(edit title) How to avoid typical Swedish jealousy at work? Any advice? Options

[carterhayes]

Yeah I'm the foreign guy at work. When I got a promotion the natives got jealous and pissed off that I just came in and advanced above them.. Any advice?

Stay home.

[cogito]

.so the Swedes envy royalty, and there is a name for it,...

Gamla H.
Apparently you do not know Swedish well enough to be familiar with the common term "kungliga svenskavundsjukan." It has nothing to do with royalty, but is rather the generic Swedish for envy, so widespread that they invented a special term for it.

Anyone who breaks jantelagan (everyone shall be equally mediiocre; get the same salary, have the same number of bottles in the cupboard) is subjected to the kind of sour treatment so well illustrated in the comments here toward the OP.

[Beef]

Must agree there.. svenskaavundsjukan is an expression I've heard many times by my Swedish friends and colleagues describing situations.. Whether it's worse than in another countries I've no real opinion on, but the fact that a term exists in everyday language would rather indicate so !?

[*Trowbridge H. Ford*]

The laws I like best, and which are probably most appropriate here from Sandemose's En flykting krysser sitt spor are these:

You shall not believe that you can teach us anything.

You shall not laugh at us.

[John.Smith]

Do you not think that if maybe all the 'natives' were pissed off that perhaps they just don't like you as a person... with or without the promotion? I don't like you already and you have only posted here once.
I would suggest a change in attitude may help.

[klubbnika]

Yeah I'm the foreign guy at work. When I got a promotion the natives got jealous and pissed off that I just came in and advanced above them.Question is, how do I keep a lo ... (show full quote)

Yeah I'm the foreign guy at work. When I got a promotion the natives got jealous and pissed off that I just came in and advanced above them.

Question is, how do I keep a low profile and avoid bullying tactics while keeping my sanity?

From what I understand, swedish jealousy is deeply ingrained in their culture and mindset and you can never trust or confide in a swede, especially when a foreigner seems better than them.

Any advice? ... (hide full quote)

Why do you think jealousy is typical Swedish? I have seen many countries with a much stronger jealousy than little Sweden. At every promotion in any country there always be someone in the office who is not happy with it.

Also, please note that what you think is jealousy might not really be jealousy but an expression for Jantelagen, where everyone is expected not to think that he/she is better than someone else.

[klubbnika]

"From what I understand, swedish jealousy is deeply ingrained in their culture and mindset and you can never trust or confide in a swede, especially when a foreigner seem ... (show full quote)

"From what I understand, swedish jealousy is deeply ingrained in their culture and mindset and you can never trust or confide in a swede, especially when a foreigner seems better than them."

I never knew there was a special type of jealousy named after Swedes!

You could move...perhaps to a place where you are not foreign. After all, why live in such a society when you could be among your own and enjoy a life free of petty jealousy and office politics. ... (hide full quote)

Yeah, agree with you here. There is nothing called Swedish Jealousy outside Sweden.

[Gamla Hälsingebock]

It's funny, what "Swedish" jealousy can lead to!

[Gamla Hälsingebock]

Gamla H.Apparently you do not know Swedish well enough to be familiar with the common term "kungliga svenskavundsjukan." It has nothing to do with royalty, but is ra ... (show full quote)

Gamla H.
Apparently you do not know Swedish well enough to be familiar with the common term "kungliga svenskavundsjukan." It has nothing to do with royalty, but is rather the generic Swedish for envy, so widespread that they invented a special term for it.

Anyone who breaks jantelagan (everyone shall be equally mediiocre; get the same salary, have the same number of bottles in the cupboard) is subjected to the kind of sour treatment so well illustrated in the comments here toward the OP. ... (hide full quote)

You are correct about my not being fluent in Swedish, however you are talking about the word envy, which as I previously stated is a lot different in meaning than jealousy.

Had the OP used "Swedish envy", I might(not really)concede the discussion to you, however he did not...so I won't!

Common usage of words and/or expressions are not valid when applied to many things...it may be commonly accepted by some but to others it may be seen as derogatory.

The term "Swedish jealousy" may be used commonly in this thread but it is not acceptable to a lot of people here...including myself.

[klubbnika]

Yeah, GH, funny things exist everywhere. Here in Britain they have something called "Swedish massage". Never heard of any "svensk massage" in Sweden though.

When it comes to the words "envy" and "jealousy", I agreee with you that they have different meaning. Unfortunately, they have recently been used interchangeably even by the native speaker (here in Britain. Never heard it in the US though). However, I think ther educated people do know when to use the appropriate word.

[sometimesinsweden]

It's called Swedish massage in all Anglo-speaking countries because it was a Swede who introduced it to us.

It's the same way that in Sweden you call zonal marking in football 'the English method' as it was introduced by Roy Hodgson, an Englishman. Of course we don't refer to it as that, but no point getting over-sensitive about it.

[klubbnika]

Oh yeah?

What about this then:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massage#Swedish_massage

[sometimesinsweden]

Yes, that's what I wrote. We call 'classic massage' Swedish massage because it was introduced to us by a Swede, although I didn't realise Holland also referred to it because of this.

Something to be proud of rather than pernickity about, no?

[klubbnika]

I don't know what you are trying to prove here.

My point was that something is called Swedish when in reality Sweden has nothing to do with it.

[byke]

Same as a Swedish meatball