It’s easy to see the story of Steve Slater — the JetBlue flight attendant who, after sparring with an unruly passenger, took to the P.A. system to blurt out expletices, stole some beer from the plane’s stock, and made his getaway via the emergency exit — as nothing more than a hilarious breech of decorum. But the widespread good-for-you reactions suggest that quite a few of us have workplace revenge fantasies.
There’s actually a substantial body of social-psychology research on workplace revenge, part of an area of study called “organizational justice” — the study of how people perceive fairness in an organization. And it’s clear Slater’s beef wasn’t just with the passenger who failed to sit down after being asked. On his way out, Slater shouted and 20 years had been enough. “It’s been great!” he said.
Social psychologists generally study organizational justice for insight into optimizing workplace efficiency. If employees perceive unfairness, they are less productive and more likely to sabotage the organization in various ways.