Office Politics

[JJChicken]

I keep hearing that there is politics in every workplace, but I personally don't really see any. This is probably because I am only in my first job. Have any ATOTers experienced politics in their office?

 

[Auggie]

Sadly, it happens most when members of the opposite sex have to interact with each other. Actually, scratch that. Come to think of it (and yikes, but this sounds sexist!) from my experience, it happens from women having to work around other women.

Do you happen to be in an all-male work environment?

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: Auggie
Sadly, it happens most when members of the opposite sex have to interact with each other. Actually, scratch that. Come to think of it (and yikes, but this sounds sexist!) from my experience, it happens from women having to work around other women.

Do you happen to be in an all-male work environment?

My place is pretty evenly split between the genders. The only "politics" I can see happening is when we "CC" the higher level bosses in our teams when we send out emails to force people to take what we say seriously and do as we ask. Care to elaborate on the women working with other women bit?

 

[smokeyjoe]

In my old job there were too many chiefs.. 2 in particular had conflicting ideas or "rules" and there was often a "political" struggle between them for whose idea would be "right" .. so to speak

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: smokeyjoe
In my old job there were too many chiefs.. 2 in particular had conflicting ideas or "rules" and there was often a "political" struggle between them for whose idea would be "right" .. so to speak

How did the political struggle play out (what actions did the bosses take to make sure their viewpointed was accepted)?

 

[smokeyjoe]

Originally posted by: Barack Obama

Originally posted by: smokeyjoe
In my old job there were too many chiefs.. 2 in particular had conflicting ideas or "rules" and there was often a "political" struggle between them for whose idea would be "right" .. so to speak

How did the political struggle play out (what actions did the bosses take to make sure their viewpointed was accepted)?

They would usually go to the manager above them.. shit rolls uphill

 

[ultimatebob]

Most of the workplace politics I've seen usually come down to the splitting of workload. Where ever I work, there always seems to be that one guy who does practically no work at all and gets away with it because they're friends with a senior manager. Grr.

The politics gets worse if there are rumors of layoffs floating around... it's amazing how hard people will try to sabotage each other's credibility in order to protect their own job when things are looking bad. When you see shit like that going on, it's usually time to get the hell out of there.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: Barack Obama
I keep hearing that there is politics in every workplace, but I personally don't really see any. This is probably because I am only in my first job. Have any ATOTers experienced politics in their office?

If you don't see any office politics then you're probably it...

or something like that.

I have so much office politics going on that it's pissing me off daily.

 

[Mr Pickles]

You've got business related drama, relationship related drama, and then drama that begins simply because people have spent way too long in an office environment and that's just how they entertain themselves day by day. The business drama, like the stuff Barack was talking about, where people CC higher ups or there is competition for a pat on the back or a promotion or something is going to happen when you have a competitive position. There's just no way around that imo. But the relationship drama where people bang other people after happy hour Friday night and now the whole office knows is just dumb. That doesn't happen too often here. In our hay day months back we had about a dozen younger people working here and that stuff went around but it never affected anyone's day at work.

Last would be the washed up never-going-to-get-a-better-job-completely-settled-in-and-satisfied-with-my-position employee drama that mostly comes from women that can't find anything more interesting to do except make people turn on each other and start shit for entertainment. That type of drama is reserved for the office environment veterans that spent more than 5 years doing the same exact thing. They are worthless. We have one or two people here that start shit every once and a while. Its like they do it just to see if they can. Luckily I'm young (25) and IT and I make it a point to be polite but not talk too much outside of IT so I don't have to hear the bullshit.

I guess I forgot the drama about "who's getting laid off next" is rolling through this time of year also.

Some people are tools. That's just the way it is.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Office politics seem to really crop up when someone comes in seeing it as a game or they want to climb the ladder. If you got a group of people who want to do their jobs it really isn't much. We have one guy in the office here that basically wants to run the place.

...he's the new guy.

 

[Deviant Grasshopper]

Originally posted by: Mr Pickles
You've got business related drama, relationship related drama, and then drama that begins simply because people have spent way too long in an office environment and that's just how they entertain themselves day by day. The business drama, like the stuff Barack was talking about, where people CC higher ups or there is competition for a pat on the back or a promotion or something is going to happen when you have a competitive position. There's just no way around that imo. But the relationship drama where people bang other people after happy hour Friday night and now the whole office knows is just dumb. That doesn't happen too often here. In our hay day months back we had about a dozen younger people working here and that stuff went around but it never affected anyone's day at work.

Last would be the washed up never-going-to-get-a-better-job-completely-settled-in-and-satisfied-with-my-position employee drama that mostly comes from women that can't find anything more interesting to do except make people turn on each other and start shit for entertainment. That type of drama is reserved for the office environment veterans that spent more than 5 years doing the same exact thing. They are worthless. We have one or two people here that start shit every once and a while. Its like they do it just to see if they can. Luckily I'm young (25) and IT and I make it a point to be polite but not talk too much outside of IT so I don't have to hear the bullshit.

I guess I forgot the drama about "who's getting laid off next" is rolling through this time of year also.

