Ingratiation is always interpersonal:
It usually involves at least two and often three people. An act of ingratiation can mean one thing to the actor, another to the target of the action and certainly still another totally different thing to a neutral observer of the action.
The study of ingratiation must determine both. Whether a behavior is ingratiatory and how conscious both target and actor are of the act as ingratiatory. We have to know what the act is and we have to know what everyone involved thinks it is.
I Hate People...
Sycophant comes from Greek sykophantēs:
sykon “fig” and phainein “to show, make known”
One of the original meanings of sycophant was someone who offered insincere flattery. It is thought that this came from fruit sellers in street markets who were known for their fawning over potential buyers, flattering them so they might make a purchase.
Sycophancy was also associated with Athenian legal contexts to describe those people who brought frivolous, malicious and unjustified complaints, hoping either to obtain the payment for a successful case. Or to blackmail the defendant into paying a bribe to drop the case.
Sycophancy in the workplace has a slightly different meanings and is more rampant than you might think. And the choice between being sycophant and being straightforward depends on the kind of people you are dealing with at your workplace.
- You are not as good as you think you are.
- You are as good as you think you are but other people might be better.
- You are good technically but do not have the soft-skills required such as networking, relationship building, personnel management, etc.
- You are working for an organisation which does not recognise quality people.
Yep! these sycophants are usually a dealer, not a drug dealer, but more of a candy and snack dealer. They lure the surrounding lemmings over for "free" chocolate and candy. This gives them the sense that you owe them something. That they are the dispensers of bounty. That they are in charge. But of course they are doing this precisely because they have no authority and the only thing they are dispensing is an attempt to make you resemble their own self image: helpless, powerless, untrustworthy, unreliable and eventually treacherous douchebags and cosplayers.
It is a fact that throughout our lives basically spent going through our student's world, the laboral world and/or the corporate ladder. I have no doubt that we have already stumbled upon before and faced many of these undesirable specimens who are called sycophants in many of its different facets and many of its variants of synonyms and adjectives. It doesn't matter how you call them, they're all the same.
But nowadays in this virtual and digital world on the internet where you already feel free. Because you actually believe you are already your own boss and you are the only one bossing yourself to generate incomes and make a living out of these incomes. Just because you now consider it your new workplace to which you attend voluntarily every day. ¿Did you really think you were going to stop bumping into them?
Well, then think again! Because these disgusting beings proliferate and swarm everywhere like worms in your surroundings. There is almost no way to get rid of them. Because they are like an insatiable Marabunta that devours everything in its wake.
Uhm, unless, unless we go back to the times of the ancient Roman Empire under the Roman Emperor Caligula that can teach us an useful thing or two about Sycophants.
¡Breath Cayo César!
As an incident from the Roman Emperor Caligula’s notorious rule may reminds us:
During an illness early in Caligula’s reign, a commoner vowed to give his own life if the emperor recovered. The man made his vow publicly, hoping that through his fawning offer to show his deep loyalty and to elicit a generous award for his avowal.
Although Caligula indeed did recover, the lickspittle’s tactic backfired spectacularly.
Once back on his feet, Caligula chose to take the man at his word and ordered his execution immediately. Quite the lesson that words should mean what they say. And Oh yeah! ¡Death by sycophancy must be hard to top!