Why does jealousy happen in the workplace between older and younger employees? I think what I’m experiencing is borderline bullying from an older colleague, and I am beginning to think it’s out of jealousy. This confuses me. This person makes more than I do, and we are not in competition for promotions, roles, etc. but, it seems that is what is happening.

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What I've noticed from my personal experiences in this, is that sometimes older employees feel threatened that a younger person has been hired, and they might be there to replace them. I learned this when I confronted an older coworker about how they were treating me, and they told me they were afraid of being replace, and that at their age, they feel like no one would want to hire them. Every situation is different though. I do recommend talking to them one on one about it, because communication is the key to solving stressful things.

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This is the opposite for me. I’m dealing with a person who doesn’t understand the business. Been in the job for a year. Trying to tell me how to do my job of 18 years. She sulky and ignores me when it doesn’t go her way. Reminds me of high school all over again. I try to ignore it but it is affecting my job now!!!

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In my experience the bully was an older boss and I think with our relationship the bullying came from a mixture of sexism, racism, and the thought that as a woman things were significantly harder to build a career 30-40 years ago and therefore since she suffered she wanted to make me suffer as well to pay my dues.

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I agree with Finance Manager, and have also seen some animosity from older colleagues if they see a younger person advance without the same amount of sacrifice and grind that they did at that age (their perception, of course). If someone younger has an “easier path” to success than they did, they can resent it.

I’ve found, and felt this sometimes. When companies keep going on about reducing staff numbers, or budgets dropping… employing newer/younger staff at cheaper rates will make the ones on a higher salary (usually older) feel vulnerable to replacement.
The other side is that older staff generally feel they’ve worked hard for their salary, and new hires can be on very similar with little to no experience, making older staff resentful of their company or the younger staff for this.

That makes a lot of sense. From that perspective, I can absolutely understand the resentment and would probably feel the same way. However, I don’t understand bullying

Sorry that you are experiencing this. I think sometimes it happens when the older employees feel threatened like the other comment mentioned and they don’t know how to handle it in a positive way so they try to push you down instead

I think it is happening because the older employee feels insecure and threatened by your abilities. But never mind. You keep rocking.

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