Schadenfreude

A few years ago I competed for a role at work. I was made for the job and the job was made for me. Really. I was the one who recommended its creation to the board. It was just my thing; a combination of strategy and execution, relationships and hard revenue targets. The works. As you may have guessed, I didn't get it.

Now, there is a strong likelihood that you are thinking I am a delusional idiot for not realising I clearly wasn't the man for the job. And you'd be right too. Otherwise I would have gotten it. Still, it hurt. Especially so since, as much I thought I was "the man" I genuinely thought my competitor - let's call him W - wasn't. It really hurt.

A year passed and W did not do as well as he expected. Spectacularly so; W managed to get himself, and his entire team, sacked. Or should I use the more PC term "made redundant". Within minutes I started getting calls from dozens of people who thought I would be interested to hear about it. They were right. I was. With every call a wonderful feeling spread further through my veins - the wonderful Schadenfreude.

Now you may have noticed Schadenfreude is not an olde English word. Naturally, it is German. The interesting thing is that there is no English translation. You need a minimum of 6 words to do it justice - "satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune".

You see, Schadenfreude is not very English. One should not take pleasure in someone else's misfortune. Not very nice is it? The closest English word is . . . well, there isn't one. The online thesaurus draws a blank. A related word is 'comeuppance' - "deserved reward or just deserts, usually unpleasant". One can justly end up suffering for their actions but, you know, no one should enjoy it.

And yet, I enjoy Schadenfreude immensely. Actually, whenever I can. You see, the thing about Schadenfreude is that it only applies when you have nothing to do with the other person's downfall. Any hint of responsibility and it is no longer Schadenfreude, it is just being mean. Schadenfreude is merely bad. And a little bit of bad I don't mind. Well, clearly I am not English.

PS 910km down. 90km to go.