive case about the exceptional value of their own list (the one that puts them at the top).
It’s another example of scientists not being scientific when it comes to basic human matters.
The Jealous Gods I meet are very bright and yet are not as talented as they think themselves to be. This is revealed by the comparative measures they hate, and yet covet. So they attempt, consciously or unconsciously, to move themselves ahead in those measures by inflating their scores while constantly demeaning their colleagues.
Those of us who value personal integrity tend to find such behavior reprehensible and churlish. We know there is nothing community-building about spiteful gossip against a colleague.
A Jealous God in a university department tends to attack people who have proven themselves time and time again: those who are well liked and have shown extraordinary skills and effectiveness as academicians. These Jealous Gods are envious, not subordinate. I have known many exceptional, well-rounded, community-oriented scientists who find themselves continually under attack by Jealous Gods. For them, it must be eternally like black fly season in Canada – endless pesky bites and swellings.
An attack by a Jealous God is quite different than a predator taking out the weakest member of a herd. Instead, it is an envious person trying to take down a confident, productive, and successful one. The reasons for this are not solely for the attacker to become the next boss or leader, but also to become admired and respected.
Jealous Gods have a tremendous amount to say but show little interest in listening. They regularly launch into lengthy arguments to persuade us to see the world the way they do, to adopt their opinions. There is no room for questioning. This one-sided harangue makes the presence of such a person quite tedious, yet sadly unavoidable.
What drives them, they might say, is the principle of fairness. That sounds like a good thing, so many of us allow them more latitude than we should. But what we don’t readily see is that they mean fairness in terms of their own insatiable perspective, and not fairness as judged by an objective external assessment.
This is evidenced in how they act and how they choose to measure others. It doesn’t seem fair to most people watching from the outside. Yet their response to any external criticism is, “You don’t understand this particular situation.”
There is a more serious consequence to the angst of a Jealous God than the obnoxious behavior. It is one of those cases where good-hearted people can do bad things to others.
Here’s how.
Jealous Gods are under their own psychological protection. They feel justified in their actions and think they are ‘doing their job’ when attacking colleagues. So they proceed systematically by undervaluing the contributions of others, which then justifies in their minds that more and more work should be assigned to everyone but themselves.
It’s a slick form of self delusion. “I know I am earnest, I work hard, and I am clever. Somehow, though, my colleagues seem to produce more than I do. The only explanation is that they have an easier or luckier time than I have. That means they should get more work, because they have fewer obstacles.”
This is a poisonous situation for good people to get themselves into. There is no end to what will be asked of others by a few people who expect themselves to be on top, yet aren’t.
Jealous Gods are not people who should hold power. Power amplifies their negative effect.
I’ve watched a small number of Jealous Gods grab power and destroy an academic department of dozens. Here’s an example of how this personality type can, without a check mechanism from leadership, cause great damage to an academic community:
Jealous God Bias: I think I must have more troubles and obstacles than you, because you show more productivity in difficult areas when we use objective measures.
Jealous God Delusion: Since I am bright and work hard, I can only conclude that you must be getting a ‘break’ and the rest of us are covering for you.
Jealous God Conclusion: You need even more work to balance things out. You should volunteer for that work if you cared about the department and not just about yourself.
The Catch: Even if the victim produces a lot more under the abnormally hard workload, the bar shifts ever upward because the Jealous God still thinks you must not have enough troubles, that you are still luckier than they are, because you are still producing papers/grants/students when they are not.
There’s no end to it. As a target, your extra workload goes unnoticed or is dismissed, your improbable productivity works against you, and you are still seen as acting in your own self interest. A Jealous God is never appeased.
A martyrdom syndrome can also come into play. In the case above, the few Jealous Gods also became convinced that if they didn’t manage all of this ‘correction’ no one would do it and the department would fall apart. Of course, it was their own actions that made the department crumble but from their viewpoint it was because other people weren’t helping enough. Jealous Gods can’t allow themselves to fall behind or lose in any way.
The Jealous God is a hard Buddhist realm for me to get my head around. I just don’t see the world that way, and I find it difficult to understand what drives people to be Jealous Gods. I don’t see life as a ‘game’ and there is nothing worthwhile to win by disparaging others.
This life, right now, in this moment, is not a game! This moment is our time and our place, so the only question is, “What can I do with this moment that will benefit others and is good?”
Diminishing colleagues is not good. Striving to prove that your colleagues are failing to do their part is not good. ‘Playing the system’ is not good. These are shameful actions, designed to promote oneself at the expense of others. There is nothing good about that.
