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Subscribe to RSSManagers don’t want to engage in it and employees hate it.
Unfortunately, office politics can’t be avoided.
The good thing is, many workers realize engaging in office politics on some level is an important part of getting ahead.
A survey released this week by staffing firm Robert Half found that 56 percent of employees believe being involved in office politics is necessary to get ahead in your career, compared to 42 percent who said it wasn’t necessary, and 2 percent who don’t know either way.
"There is some degree of politics at play in virtually every organization," said Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International and author of “Managing Your Career For Dummies.” "The savviest professionals practice workplace diplomacy. They remain attuned to political undercurrents but don't allow themselves to get pulled into situations that could compromise their working relationships or reputation."
Becoming attuned to office politics, however, is easier said than done.
“The problem with office politics is that it’s not a science,” maintained Margaret Morford, author of “The Hidden Language of Business – Workplace Politics, Power & Influence.” “It’s very much an art.”
While not engaging in the political goings on at work can hamper your career, she said, making the wrong political maneuvers could kill it.
There are employees who appear to be great at office politics on the surface because they are good manipulators and have no qualms about stepping on people as the climb the ladder of success, she explained. But, she added, that approach creates a lot of enemies and those individuals don’t tend to stay on the ladder.
The same holds true for suck ups, she stressed. “It doesn’t work long term.”
It’s not just the rank and file that must play the political games.
Managers often try to stay out of the political fray when it involves their underlings, but that’s also a dumb idea, according to an article in the Harvard Business Review by the coauthors of “Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader.”
The authors, Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback, write:
“Unless you reach out, engage others, and create active, ongoing relationships — relationships you sustain even when there's no immediate problem — you will lack the ability to exercise influence beyond your group. And even in your own world, your influence will be limited. If you've ever worked for a boss who lacked any organizational clout or credibility, you know how frustrating that is.”
For those of you who are frustrated just thinking about how to engage in office politics, Morford has some basic advice: Listen more than you talk, and study what’s going on around you, especially when you start out at an organization.
Also, beware of the people that want to give you the lay of the land when you take a job. “Don’t accept the first opinion you get on what’s going on,” she advised, adding that sometimes you get the outlier who doesn’t have a clue on the political environment at an organization.
If you’re still learning the culture or any company, she continued, the best approach is not to challenge coworkers or manager in front of audience, but wait for a private moment and don’t ever say, “you’re wrong.”
There are three ways people end up stalling in their careers or getting fired, said Morford, when it comes to political missteps:
1. You’re organization changed direction and they haven’t figured it out or gotten on board.
2. You’ve run afoul of someone who is powerful.
3. You haven’t built a wide enough network to support you when you make a mistake.
Be sure, she stressed, “to walk softly until you figure it out.”
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The back stabber, suck up and anything else is all under the title of manipulator. I am constantly amazed that management in all their wisdom cannot see through these people...it is glaringly apparent to the rest of us!!!
Lorinda
Don't for get. old school managers were taught how to play and love to play one employee off against another. They were told it is the best way to get top production out of all employees. All it really did was cause more trouble Hence the rise of the a$$ kisser, bully, back stabbers and on the list goes.
In my organization we have another problem. One group can do no wrong. The boss thinks they are "special". He has blinders on when it comes to these people.
But...someone in another group working right next to them is not allowed to make even the slightest mistake or their forcefully disciplined and their job is constantly threatened.
The problem is managers/leaders do not watch their organization function.
There was a study by MIT that they tracked the actual social/work relationships in an organization and compared it to the CEO's opinion and who the CEO promoted.
In reality, the CEO was out of touch of who the organization valued and went to for real work.
It's not surprising. I think more information needs to be used to evaluate who should be promoted.
I worked the Midnight Shift. Only one there. NO PROBLEMS!!
That's not what your other personalities said.
Quite the contrary. We were ALL in agreement. Midnight Shift SUCKS! Did it for 20+ years.
slodon, i'm a teacher and i love my students, but hate my JOB because of the adults involved. Many, many days, there are a couple body parts I'd consider parting with if I could fly solo in a job with just me, myself, and I...and maybe a good radio station! The ONLY reason I keep teaching is because of the kids. When I retire, there's a good chance this old boy could become a big-time hermit as I'm gonna be all "politiced" out!
The reason there is office politics is because every office is run like the military. Everything is based on manipulation and fear.
I am so glad that I work from home for myself. I am the boss. No one tells me what to do. I have no employees to manage. I have no coworkers or clicks that I must be friends with. There is no one planning to sabotage me. No one plotting to get me fired. No one competing with me for that promotion or raise. No one making up and spreading rumors about my private life. No one spying on me. No one sucking up to me to get what they want. And best of all, no more FORCED office parties where people are forced to be a part of. Really who cares if it's so and so's birthday or anniversary. I don't care about so and so's kid making the soccer team. Why are people forced to buy gifts and pretend to be nice to bosses and other employees? I have worked with thousands of people during my 20 years in the corporate world and I hardly keep in close contact with any of them. So what was the point of all the sucking up and faking being nice all for? NOTHING!
