OFFICE-POLITICS
DILEMMAS
As
an HR professional you have special insight into the intricacies
of dealing with office politics in the real world.
To
"inspire" you as to what office politics dilemmas
people are grappling with, we have compiled a selection of email
comments received from beta-testers at www.officepolitics.com.
You can write a tip based on your own knowledge and experience.
Or you can write it in response to these actual dilemmas. We
look forward to receiving savvy advice from HR Directors across
Canada -- and making "How to Battle Office-Politics"
a must-read!
SHORTCUTS:
Turfdom
Sexual Antics
Scapegoats and Deadlines
Backstabbing and Stealing Credit
Polluted Environment
Nepotism
Shifting
the Blame
Kissing Ass
TURFDOM
1. A support worker talked the boss into agreeing to give her
the only (gigantic) office in our workspace. I'm the manager,
and don't have an office. It has yet to be finalized, as I have
asked the boss to relocate her and if not, to NOT give her the
office.
2.
Several times I've seen people come in from the outside in companies
where I've worked, somehow get close to the owner or top exec,
be given power over policies and everyone else in the company,
create total havoc within the company (and usually get fired,
ultimately.) While they are there, however, they inflict damage
on everything and everyone around them.
3. Turfdom - fighting for headcount to justify existence.
4.
The office of the Sales EVP flooded and had to be repainted,
recarpeted - The EVP of Marketing complained to the CEO that
it wasn't fair for him to get a freshly redecorated office.
The compromise was that Operations had to write a new Redecorating
Policy and every exec at the same level had to have the same
decor...ARGH
SEXUAL
ANTICS
1. A female candidate for a job wearing a very short skirt only
to be interviewed by me (female)
2.
Low cut blouses on employee review day.
3.
I looked up 'office politics' on the net as I am sick to the
back teeth of certain idiots that clearly are unfit for the
post they are in and have clearly only got the position because
of who the sleep with or who they play football with. So I have
decided to be the ONLY winner from now on.
I
work within a team of 6 mid level managers, 3 men, 3 ladies
(or at least one is so called) and we had a night out very recently,
I was convinced that 1 female within our team was completely
incapable of doing her job and still is! However, she had been
playing us all like fiddles cause when anything went wrong suddenly
she had a personal problem. She convinced us of all sorts, from
PMT to being abused as a child, oh the list goes on and on.
So, she had been receiving attention from 2 males within another
of the departments, claiming this was unwanted attention, out
of support for her I approached our manager and advised him
of the harassment that was going on. I asked him to do nothing
about it, but to be aware for future reference. At the night
out one of the admirers was there and she was drunk, so as good
colleagues would we tried in vain to protect her, only to find
her chasing him around like god knows what. The long and short
of it is that she had been encouraging him. After that we were,
let me say 'mildly, NOT amused'. The same night on the way home
she turned her attentions onto our boss, she subsequently went
home with him. It begs the question, how long has this been
going on???? She turned up the following morning with all the
details, he had sent her home to me with no money, so I had
to pay the cab! Since then, little miss tart spends all of her
time chasing after him, she does little work and constantly
strives to make 4 of our lives quite tough, she talks to the
staff that report to her and us about 'arguments' we have had
with her, we have never had an argument with her, ever! She
has also informed a number of our staff that I am having an
affair with my gay colleague! She plays the company like a fiddle,
I could give you loads of examples, but I won't just yet. She
plays the game of office politics quite well, but not as well
as me and she has made a fatal mistake, as she has started to
play with me. There can only be one winner in our office and
I NEVER lose, at anything, I might not win, but I never lose.
4.
It's a boys club!!!!! Men get the big MONEY and perks. Women
never get the rewards they deserve I am blonde therefore..I
must be dumb and got where I got on my back
SCAPEGOATS
AND DEADLINES
1.
Being made the scapegoat on the missed launch of a internet
site, because they were waiting for my design...partially true,
but communication was only through e-mail and it was cryptic,
unclear expectations, no deadline given when I'd asked, web
developer wanted to be the designer, etc.
2.
people passing the buck for missing deadlines onto my desk -calling
my clients and trying to steal my accounts.
3.
The favorite ploy here seems to have me work for weeks on a
project, only to have it "stolen" just before completion.
4.
oh the Cosmic Cubicle..getting trapped in sombody else's project
to clean up their work while they go off to Bermuda...
BACKSTABBING
AND STEALING CREDIT
1.
During a hectic time, a former co-worker who had transferred
to less busy department offered to help me get caught up. I
later found out she had made a list of all the overdue projects
on my desk and gave it to my supervisor.
2. I have had first hand experience with
a back stabber. I just completed a report on a new idea I had.
I wanted another opinion on it before I presented it to my boss.
