Bully at Work Moody Boss Karma Office Gossip No Picnic Back stabber Plug your Ears Moody Boss

CNN Publishes OfficePolitics.com Quiz!

What a thrill! CNN.com asked Franke James, OfficePolitics.com founder, author and game designer, to create a quiz for their Global Office show. See screen shot and more details below…

Franke created the quiz by drawing on real-life office politics problems sent into the site (by readers like you) and featured in the Dear Office-Politics game book.

 

Amazon link

The 10 quiz questions include how to handle the office “pet”; what to do if you’ve sent a scathing rant about your Boss to your coworkers; a new manager who rubs people the wrong way; whether you can avoid office politics by keeping your head down and just working; a coworker who is always hogging information and deliberately leaving you off emails; the coworker who steals your “big idea”; and the office gossip who talks about everyone behind their backs.

The answers are condensed from replies written by the Office-Politics Advisers, Erika Andersen, Rick Brandon, John Burton, Rona Maynard, Marty Seldman, Timothy Johnson and herself.

 

Take the quiz at CNN

The Role & Rewards of an Office Weasel

Photo illustration by Franke James using source photos from istockphotos. Inspiration courtesy Andrew Hennigan

By Office-Politics Guest Adviser: Andrew Hennigan

Why the Office Weasel Plays a Key Role in Hierarchical Organizations

People from the few societies that are not hierarchical — Netherlands and Scandinavia mainly — often have difficulty grasping how strongly hierarchical societies can function. When I explain this point in culture workshops they usually ask how any organization can function when people are unable to contradict the boss or even to report that something doesn’t work. This happens not just in faraway countries that you have only ever seen in National Geographic. It can also happen closer to home in those organizations where the culture is more hierarchical than usual for the region.

More...

Nice Perfume. Must you bathe in it?

headline illustration and colorization by franke james; gas mask woman ©iStockphoto.com/Lise Gagne

Dear Office-Politics,

Nice Perfume, must you bathe in it? That is what I want to say to her but I won’t. I have this co-worker. She is a very nice woman. In fact, she is the one who trained me. She got a promotion in the same office and I took her old position. She has taken to wearing a very heavy perfume/cologne or something (not sure what it is). She did not wear it when I was in training with her; at least not to this extent. It is enough to gag me out!! It’s the type of thing you can even taste it on your tongue a little. You can tell when she has been in the copy/work room because of the scent lingering. I think she also must reapply throughout the day or something.

More...

Can you fight the bully and win? Read how one worker used a daily diary to fight the bully.

The featured comment below wins a copy of the award-winning ethics game book, Dear Office-Politics by Franke James.

All I can say is that I was harrassed and bullied in the workplace by the Department Head and my supervisor — who decided between them, they wanted me out. You have to decide if you are going to run or fight, and I fought.

What goes around comes around. I was made redundant, but eventually the head was too, and the supervisor left shortly after me. People kept quiet for the five long months that this went on, and then left out of disgust. She had lost her credibility, and she couldn’t work there herself after it all ended. I filed a 13-item complaint, and gave the supervisor so much stress that she banged her phone repeatedly one day, just trying to smash the phone when she got an engaged tone. My own stress was unbelievable, but I decided first off, I wasn’t going to quit. By law, they couldn’t write a bad reference for the next job, and they had to compensate me for leave I hadn’t taken. So the die was cast, and I won…

More...

Backstabbed! A Co-worker Ripped Off My Idea! Office-Politics responds…

Colorization and Text by Franke James, MFA.; Backstabber ©istockphoto.com/William Voon

Tell us what you think for a chance to win the Dear Office-Politics game book

Dear Office-Politics,

I have had first hand experience with a backstabber. I just completed a report on a new idea I had and I wanted another opinion on it before I presented it to my boss. I asked a co-worker 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.

More...

Feeling Paranoid About Office Politics?

Does being paranoid about office politics make you a target?

Tell us what you think for a chance to win the Dear Office-Politics game book

Uh oh! Have you intuitively felt that complaining that other people didn’t like you would only attract more attacks? Now a study by the UBC Sauder School of Business (summary below) confirms our fears. The bottom-line? Taking the high road by being nice to everyone is the best strategy and will win you more support and loyalty.

More...

Office-Politics ®: The Big Decision


Office-Politics® is a registered trademark of Nerdheaven Ltd.
© 2000-2012, Nerdheaven Ltd. All rights reserved.

More...
Previous Entries
Next Entries  

The Office-Politics Letters that appears as a feature of this Website are an educational and discussion oriented column designed to help the reader better understand ethical issues. The matters discussed in the letter are reviewed in a summary and abbreviated way and are only meant to foster thinking on the part of the reader. If a person decides to adopt or implement suggestions, they do so at their own risk. No representation or warranty is provided in relation to suggestions or the contents of the advice letter. Neither the authors of the advice letter, Franke James, John W. Burton, Rick Brandon, Marty Seldman, Timothy Johnson, Jennifer Glueck Bezoza, Gregory Ketchum, Erika Andersen, past advisers, guest advisers or the owners of this Website accept any liability whatsoever for any opinions expressed in the letter or for errors and omissions. All submissions to www.officepolitics.com will remain anonymous. No email addresses or identifying names will be published. Submission of letters to the Office-Politics Forum grants the Publisher, Nerdheaven Ltd. the right to reproduce, republish, repurpose and excerpt the submission in any and all other media, without compensation or contacting the author. Copyright The James Gang, Iconoclasts Inc., 2002-2024.

© 2000-2024, The James Gang, Iconoclasts Inc. All rights reserved. OFFICE-POLITICS is a registered trademark.