Office politics is usually a term referred to with disdain and often accompanied by a sneer. The term conjures up images of bootlicking toadies, backstabbing corporate climbers and untold amounts of cronyism within an old boys' network. None of this is terribly pretty.
The funny thing I've found is that the notion of office politics described above is not terribly accurate in a lot of ways. Do those kinds of nefarious activities occur in companies of all shapes and sizes all around the world? Of course they do, but that's not truly the full extent of what office politics means. In fact, think of the times you may have heard a co-worker blame office politics for their not getting ahead in the company. Now think of how often you thought they were airing a legitimate concern as opposed to your knowing it was more of a sour grapes moment. My guess is that you usually found the gripes more unfounded than based in moments of a true "screw job".
That's because office politics is less about being a kiss-up and really more about how you operate within the system of a corporate office. Many describes this as "knowing how to play the game", but I have a hard time thinking of it as a game given how serious it all is to the future of so many different people. To me, office politics, in its most proper sense, is most about:
- networking with people across your organization and organizations with whom you work;
- learning how to toot your own horn (because if you don't do it, who will?);
- understanding who can help you with your career or a project and who will not; and
- at the most basic level, figuring out how to get what you want out of your job and career (without being a complete jerk in the process).
One piece I would like to emphasize on my own that is touched on in that BNET piece is to be careful of how you handle promoting yourself in the workplace. I am in very full agreement with the need to let other people know you are doing well, but there are some definite limits. Let me describe a person that you probably know (and unfortunately, I definitely do):
You walk down the hallway to the water cooler and run into Biff, someone within the office you know only casually. You do the usual pleasantries, say hello and ask Biff how he's doing. No sooner does the question finish on your lips than Biff launches into how he is working on projects for Executives X and Y and how many hours he has been working and blah blah blah. And this is not a sometime thing… it's almost each and every time you run into Biff. There really are no normal conversations with Biff because Biff is very busy selling Biff and all his delightful Biffness.
This is absolutely painful to endure as a listener and has the exact opposite effect than is intended – you don't sell anyone and your co-workers end up doubting that you really do any real work at all. All talk and no walk. Now, don't let this stop you from trying to promote yourself more at work… just don't pepper every conversation with it.
On a closing note, I do plan on writing about the workplace in my blog, but since I am actually fairly decent at office politics, I will avoid another cardinal sin: talking out of school. Many an erstwhile blogger has been unceremoniously dumped from their jobs by blogging in a little too much detail about what happens at work or about particular co-workers. I'm here to share some lessons learned… but there is a reason everyone at work sees me as the diplomat – Ma Kuzia didn't raise a fool.
