Handling Office Politics

Class Location: The Internet.

Description: This course is designed to help students avoid office politics and be well liked among their co-workers.

Objective: Don't get sunk into office politics.

Navigating the minefield of office politics can sometimes be more difficult than the work you were hired and trained to do. Unfortunately, office politics is a reality in most (if not all) working environments. So in order to be successful at your work, knowing the games people play around you will be necessary to keep you in your position instead of out on the street looking for work.

What is it?

One entry for "politics" in the American Heritage Dictionary is "intrigue or maneuvering within a political unit or group in order to gain control or power." This is the basic premise behind negative office politics. Someone is doing things (such as withholding information, stealing credit, or badmouthing) within the group dynamic for personal gain. These behaviors do not help the organization and are very counterproductive because they cause problems between members of the organization.

According to a survey by NFI Research, the top three causes of negative office politics are personalities, gossip and a short-term view.

How you should deal with it

The first rule to live by is to stay positive instead of sinking to their level.

Since office politics is more likely to be a problem with your peers who are fighting to get "ahead" of you make sure the boss knows you. Even more so, make sure the boss has a vested interest in you. One way to do this is to ask him for advice regularly. Developing a relationship with your supervisor is a good idea for many other reasons too.

Another way to prevent politics from coming back to bite you is to be respected and liked among your peers. Pitch-in, and help your coworkers out whenever possible.

Both knowing your boss and being kind to your coworkers with help you if someone starts trashing you behind your back, making it more likely that they will back you up.

Another rule is not to be naive. Know your enemies.

Some signs to watch for are a person who perpetually disagrees with you out loud or with their eyes, a person keeping you from information you need, or who seems annoyed if you ask for assistance.

Once you know that someone is trying to make you look bad you have to deal with it. Just to make sure you are not being paranoid, you may want to ask someone you trust if they think so-and-so has a problem with you. If they agree, then you are probably right.

If this person tries to make you look bad in front of others, don't back down. Anger won't resolve it, but wimping out will make it worse. Make a strong response, but without ending up looking like the jerk.

Privately confronting your nemesis and telling them you see what they are doing and that you are not going to stand for it may stop them in their tracks. If they know you are on to them, they may turn their malice in another direction, or even better, stop trying to make people look bad.

One last way to deal with such a person is to share your concerns about the person you think is trying to make you look bad intentionally for their own benefit with a supervisor, but if you can't point to concrete examples you may end up looking like the backstabber.