How to know if you are suffering from office politics?
Working in an office with a lot of people who don't have the same energy as us. We don't catch everyone's frequency. Every individual working there is from a different place, everyone has different opinions, ideals, thoughts and behavior. The fact that in an office people come from diverse fields and land, it is bound to have disagreements and clash of ideas. But there is a certain crowd of people who talk nicely in front of you and whenever needed are capable of backstabbing you.
What is office politics?
Office politics is the process and behavior that in human interactions involves power and authority. It is a tool to assess the operational capacity and to balance diverse views of interested parties. It involves the use of power and social networking within a workplace to achieve positive changes that benefit the organization or individuals within it but most often it is used as a negative term and behavior of employees against each other.
What are the signs of office politics in the workplace?
Every individual is different from one another due to differences in background, personality, and social intelligence. Due to all these differences people have different thoughts and ideas which make them envy each other. In today's world competition is tough, everyone wants promotion and wants to be in the good books of the head of the office.
It is so shocking that the managers, despite knowing about office politics, don't do anything about it. There are a few signs of office politics.
Politics and vision are related to each other. As soon as politics and negative rivalry start to be seen and heard, the competition in the organization begins to dilute. The unfolding of office politics can steal the vision and mission that acted as the guiding light for organizations and can lead to multiple perils. It is not good even for a short period of time.
In an organization with high levels of office politics, every employee thinks that they know a lot about the other employees in the organization, but much of that perception is based on opinions and hearsay rather than actual facts. Instead of healthy meetings where managers talk to employees and register feedback from them, an organization with high levels of politics includes a lot of random talk about employees behind their backs.
An organization where a lot of time is wasted questioning the motivation and morale of employees is high in office politics. Things that can come out through a normal conversation are left over to assumptions so that any misunderstanding is never cleared.
Issues that arise in an organization with a high level of office politics are addressed through manipulation rather than actual effective steps. What results out of all this is a culture of mistrust that no employee would like to be a part of.
How do men and women act differently in a workplace?
Men and women are by birth different from each other. Although every individual man and woman is different, there are some traits which are common in women. Women are more likely to indulge in gossip and back bitching. Some men are also involved in gossip, but it is very rare. Rather than talking behind the back, mostly men indulge in verbal or physical fights. While most women talk behind their backs and have the tendency to play around.
How to know that you are having office politics?
Whenever any group of people get together, there is gossip and the spreading of rumors. These are usually short-lived periods of time mostly in a party, a happy hour, a weekend trip with friends. But what if the gossip, the rumor, the backstabbing are permanent conditions that a person has to live with every day at the office? Then these behaviors become a constant source of anxiety, anger, and are a danger to job security.
Those people who participate in office politics usually do so out of fear and insecurity. Fear that they will not be held in high admiration by their bosses and co-workers, and insecurity about their positions because their performances are pretty average. The problem is that their behaviors are usually so mean that others become victims.
The following are some of the things faced by victims of office politics. If you could relate that means you are also facing office politics.
They want to damage the reputation, or the work of others and they want you to take part in their plans. You are asked not to share work with this other person or to be too busy to collaborate with them to get something completed so that their work is delayed. The pressure of this particular thing is so stressful that you start looking to change departments.
They try to get you to engage in gossip and spread office rumors and if you don't do this you are out of the group. You will feel alone and have to go for a job search.
You are put in a bad light in front of other employees and especially your boss. You are termed as disloyal and traitor.
They help and cooperate with you until you start getting compliments from the boss. Once they see you as being more favored, they are threatened and try to sabotage you in subtle ways, or, maybe, not so subtle ways.
They try to make you play against the boss and other co- workers. Like making you state the things which they want to say but they themselves will be good in front of everyone.
When you express an idea or a potential solution to a problem, it might be rejected as impractical but all of a sudden, the same idea or solution will be presented to the boss, and he will praise it.
Conclusion
Working in an office with a lot of people who don't have the same energy as us. We don't catch everyone's frequency. The fact that in an office people come from diverse fields and land, it is bound to have disagreements and clash of ideas. Office politics is the process and behavior that in human interactions involves power and authority. Those people who get involved in “office politics” usually do so out of fear and insecurity. When someone tries to damage your reputation, put you in a bad light, make you speak for themselves and they completely deny that they have the same opinion as you, it means you are facing office politics.