Office politics are really easily managed without that one evil, unhappy shit-stirrer who makes it less functional. We managed to get rid of ours about a year ago, and now everything feels like a team working things out naturally.

zingbot

I can summarize this article in two words. Kiss up.

elsifer

@elsifer: Then you didn't read the article. ;)

Seriously though - office politics gets a bad name because EVERYONE seems to think all it's about is kissing up to people in higher places to try and advance your own career. It's not, at all. Half of what we call "office politics" is really navigating the waters of what role you fill and what role the people you have to work with fill, and trying to find the best way to interact with them and get the job done without having to deal with "well so and so is my manager so I can't work on your project right now," or "i don't know, let's have a meeting/conf call/insert other waste of time."

Personally, I think the author's point about being empathetic and understanding gets you much farther than you might think it might. At my office, I had the unlucky role of being responsible for projects and technology deployments without having a team to corral into actually doing the work - not an enviable position: I have to essentially make people do things for me without them reporting to me. But it's possible, and it's easy once you build the right relationships with people, and understand where they're coming from and what their work looks like. When you understand your coworkers and they understand you and where you're coming from, you can confidently ask them to help you and they will, and you can trust that when they say "no, i'm busy," that it's the truth and not a cop-out.

Building that relationship and understanding, making sure it's rock solid, to me, is the art of mastering office politics.

phoenix

@phoenix: I can summarize your response in two words: Kiss up.

elsifer

I think we underestimate the extent that our animal heritage expresses itself at work. Watch a few National Geographic specials showing beasts head-butting one another for dominance (and better babes), and it's not hard to imagine a set of corporate cubicles overlayed onto the drama.
These issues came up at my company, inspiring me to write, "Jealousy and Territoriality in the Workplace" at www.poingo.com. Visitors welcome.

mmmesh

Here is a link to help you find the article:

Click here for the article "Jealousy and Territoriality
in the Workplace" at www.poingo.com

mmmesh

@elsifer: ::snerk:: Then you didn't read my response then. ;)

phoenix

"There is great research to show that people value social skills at work more than they value job skills."

I simply can't agree with this. We have a person who's job it is to help people, who is incompetent. People complain that they never want to call him/her because they know s/he doesn't have the skills to fix their problem or lead them to a resolution. S/he has good inter-personal skills, but his/her co-workers frustration is well known in my office.

drsmith

@DrSmith: For every person like that, there's at least one other person who is highly skilled but can't, or won't, communicate with others.

I would also argue that the person you speak of does not have the kind of social skills that the quote refers to. There is great value in someone who can get you an answer by connecting you to the right person. We have such a person in our group and it is invaluable.

cabingirl

to sum up the problem I would quote Jean Paul sartre :
"l'enfer c'est les autres" ("hell is other people")

to sum up the idea : take care of people before they take care of you...

2 advices from my recent experience :

- avoiding someone you do not get on well with, or someone you can not work with because of his or her unability to fill his or her position, is not a solution, treat the problem do not avoid it.

- even the less proficient people are dangerous, you may unwillingly put them in front of their lacks and they can bite you back indirectly without you suspecting anything

Thibault

I have a lot to learn about office politics.

The advices given here are good with some exceptions :

1) get rid of your "perfectionnist tendencies"

I think no matter what advice is given to you, it can not work long if you are not yourself,
and it's easy to have someone becoming good at office politics at the cost of renouncing about what one is, of course no body else than oneself would complain !

so I think office politics advices should take into account who you are and aim at helping you becoming better at office politics while staying true to yourself

N.B I am a perfectionnist, I know those kind of people are fled from in job hiring, for people fear that no time limits will be respected, though in the end with a "self treated perfectionnist" as I am, it does not occur and I realised that perfectionnists have a great quality : they find themselves their satisfaction needs in their works' quality and do not depend one someone else compliment or gratitude which as we all know tends to get more and more rare.

2) building "authentic connections"

I do not believe this is politics at all.
Politics is not at all about building authentic connections.
workable, efficient connections yes but authentic I do not think so, realistic yes but let me doubt about authenticity.

And I'm not sure it is a good idea to take your companion as a comparison point.

your companion is someone that you have chosen and chose you, may be he or she is aware of your drawbacks but he or she will accept them if not like them.

Where it is difficult and where office politics advices are worthier than anywhere else, it is when dealing with people you do not get on very well spontaneously.

There politics skills are precious with people you do not have affinity with, I think this is where realism has to take place, aknowledging the importance of everybody and trying to find a "modus vivendi" with them but ultimately it takes two people to build a relationship.

Thibault