Friendly competition can motivate performance, but when workplace structures reward visibility over collaboration, it can quietly tip into rivalry, creating cultural strain and legal risk long before employers see it reflected in results.
That dynamic has resonated in popular culture, including in the hit TV show Heated Rivalry, which centres on intense professional competition that gradually blurs into personal and emotional conflict.
While fictional, the storyline reflects how rivalry can become all-consuming when identity, validation and success are closely tied to outperforming others.
A similar shift often unfolds in real workplaces when attention moves away from the work itself and toward relative position, says workplace culture expert Jennifer Moss.
“Instead of focusing on solving problems or improving quality, people start managing visibility, credit and perception. The work still gets done, but it becomes harder to sustain because so much energy is being spent navigating status rather than advancing outcomes.”
Read: 47% of U.S. employees have considered quitting due to ethical misalignment: survey
From an human resources perspective, Moss says the difference between healthy ambition and rivalry shows up clearly in everyday behaviour. “Healthy ambition makes work easier. People share information, flag risks early and build on each other’s efforts without worrying about who owns what.”
By comparison, rivalry shows up when information is withheld, credit becomes a recurring point of tension and HR begins seeing more role disputes or escalations, even while individual performance reviews remain strong.
Certain workplaces are more prone to rivalry than others and it’s rarely about personality, Moss says. “Rivalry flourishes where goals are unclear, advancement criteria are opaque and recognition feels scarce or uneven. When employees do not understand what collective success looks like, they begin tracking success individually.”
Production pressure can intensify the problem, particularly when speed or output is rewarded without clarity around priorities. In those conditions, rivalry is not a failure of culture so much as a predictable response to uncertainty.
Read: Canadian employers divided on who should adapt to workplace culture: survey
Language, Moss says, is often an early warning sign. “Terms like ‘above and beyond’ can quietly shift attention toward visibility rather than contribution.” For employees with caregiving responsibilities or limited flexibility, the comparison stops being about the work itself and becomes about who can stay later or be seen more often, dynamics that can undermine fairness and inclusion.
Organizations that manage competition well tend to be deliberate about how goals, recognition and accountability are designed, she adds, noting rather than cascading individual targets that compete with one another, effective teams define a small number of shared outcomes they are jointly accountable for, with individual responsibilities nested inside them.
Recognition practices matter as well. “When leaders consistently name contributions that move shared outcomes forward, even when no single person owns the result, it changes what people pay attention to.”
But rivalry does not just create cultural strain. It can also introduce legal risk when it spills into behaviour that is disruptive, discriminatory or harmful.
Read: McDonald’s mandating anti-harassment training worldwide
From a legal standpoint, workplace rivalry isn’t a defined concept, but it captures a wide range of dynamics, from the desire to outperform a colleague to insecurity triggered by a coworker’s advancement, says Daniel Wong, partner and chair of the employment and labour law practice group at WeirFoulds LLP. “Rivalry becomes a workplace risk when it results in sabotage, reputational harm, harassment or, in extreme cases, threats or violence.”
Rivalry crosses into harassment under employment law when conduct is known to be unwelcome or would reasonably be considered unwelcome in the circumstances, Wong notes. That’s where employers often see exposure increase quickly, particularly when concerns aren’t escalated early or handled consistently.
Rivalry can also become a human rights issue if it results in differential treatment tied to protected grounds such as gender, race or age. Power dynamics significantly affect how these situations are assessed. “When someone in a position of authority controls work assignments, advancement or evaluations, even subtle misuse of that power can significantly increase employer exposure,” Wong says.
Employers often misstep by underestimating these dynamics. Clear workplace violence and harassment policies are foundational, but training and regular refresher sessions are equally important, Wong says. “Telling employees to ‘work it out themselves,’ handling complaints informally or reaching conclusions before all parties are heard are common mistakes.”
Read: 70% of Canadian employees have experienced workplace violence or harassment: survey