Some people are tools. That's just the way it is.

Being in IT generally means you know all of the office drama. Personally, I stay out of it, but imo your post is pretty much spot-on.


The worst drama is almost always perpetuated by the women. Typically the ones in admin staff positions are the worst (accounting).

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Deviant Grasshopper

Being in IT generally means you know all of the office drama. Personally, I stay out of it, but imo your post is pretty much spot-on.


The worst drama is almost always perpetuated by the women. Typically the ones in admin staff positions are the worst (accounting).

QFT! that is so goddamn true it isn't funny.

 

[meltdown75]

office politics, yes. i think i have mostly benefitted from them so far so i'm just going to STFU.

i don't think there is any way to stay out of them. 0_0

 

[ggnl]

It happenes around here sometimes. Upper level employees will go outside of the usual process to get projects approved/killed. There are sometimes turf battles between departments over stupid things.

 

[sdifox]

All my departures from previous positions have been politic related.

 

[mugs]

In my last job I saw it mostly between engineering and marketing. Other people in engineering didn't like the way marketing did stuff, and they'd try to stick it to them whenever possible. I personally ignored that crap, because my top priority was keeping our customers happy. If that meant doing last-minute stuff for marketing, I did it.

 

[nageov3t]

you might just not be high enough on the corporate ladder or enmeshed in what's going on behind the scenes enough to see it.

there have always been wars waging in my company between people on the technical side of things versus project management and sales that I was never really exposed to until I started having to work with PM/sales on a regular basis... it can take the form of anything from an out and out verbal fight on the phone to downplaying a person's contributions in front of the powers that be or working to undermine a boss's authority by going around him when something needs to get done (which seems to be project management's favorite tactic... not that I mind, because they usually go around my boss and straight to me, thus boosting my claim that I could do his job better than he does it and the people who have to work with him know it)

 

[AreaCode707]

Originally posted by: Barack Obama
I keep hearing that there is politics in every workplace, but I personally don't really see any. This is probably because I am only in my first job. Have any ATOTers experienced politics in their office?

How long have you been there? I've found it can take 6-12 months to get to know everyone, their likes and dislikes, their resentments and hopes, and that's all the stuff that makes up the politics.

 

[Xavier434]

I have never held a job where some level of politics did not exist. Some jobs do a better job at keeping the politics limited and behind closed doors though. This is both a good and a bad thing depending on the case.

 

[gophins72]

sorry to revive an old post but does anyone have advice on how to deal with office politics, particularly this type of person:

Last would be the washed up never-going-to-get-a-better-job-completely-settled-in-and-satisfied-with-my-position employee drama that mostly comes from women that can't find anything more interesting to do except make people turn on each other and start shit for entertainment.

we have an office gossip here and not sure how to deal with this except hope that you're not the one being targeted.

 

[Platypus]

Originally posted by: gophins72
sorry to revive an old post but does anyone have advice on how to deal with office politics, particularly this type of person:

Last would be the washed up never-going-to-get-a-better-job-completely-settled-in-and-satisfied-with-my-position employee drama that mostly comes from women that can't find anything more interesting to do except make people turn on each other and start shit for entertainment.

we have an office gossip here and not sure how to deal with this except hope that you're not the one being targeted.

Send that bitch to HR, maybe they can actually do something useful for once. (ducks)

 

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: Barack Obama
I keep hearing that there is politics in every workplace, but I personally don't really see any. This is probably because I am only in my first job. Have any ATOTers experienced politics in their office?

you're probably at the staff level

When you start moving up and you've been working for a few years, you will "notice" it. I say "notice" because it's never blatant and out in the open. But it's there and you have to play.

 

[NesuD]

Originally posted by: gophins72
sorry to revive an old post but does anyone have advice on how to deal with office politics, particularly this type of person:

Last would be the washed up never-going-to-get-a-better-job-completely-settled-in-and-satisfied-with-my-position employee drama that mostly comes from women that can't find anything more interesting to do except make people turn on each other and start shit for entertainment.

we have an office gossip here and not sure how to deal with this except hope that you're not the one being targeted.

Best thing to do with those types are to document and call them out every time they start something. Go to your immediate superior and inform them of the situation and demand a meeting including you , your superior, the gossiper, their superior, and HR. You don't have to stand for that kind of crap. It creates a "hostile work environment" and those are the words that HR managers hear in their nightmares. Basically beat them down hard and fast each and every time they pull that crap. That is how you put a stop to that. As a Matter of fact suggest that a no gossip policy be added to the employess rules. Laugh if you want but we have it here and gossip is something that we don't see.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: gophins72
sorry to revive an old post but does anyone have advice on how to deal with office politics, particularly this type of person:

Last would be the washed up never-going-to-get-a-better-job-completely-settled-in-and-satisfied-with-my-position employee drama that mostly comes from women that can't find anything more interesting to do except make people turn on each other and start shit for entertainment.

we have an office gossip here and not sure how to deal with this except hope that you're not the one being targeted.

start rumors about them before they start rumors about you

 

[PepePeru]

try to stay out of them.