How to Steer Clear of Office Politics
Going to work in the morning can sometimes feel like walking on to the set of a soap opera, with intrigues, rivalries - it can be a nightmare to navigate through it all and actually get some work done! However these tips can considerably smooth your path and make the office environment a much more pleasant place to be in.
1. Avoid office gossip.
Participation in gossip is usually the fastest entry point into office politics - usually the person who is letting you in on the latest news is consciously or subconsciously trying to align you with their point of view, or negatively dispose you towards their ‘enemies’. Gossip is very often a two-edged sword: ‘whoever gossips to you will someday gossip about you’, so the Spanish proverb goes. Gossip can also unfairly poison your opinions of your colleagues and influence your judgement if you have to take decisions which affect them.
All of the above sounds like common sense; the chances are many of us realise the destructiveness of gossip and yet continue to indulge in it at the same time. Taking the decision to avoid gossip often requires overcoming your fear about standing out from the crowd. However, it might be possible to take that stand tactfully: one good trick is to deflect the conversation with a question about the gossiper’s own life - they will invariably relish the chance to talk about themselves!
2. Place long-term harmony above short-term gain
If you happen to disagree with a colleague over the best approach to an issue, try and take your own ego out of it and stand in their shoes for a moment. Office politics often tends to focus on the person rather than the idea, so try and detach one from the other in evaluating the competing approaches. In many cases, there may be little or no difference in the effectiveness of the two rival approaches, and it may be best to just go along with the other idea to keep harmony. A 90% perfect solution done in unison can often be better then the 100% perfect solution which was only achieved at the cost of civil war.
Whatever happens, don’t let a situation build up past the point of no return. It is very easy to hold a grudge against someone as a result of something that didn’t go your way; however these attitudes have a way of hardening into something permanent, to the stage where you feel totally unable to approach that person. Try to keep the lines of communication open to everyone, however slight.
3. Respect others’ territory
Often people regard their office competencies as their ‘territory’ and will jealously guard them against all-comers. They might feel they have absolute expertise in the area, and are seriously put out if people even question them about what they were doing. Often the best approach in this case is just to let them at it, and keep your own tendency to feel ‘you know how to do everyone’s job better than they do’ in check.
But what if you genuinely do need to make a suggestion? One thing which has worked for me in the past is to draw the person concerned into a conversation on their area of expertise, and genuinely listen. Often this ‘territory’ attitude comes from a feeling of insecurity that no-one values their work, and listening in this way creates a space of trust where they feel you value their opinion, and helps to lower their barriers. It also helps if you aren’t defensive about your own territory, and judge any suggestion on its merits rather than by who said it.
4. Don’t get sucked into the promotion whirlpool
Of course, one of the main causes of office politics is because we are hoping to advance within the company, leading to the temptation to keep an eye on potential rivals for promotion. What we don’t realise is that all this worrying about others is essentially a lack of faith in ourselves, and that all the problems mentioned in the first three points - gossiping, territory etc. - are just ’shortcuts’ we take because we are afraid we won’t go places on our performance alone. But conversely, not indulging in these behaviours demonstrates strength, courage, tact and a feeling for managing people - qualities which many companies would kill for! You shouldn’t be afraid about standing out from the crowd for the right reasons - it could pay you back more handsomely than you think.
WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY
Shane Magee
Shane Magee writes on motivation, creativity, sport and getting the very most out of life; more of his articles can be found on the Sri Chinmoy self-improvement blog on his own personal site. Every so often, he gives free workshops on meditation and effective living in his home town of Dublin, Ireland. When not doing that, he enjoys running and learning to play the flute.
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Comments
Tournevis says on November 13th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Great article and great advice. Everyone should follow that to the letter.
There is one problem though left unadressed: what happens when you become the object of office politics? This is a rhetorical question.
It happens that regardless of how well you have followed this advice (and I do as a rule in all aspects of my life) that one will become sucked into office politics as the object of said politics, i.e. people fight about you, because some dislike you and others don’t. That WILL happen, no matter how good you are at willingly avoiding getting into office politics, especially if you are put in a position of responsability. Most people end up having some sort of responsability in an office at some point.
It’s important to keep it all in mind.
David says on November 13th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
A bit pie-in-the-sky… For example, if everyone cheats their way to the top, you WILL be left behind — whether you “believe in yourself” or not. Democracy falls apart as soon as one person breaks the social rules. When most everyone does it…
Idealism makes the world continue to turn, but only when it is not all-but-unanimously soiled.