And you know what? I miss many of the places and jobs that I had. I did not have a problem with the "labor" part of any of my jobs, it was ALWAYS the people that I had to deal with that was the problem.
I will never forget one evaluation that I had. In the strength area of the review I was told that I had "excellent communications skills" but on the next page in the areas to improve section, I was told that I "needed to improve my communications skills." And because of that I did not receive the maximum amount for my annual raise. So being "excellent" was not good enough. How does someone improve excellence?
And don't forget the
"It was good enough for my papa & it was good enough for his papa & it'll be good enough for me"
Damn Luddites
I worked for a company (no longer in business) in New Jersey who, under old management, allowed a very senior employee to stay on the payroll long after retirement age because she understood the entire manufacturing process and because she was credentialed in a skill need only every six months.
New management forced her into retirement. The next time there was a major manufacturing problem, she was not available to solve it and the result was that production was stalled for over a week - her track record for solving similar problems averaged a day and a half. The basic problem was that knowledge of the manufacturing process was too fragmented into too many departments who were too busy pointing fingers at one another to solve the problem effectively.
The next time the training and certification she handled was needed, an outside consultant was called in at more than twice her salary per session.
The new management had no idea what she did for the company and would not listen to why she should have been retained. The senior managers and executive row was too busy playing politics.
The best defence is to "expose" them... set a little trap. Expose them for what they are and that becomes their reputation (she's a back stabber...don't trust her). They will lose their support, become ineffective and no one will want to work for them/with them... it may take a few times of exposing them to show that its who they are and how they do business..
LOL. We have an up-sucking, manipulative , backstabber. Who thinks making coworkers look bad is the same as making himself look good and likes to push the crapiest parts of the job onto everyone else. No one wants to work with him. Mostly, new hires get stuck with him. Our shifts are staggered so they end up working half a shift with him and half with me. Men and women both, often literally hug me when I show up to send him home. Fortunately, even though he had all the upper management fooled at first, our immediate supervisor was smart enough to see through his BS. So even though I'm a mouthy, abrasive, sarcastic, troublemaker, I got the coolest promotion and pay raise ever, and he didn't.
I would not believe anything Robert Half says or does. Worst recruiting firm ever. Salaries they offer are always low and the list goes on.
The passive-aggressive two-faced little bastard ....and people wonder why workers "go-postal".
I'm a man teacher in an elementary building and, dude, schools are filled with the PA types, especially the men...and I use the term very loosely as a lot of them were born sans a backbone. They say and do things to get people riled up and when people finally get pissed, they always throw their hands in the air like, "Hey, I don't know what YOUR problem is...I didn't mean anything by what I said/did!" Makes you want to dot their eye and say, "Hey, don't get honked! I didn't mean anything by socking you in the eyeball! Just spreadin' the love!"
All of the below
The Suck Up
The Manipulator
The Back Stabber
And then I could name a few others, but this is a good start.
I guess I will name a couple more,
The Management that allows it. They do it in their office and then come out and two face the employee's about how you cannot do that.
HR is the worse offender. Have you ever heard what they say about you? Actually, don't feel bad, they say it about everyone but themselfs unless they are talking about another one of them.
Then they go set up a another "Employee Training" meeting.
Manipulator and backstabber are the exact same thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hate the manipulator/////LIAR//////con artist PASSIVE aggressive. Its usually a women.
The vainglorious.
Worst-case scenario: Backstabbing, thieving, scheming Bible-thumper. Every AM he sits in his office and reads his Bible. When he decides to leave, it's not before he steals a design and then asks me questions about it because he's too @!$%#ing dumb to figure it out himself. And then he runs away and starts his own company making the exact same item. . . but not before he seriously tries to get me fired. Eventually he repeats this thieving behavior one too many times and gets the @!$%# sued out of him . . . and loses bigtime (double- or triple-damages as I recall). Hey you know what, S-hole, Here's the Big news from On High: you can run, but you can't hide. God and Satan long ago came to an agreement about your soul: Satan's already at the Gate, just rubbing his hands in anticipation.
