What are Office Politics and How to Deal with Them

People do not like office politics. Ask them. They do not want to get involved in them. They hurt their work. They hurt their firms.

People like their relationships at work. They like socializing there. It is a key to enjoying work. What are the purposes of these relationships though? They exist to just make work fun?

Relationships make us successful. The firms too. They help everyone work better as a team. This is bonding. Relationships create bonding.

Relationships help us look better to others. When people like us, they are more likely to like our work. They support us more. Our projects too. They are more likely to do what we ask.

Relationships get us more breaks, more opportunities. They get us raises and promotions. They keep our jobs. They give us political advantages.

What are Office Politics? A Definition

There is a contradiction though in how we see relationships and office politics. What are office politics, really? They are relationships gone bad. Relationships and office politics are the same thing. We just see the first as good the second bad.

One person makes her relationship with the boss stronger. Those who do not like her will see this as playing office politics. What are office politics? They are negative views of relationships. They are often good relationships which others see as negative.

Dealing with Office Politics

Dealing with office politics begins with knowing they are natural. They exist wherever relationships do. Avoiding office politics is impossible. What are office politics? Office politics are office relationships.

At work we try our best to do well. This helps the firm and us. The problem is that just because we do well does not mean others will see it. We need to show them. Relationships help us do that.

Relationships promote our good work and ideas. This helps the firm. Some might not see our work and ideas as good though. That is normal. The best way to deal with office politics is to build office relationships.

How do we do this? We begin by answering: What are office politics really? If not, we will just see relationships as office politics. Playing politics is bad. Building relationships is good. See?