Dealing with office politics

A lot of people quite enjoy the office politics and the environment that arises from a network of humans all working with each other.

However for many it can be a pain, a hassle, a distraction or worse an intimidating environment that can even lead to harrassment or bullying in extreme cases.

If you are finding that it is difficult to cope with office politics and you are not someone who can naturally play the game, then what can you do?

Well the best way is to steel yourself and learn to deal with it. Find someone who you are friendly with at work who is good at the office politics side of things and watch carefully what they do, and learn to emulate.

More often than not people who are good at playing the office politics game are good at socialising and networking, and when the boss comes in they won't be scared to go up and chat to them as a human and ask questions; whilst the shier person might only ever talk to someone above them if it is project related.

Remember that everyone in the office is human and on the same level outside of the company; these internal boundaries and hierarchies can be intimidating but just remember how artificial they actually are.

The bottom line is that if you do a good job and on a consistent basis then the office politics is less important than you think to getting on, but if you can learn to play the game you might find advantages such as building good relationships, finding out of good opportunities for promotion quickly, others more willing to speak well of you, and the ability to climb that corporate ladder just a little bit quicker.