Politics at work

[Dresden]

Do you notice the politics at work? Do you engage in the game? Some of my co workers feel that in order to get ahead at work, they have to play the game. Do you ultimately think this is good for the company?

[utabintarbo]

Do you notice the politics at work? Do you engage in the game? Some of my co workers feel that in order to get ahead at work, they have to play the game. Do you ultimately think this is good for the company?

Is it good for business? No. But it is reality. And it becomes more pronounced the larger the company.

IOW, your co-workers are probably right. But there is a way to play the "game" (to a certain extent) without compromising your ethics. Just realize that it may impose a ceiling at a certain point .

[Dresden]

Is it good for business? No. But it is reality. And it becomes more pronounced the larger the company.

IOW, your co-workers are probably right. But there is a way to play the "game" (to a certain extent) without compromising your ethics. Just realize that it may impose a ceiling at a certain point .

How do you play the game and maintain your ethics? I see sort of a Roark vs Keating. of course keatings ethics are suspect.

[utabintarbo]

How do you play the game and maintain your ethics? I see sort of a Roark vs Keating. of course keatings ethics are suspect.

Company politics is mostly about marketing and spin. One must market one's self to the appropriate humanoids and spinning one's achievements so as to impress said humanoids. As long as one has actual achievements to market & spin, this should not involve any dishonesty or fraud, therefore no ethical compromise.

That said, it is a PITA, and at a certain point you may decide it isn't worth it. This will likely limit your promotability. It is what it is.

[Dresden]

Company politics is mostly about marketing and spin. One must market one's self to the appropriate humanoids and spinning one's achievements so as to impress said humanoids. As long as one has actual achievements to market & spin, this should not involve any dishonesty or fraud, therefore no ethical compromise.

That said, it is a PITA, and at a certain point you may decide it isn't worth it. This will likely limit your promotability. It is what it is.

Good point.

[softwareNerd]

Do you notice the politics at work? Do you engage in the game? Some of my co workers feel that in order to get ahead at work, they have to play the game. Do you ultimately think this is good for the company?

By "playing politics", what types of things do you mean? Could you concretize by examples of the types of "playing" that got some of your managers managers to where they are?

[Dresden]

By "playing politics", what types of things do you mean? Could you concretize by examples of the types of "playing" that got some of your managers managers to where they are?

self PR, the brand of ME, whoring your face everywhere, taking credit for others ideas etc.

[softwareNerd]

self PR, the brand of ME, whoring your face everywhere, taking credit for others ideas etc.

"Self-PR" and the "brand of ME" might be perfectly appropriate, depending on what exactly one means. In the context of trade, it is not enough to have value and sit and wait for someone to recognize it. One has to communicate that value. That is the essence of advertising, and just as there is nothing wrong with advertisements, there's nothing wrong (as such) with communicating your own value to other people. Of course there may be right and wrong ways to do so.

"whoring your face everywhere"... not sure what this means.

Taking credit for the ideas of others: Apart from being wrong, this is not practical. People catch on soon enough: at some point your boss will realize you're lying, and the source who realizes you're stealing his ideas will dry up. If someone has a good idea, but is not expressing it for some reason, one can always push the idea as a good one, while giving credit where it is due. Your boss wants the idea, and will see you as a leader who brought up someone else's idea; the person who had the idea will see you as honest and will offer more.

[Alfa]

When I read "politics at work" I immediatley thought of the typical union workers who, instead of doing what they are supposed to do, has made it their job to find things to complain about.

The politics I like to play can be sumed up as follows:

Do your job and do it well.

Arrive early, go home late

Always ask for more work and new things to learn

Take on any new responsibility when the opportunity arises, even if it's the first day at the job

Be professional

When it's time to negotiate the salary point out the things you have done and apply for higher positions when people are needed there.

I don't know what other games people are playing, i've always figured that being good and taking credit for it should be enough.

[utabintarbo]

When I read "politics at work" I immediatley thought of the typical union workers who, instead of doing what they are supposed to do, has made it their job to find things to complain about.

The politics I like to play can be sumed up as follows:

Do your job and do it well.

Arrive early, go home late

Always ask for more work and new things to learn

Take on any new responsibility when the opportunity arises, even if it's the first day at the job

Be professional

When it's time to negotiate the salary point out the things you have done and apply for higher positions when people are needed there.

I don't know what other games people are playing, i've always figured that being good and taking credit for it should be enough.

This formula works quite well in certain environments, especially in fast-growing smaller companies. As companies get larger, and/or the growth curve flattens (or even slopes negative), additional "input" is sometimes required.

I was once an employee of a small start-up. One of 8 employees (including the owners) in a very fast-growing sector. Originally, I made great gains (in both money & responsibility) using merely the formula above. After several years, the growth curve started flattening, one owner sold out to the other, and being the best at fulfilling the job description was no longer enough. Added value needed to be shown. As the company pretty much remained small (in terms of number of employees) and the owner retained almost all of the power (on a side note, those are related), the benefits of office politics remained minimal. It did exist, however.

OTOH, in my present situation as a contract employee at a very large manufacturing firm with a steeply negative growth slope, political maneuvering is all but essential, as I must prove (with or through my boss) that I am effectively indispensable (or at least that dispensing with me would be sufficiently painful). This is because the guys making such decisions are far removed from the subjects upon which they are deciding (kinda like Congress/Real Life ).