I know this article refers to "office politics", most likely in the business world. Being an elementary school teacher, I have a completely different perspective of "office politics". Let me tell you, politics exists in EVERY line of work. Looking over the list of typical political perps in the article, I can think of educators/administrators who would fit every category...and it truly saddens me that this garbage goes on in a "business" that's supposed to be all about helping kids! Education is every bit as catty and brutal as the business world, which I've never understood as no matter how much favor you gain from your superior, it will never translate into higher pay or higher status or a more impressive title, except maybe in the district office where the people with PHDs (Pile it Higher and Deeper!) are jockeying for the most impressive new title created by the school board or the hottest secretary in the office! I guess it's just a lesson in reality regarding how many people view their jobs. In the business of educating kids, that mission is often lost because of people's greed and selfishness...or probably more due to insecurity and ignorance and the fear that people will figure out the PHD behind administrator's names often times means they really are ignorant and incompetent. And...most likely those with the doctorate were actually ignorant and incompetent in the classroom and knew they'd better get the sheepskin and move up the ladder and get the power to hire/fire before their bosses figured out their game and pink-slipped 'em as a teacher! In my 15 years of teaching, I've had ONE administrator who was a stand-up person whom I would trust with anything and he's still the same person today he was when he hired me 15 years ago. Unfortunately (well, fortunately for him!), he left our district 12 years ago and is working in a much better environment. The fact I've had only one boss with that much character and virtue is truly sad and is EXACTLY why office politics exists in the first place! I often wonder how much our school/district could get accomplished for the good of our kids and community if most of my colleagues and all of our administrators spent as much time trying to make things better for our students as the time they spend jockeying for position and covering their own incompetent management decisions...i.e. their arses!
So to you out there gettin' by in the business world, take heart that it's no different in our schools. Quite a comforting thought about the state of our education system, ain't it? Oh, and one last thing...since a lot of these politics play out in front of kids, what do you think the chances are that kids even at the elementary level are soaking all of it in and thinking, "Oh, so THIS is how adults act at work, so I guess this is how it's done!" I'll bet the mortgage what they see is logged into their little brains for use in the future when they enter the workforce...they see and understand way more than adults give them credit for understanding!
I'm terrible with politics.
Within social circles... inept.
Within small organizations (like volunteer church committees, clubs, etc)... useless.
Office politics... clueless
I am generally clueless about any kind of politics going on at all, unless somebody clues me in.
Generally speaking, I have social anxiety. I get genuinely afraid and panicky in social situations, so I avoid them. Better than having dozens of people concernedly asking me "what's wrong, are you ok?" all night. Or hiding in the bathroom.
I finally figured out my problem. I seem to lack the ability to put on a different face or persona. I'm always me, the way I am, right there out front. I don't know how to hedge, look like I'm feeling something I don't, or even outright lie. So if I don't like somebody, I'll look like I don't like them. If I'm not having fun, I'll look bored or miserable. If I'm confused or upset, everybody can tell. If I'm asked my opinion or how I feel, I'll tell people, or if I'm savvy enough to recognize that saying something is inappropriate, I'll stumble and stammer, but be unable to think of an acceptable alternative.
Also, I'm terrible with names and faces. I know there are strategies for remembering names, like using them frequently, but I'm not sure about faces. I can literally have trouble recognizing people in my own family if they are wearing unfamiliar clothes or I'm seeing them in a place where I don't normally see them. There's a name for this kind of face-blindness, and it causes a lot of problems. I can never remember who told me something, for instance. So I frequently share amusing anecdotes back to the person who originally told them to me in the first place. It also makes me horrible at keeping things in confidence, because I quickly lose track of who told me what, and who I'm supposed to keep from knowing what.
I dislike small talk. I'm good at answering questions fairly politely, but it simply never occurs to me to ask questions back, because I'm really not curious.
I hate telephones (to the point where, even when I worked in an office and it was necessary for my job, I frequently couldn't force myself to answer it.)
I'm genuinely not interested in other people. I have friends, I don't want more.
I absolutely hate, beyond anything else, anybody paying attention to me. Being popular or famous is on my list of worst nightmares imaginable.
I dislike working with others.
I am incapable of thinking people are acting maliciously. This is a biggie. I cannot assume people are being manipulative, deceptive, or outright mean. I can't. My brain literally will not go there. I can't do do something I know will deceive or harm somebody, and I assume nobody else can either. I can assume incompetence or ignorance (i.e., Hanlon's Razor) but not malice. I understand malice only as a character trait in fiction, not as something real people do. I know logically this isn't accurate, but I can't make myself actually think that way.
.
Yeah. I fail at the office politics game. I think something in my brain is wired wrong. I totally failed as the breadwinner, but managed to get us through the "our kids are small" phase until my wife felt ok leaving me home so she could go out and handle things. She slips into politics like a fish into water. Her degree is in Political Science (followed by Special Education, go figure).
I'm much better being a homemaker, gardening, helping with the kids' homework, and raising my chickens.
The back stabber, suck up, manipulator, and office politicans will last the longest. They building their own circle. If you are not part of the system, you are the first one out of the doors.
It takes dedication and hardwork to build and run companies. Management in all their wisdom cannot see through these people until it is too little too late.