Shane Magee says on November 13th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
@tournevis
I suppose it all depends on how we define ‘office politics’. You are of course right that if you work with others, you will inevitably be put in a situation which requires delicate steering around people’s egos. However, I would define ‘office politics’ as the messy stuff that happens when we indulge in focusing on the people rather than the issues.
There is a now-famous saying “a warrior acts, he does not react” All the gossiping, insecurity ect comes when we instinctively react to other people’s dramas rather than taking the appropriate ‘action’. Thank you for your insightful comment though, if I were to name the article again perhaps I would name it ‘How to Rise Above Office Politics’
@david
I suppose it all depends how you see the world. Wherever you look, there is always a lowest-common-denominator standard of behaviour beckoning us by saying if we don’t fall to that level of behavour, someone will do it and beat us. We can see it all the time in world news: ‘if we don’t get a little uncivilised ourselves, we’ll never be able to save civilisation’ ect ect.
I suppose I have just been lucky enough to see time and again how consistently doing the right thing in your dealings with slowly brings forward the goodness in the people you deal with. Admittedly it’s a more long term investment than the lowest common denominator approach, but it does pay off handsomely in the long run. And at least you can look yourself in the eye in the morning.
If I did err in the article, perhaps I made it sound easier on paper than it is to put into practice (that’s always the problem with these articles) Not least, it requires a great deal of courage and faith in oneself. But that’s the great thing about commentators like yourself, they help sharpen up future articles :)
Martin Wildam says on November 14th, 2007 at 7:58 am
The central point is the motivation behind the intention of acting “fellow-friendly” (accepting and following the social rules).
There are religions and philosophies believing that every bad you do to somebody finally falls back on you. If this is true the cheating persons somehow suffer at the end from their doing. If this is not true or you do not believe in such philosophies then you might have to concentrate on being a good cheater.
In the end I think it is a decision - do you want to concentrate on quality or on cheating. I prefer to concentrate on quality.
Mike I. says on November 14th, 2007 at 10:06 am
[quote]There are religions and philosophies believing that every bad you do to somebody finally falls back on you. If this is true the cheating persons somehow suffer at the end from their doing. If this is not true or you do not believe in such philosophies then you might have to concentrate on being a good cheater.[/quote]
This is a natural conviction the ruling class attempts to convey to the masses to maintain order. If everybody cheated there wouldn’t be a ruling class.
AJ says on November 15th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
If everybody cheated, there would be no class at all. Anarchy would be the rule. That would work for some, but fewer than one may think. Every minority group wants to be the majority group…I’ve always found that amusing. Oh dear, I digressed.
There can be no enlightenment in disguising our true selves by cheating. In doing so, we only cheat ourselves. Cliche? Perhaps. True? Undeniably.
Universe says on November 18th, 2007 at 7:40 am
:-?
The only problem with NOT engaging in a least some politics is that you are often defenseless and clueless when something is about to happen to you.
Some will simply ostracize you as not being one of the guys or girls, or not fitting in…
Some Managers may feel they are unable to bond with you
Timothy Johnson says on November 23rd, 2007 at 11:06 pm
I agree with “Universe” - maybe instead of avoiding office politics, one should be more selective about the OP battles with which one engages (which is what your article appears to support). A unilateral avoidance strategy just leads to an office full of passive-aggressive ostriches (not a pretty sight). Then, as Universe deftly pointed out, you do not have the support network you need when you become the target of OP aggression. Learning how to play “bear politics” is critical (sniffing out political situations, engaging for the greater good of the team rather than self). Your points are very good, but maybe rethink the avoidance part.
Timothy Johnson, Author of GUST - The “Tale” Wind of Office Politics
Shane Magee says on November 25th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Hmmm, definitely some food for thought here….
I certainly think tact has a crucial role to play in staying afloat in a charged office atmosphere, walking in there giving off superior “I’m sooo above your petty politics” signals is a surefire recipe for self destruction.
Perhaps it is not so much a question of approach as attitude - if one has a ‘me first’ attitude, then politics will invariably follow. Yet if you believe that, long-term, keeping everyone happy is more important and productive, then you are more sensitive to what others want, which lessens the resentment often found lurking behind much of what we call office politics.
Some interesting points here, and I certainly don’t have all the answers.