A Culture All Its Own

Office politics exist - I'm not naive enough to believe that it doesn't. However, I do believe that managers can single-handedly affect the level of office politics within a team based on their own biases.

It's not enough to want to avoid office politics for your team. Just because a manager doesn't want office politics doesn't mean office politics will be completely ignored. A manager needs to physically set the example and demonstrate that office politics will not be tolerated. Anything that can me construed as gossip and is damaging to a person's character needs to be actively stricken from everyday conversation.

I bring this up because I've gotten into a situation recently where office politics is clearly in play. For me, it's almost become a fascinating study of human nature as I watch things unfold from a somewhat active sideline position. I know one party in question sees things through the lens of needing to play in the game of office politics. That there's even a strategic game to play. From this point of view, there's no way everyone else won't get sucked into the gameplay as well. Everything move is deliberated on, an intricate game of chess where some pawns don't even know they're playing. I'm lucky enough to have been brought into the know so that at least I understand I'm a part of the game.

I personally approach this situation as a course that needs to be studied. I've unintentionally enrolled in a school of manipulation, but I don't regret it. I believe that in order to know how to avoid or at least limit involvement in office politics, it's necessary to understand when it's happening and what the rules are. Otherwise you'll (unknowingly!) be dragged back and forth by the people who are really controlling the situation. Manipulating the puppet strings, if you will. And I refuse to be played like that.

However, I still believe it's best to steer clear of derogatory statements about coworkers no matter how tempting it would be to bitch and complain. I've given into temptation in the past, but I try to remember that I don't often see the full picture, and misunderstandings often occur simply because everyone's approaching the situation with different backgrounds. The key to avoiding office politics is to keep all defamatory opinions away from those not involved. If something really needs to be said, it should be said to the other party directly, a manager, or an HR representative.

Business runs with its own social constructs. If I had gotten into social psychology, this would be where I would focus most of my studies. It's definitely a fascinating area that's really difficult to study because not too many companies would allow a social psychologist within their midst to expose such intimate secrets about company culture and behavior. Maybe this is what I'll focus on when I write my post-retirement book.

And I realize this post is littered with cliché analogies (puppetmaster?? game of chess??) but I felt it was appropriate because these are totally acceptable/expected when writing emails or notes for around the office.