I asked a coworker to look at it and tell me what she thought.
She in turn changed a few aspects of the report and handed it
to her boss as her own idea. My immediate response was uncontrollable
anger. I wanted to confront her right then but I knew I needed
time to cool-off. The next day I confronted my coworker about
the situation. She did not deny doing it, however she told me
she had had the same idea and did not have time to do anything
about it. She accused me of stealing her idea and quickly writing
a report to take to my boss. She did not want me getting credit
for her idea. I explained to her that I had no idea what she
was talking about and was very disappointed she did not just
ask me.
3.
My boss took my ideas, went to the vp with them, and claimed
them as his own. then he proceded to slag me and get me changed
to another dept and demoted.
4.
I came up with an innovative way to deliver direct-marketing
pieces to private clients, through the use of new technologies,
web, flash, etc. I brought it to my immediate superior, who
was very excited, and she brought it to the marketing department,
assuming we would be given the green light to develop it - we
were told we would. A senior marketing executive then took the
idea, and hired a family friend of his to develop it instead!!!
We were told our services weren't needed in this area because
it was already being serviced by "outside" suppliers.
Yeah, sure, buddy.
5.
While I was away on medical leave a co-worker applied for my
job and was hired before I was told I was "transferred"
to another dept. My boss explained that I was being "transferred"
because I was unreliable and incompetent. The dates she sighted
were while I was away on leave, which she approved! I was then
told that I needed to train my replacement, the backstabbing
co-worker. I brought up the point that if I was so incompetent
in the first place, why would she possibly want me to train
my replacement. I was told that If I didn't, I would be sighted
for insubordination, then fired.
6.
My new employee, transferred from another district during our
recent acquisition, asked one of my ex employees if he would
come and work for him if he (my new employee) could get me fired!
After this conversation, he went to the HR Director and reported
me as a no-call/no-show!!!!!!!
7.
How
about someone being wooed to apply for a job they didn't initially
want under the guise of strong recommendations ("it's in
the bag!, hey as part of the process, give us all the changes
you would implement... you know, so we can convince others of
your suitability") while another candidate was actually
sponsored by the same people who wooed the aforementioned applicant.
8.
Manager calls at 4:55pm and tells you to research and develope
a presentation for 8:00AM the next day. You work all night and
in to the next morning to get it done. Later, you find out that
the assignment was one originally given to the manager weeks
ago, he procrastinated and passed it to me. The real clinger
is that he took credit for the work which was highly praised
by upper management.
POLLUTED
ENVIRONMENT
1. I worked in a Utillities emergency services office as a customer
services and admin support, and it was like being in an episode
of Dallas. The office manager was using company resources for
jobs that he was taking money for (personally), the office supervisor
was sleeping with his boss (a senior company director), and
the people within the office had polarised to such an extent
that everybody was backbiting and stabbing each other. Working
there was a real experience! When the gossip and rumours get
round to the wrong recipients it will be sheer dynamite!! I
would expect hire and fireworks.
NEPOTISM
1.
The bosses kids can do no wrong. And deserve to be paid outrageous
amounts of money.
2.
It's a family business. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and
will do anything to snub other family members and make them
look bad in front of the actual 'OWNERS' of the company. One
being my cousin, the other being my grandfather. Strange, strange
things go on....we all do various things for the company and
no one's position is really secure except my grandfather's and
my cousin's. My cousin was about to fire my stepfather, while
my mother still runs the office, while I run the accounting
and development tracking. My stepfather (who is a foreman) bought
a bigger work truck than my cousin's and regained standing with
my cousin. My grandfather makes very loaded statements to everyone
stirring up the tempers more than what's necessary - even in
family affairs. It revolves weekly around who is the least likely
to last in the business and who will come out of it with the
least accomplishments. This is all done secretly, of course.
We also involve friends who have their hands in construction
or titles and make their lives as traumatic as possible. Fun
stuff. BTW- My office lover as I answered earlier is one of
these closely tied working relationships with another company
we hired.
3.
If someone doesn't get what they want from Mom (COO), they go
to Dad (CEO)
SHIFTING
THE BLAME
1. When double-faced bullshitters finally fire you over an IT
project to cover their very poor knowledge of technology and
its real costs and the bad decisions they took without listening
to you "the specialist" and only to be well seen by
top management. It's passing down the blame game. So instead
of working, one should be covering their ass full time.
KISSING
ASS
1.
I've often encountered people that have spend more time working
on kissing up to senior management versus actually focusing
on completing quality work. I've often been amazed at how effective
this is. I was naïve in thinking the most talented/hard
working people are the ones that move ahead. The opposite is
often true.
2.
An individual went to great efforts to become socially active
with other senior management for the sole purpose of using his
newly formed friendship to gain influence in key strategic issues.
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