Have you ever felt like management treats co-workers better than you even though those co-workers do less work? Do those co-workers seem more entitled to higher pay or other recognition even though you're more cooperative, hard-working, or productive?

We see the ego-driven person get rewarded above the hard worker throughout history. Martin Luther King Jr. got more recognition for progress in the civil rights movement. Yet Rosa Parks put in hard work over years and was reduced to a tired worker who refused to give up her seat one day.

Entitlement refers to a belief that one is deserving of some particular reward or benefit. In Bully Free at Work's "What does entitlement have to do with workplace bullying?," the writer says that if you feel resentment at work, your bosses may be treating you unfairly.

You may experience entitlement if:

• You do more of the work for less compensation. You may be the go-to person because you get things done, but you feel like a dumping...

We know workplace bullying can harm a target’s health, leading to such issues as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even suicide. But what about the bullies? Publishing their findings in the October 2016 Journal of Business Ethics in “Victim and Culprit? The Effects of Entitlement and Felt Accountability on Perceptions of Abusive Supervision and Perpetration of Workplace Bullying,” researchers focused on the problem — what makes a bully bully. They determined that bullies feel less accountability and more entitlement than those who don’t bully. “There’s an indirect relationship between entitlement and coworker bullying through perceptions of abusive supervision that is stronger for employees who report lower levels of felt accountability than employees who report higher levels of felt accountability,” said the researchers.

Take Your Dignity...

So you have a reputation of being a go-to person at work. One who gets things done and gets them done well. One who wants your organization to be great.

But suddenly you look around, and it’s the selfish, incompetent ones clawing their way to the top while you’re stuck reporting to them, making less money than them, and getting bullied by them.

So what’s the deal? How did this illogical power structure become so common?

1. They’re great at maneuvering. They kiss up and kick down, so those who promote them either don’t see the damage they cause or don’t care about the damage they cause, but everyone else does.
2. They’re entitled. When bullies simply take power and feel entitled to dictate, belittle, control, or manipulate targets by calling them “sensitive” or “emotional,” and others believe the dismissal of the targets rather than hold the bullies accountable, bullies get ahead. But...