How to play the office politics game?

[TopHatFox]

I figured out a way to instill confidence almost instantaneously--certain/strong language (definitely, yes, of course--I'm sure Jacob is dying at the hyperbole of this language ), strong body poses, positive visualization, only positive thoughts, loud intonation, and of course, being more concerned about how you're saying it rather than only what you're saying. Business school classic it seems.

Anyway, I did the above, and I got a final interview for a 12 week internship at a fortune 100 finance company. Yay! As I'm prepping for the final interview, I got on a tangent to what the best way to play the office politics game is. Is it really simply caring about the work, working hard, and marketing your results to your superiors, or is there more to it? (my guess is the latter)

[Toska2]

Figuring out the game and it's players. Read Eric Berne's Games People Play.

I recommend just doing the work and dealing with your direct boss. I would be very hesitant stirring things up with your coworkers so soon.

[theanimal]

Read the articles on the Gervais Principle on Ribbonfarm to figure out the players and how the game works.

[IlliniDave]

My suggestion: do your job to the best of your ability and thereby make your boss happy to start with. Very simple economics. Until you are well connected and have an experience-based understanding of the company's culture, best to tread lightly with the politics and intrigue.

[Dragline]

Yeah, do your best to be the wheel that does not squeak and study the whole enterprise like an anthropologist to understand why people do what they do without trying to judge or make sense of it.

[FBeyer]

@Zalo
Do you visit workplace.stackexchange.com/
there are a lot of bosses, managers and other people genuinely interested in making a workplace a good and functioning place to be.
In general the highest upvoted answers on stackexchange are quite good.

You could replace a college education with library books and access to stackexchange if you ask me.

[GandK]

FWIW, I had great annual reviews from most of my bosses during my career in part because I did not engage in office politics or competitive behavior within the team. I was never the best nor brightest in my office, but I got along well with everyone, I was willing to do anything asked of me without regard for its resume-building potential, and I generally did it with a smile on my face.

The result was not huge raises or promotions, but I did well and, until the personal crises that prompted me to consider early retirement, I really enjoyed my career because of this mindset.

On my last day of paid work, my boss's boss sent an email out to his entire team wishing me luck and saying that he'd miss my positive attitude. In 8 years, I don't ever recall him sending an email about anyone before. (In retrospect, that may have been more of a rebuke of some of my coworkers than anything else, LOL. But it felt good.)

If you are planning to get out early as I did, I can highly recommend this strategy. No need to behave like a ladder-climbing cutthroat if it's not your goal to be CEO. It's the age-old question: do you want to win (in the corporate sense), or do you want to be happy?

[IlliniDave]

FWIW, I had great annual reviews from most of my bosses during my career in part because I did not engage in office politics or competitive behavior within the team. I was never the best nor brightest in my office, but I got along well with everyone, I was willing to do anything asked of me without regard for its resume-building potential, and I generally did it with a smile on my face.

The result was not huge raises or promotions, but I did well and, until the personal crises that prompted me to consider early retirement, I really enjoyed my career because of this mindset.

This pretty much mirrors my experience/strategy. I'll be starting my 30th year next week, and although I'm increasingly anxious to get on with the next phase of my life, I have no substantial regrets looking back.

[Stahlmann]

I wanted to ask question, but it is in Olaz repertoire .
Has somebody created specific list of that ?

I want to tackle this problem from different perspective, not ,,I need to be CEO next year!".

I am asking about how to be more assertive in workplace and not to be overhelmed by duties in today hectic environment of global corporations.

And when is it time to complain about load and when are you lazy?
Has anyone encountered such issue?
And what can you do when there is this another corporation, but they have the same job positions.
Or do normal people have ability to say no... (probably no due to lack of FU-money).

[Geophine]

Yeah, do your best to be the wheel that does not squeak and study the whole enterprise like an anthropologist to understand why people do what they do without trying to judge or make sense of it.

I like the part about not trying to judge or make sense of it. Me being a newbie transfer from academia to the corporate world, find this quite challenging. Good reminder to stay open minded.

[Riggerjack]

And when is it time to complain about load and when are you lazy?
Has anyone encountered such issue?

Never.

Complaining is a waste of your time and efforts. You are not original enough to come up with a new complaint, so don't bother.

When my boss wants to add to my workload, I sum up what I am currently working on (no more than 2 sentences here) and ask where the new work falls in priority.

Remember, you should always have work to do, there is no "done". You are there to exchange your time and expertise for money. Complaining simply puts pressure for a lower exchange rate.

As for office politics, this is the primary driver of employee dissatisfaction.
1. You get a job, you are happy, new opportunity, etc.
2. You get familiar with tasks and coworkers.
3. You get caught up in office drama. Turning your attention away from your goals and achievements, and toward your co-workers and maneuvers. To misuse a line about academia, "The office politics are so viscous, because the stakes are so low". Most of the competitors are competing for social positioning, rather than advancement. Lines about pig wrestling come to mind.

Rather, focus on achieving competency, which should take 40-60% of your attention, and a few weeks or months. Then keep your eye on the prize, which is to not need to come into that office again.

[SustainableHappiness]

As mentioned previously monitor the landscape for a while before really engaging in the game (the time will vary based on the person).

Then, be kind, but make it known you will not engage in unnecessary work, of course don't make it known vocally (never say you aren't going to do anything, just give a non-committal response, or redirect the ask), make it known by not engaging in unnecessary work for people who are not your direct superior or bosses boss.

The Most Important Thing I've Learned for Ladder Climbing
One tactic that is often missed or underestimated that has helped raise my salary rapidly and gain respect from senior folks rapidly...

Look at the positions within a reasonable promotion track to your current position, pinpoint who is the shittiest performer out of anyone in those positions (OR someone who you know is looking for a new job), in your next PDP/PMP/PR (performance meeting) state you are interesting in moving up into that specific direction, as you know that person is likely on their way out and move forward with job shadowing, or training or whatever else is mentioned that helps you towards that goal...4 to 6 months later reap the benefits and get promotion 6 months quicker than anyone else gets into a role that has been performed poorly and therefore big improvements are relatively easy. This method also works with lateral moves if you are in the middle management experience accumulation stage prior to big jump to senior management.

The beauty is the effect is compounding where the more respect you gain, the more rapidly they will move you through positions, the more respect you gain...

Has helped me in my past 3 roles to be dialed in to where the worst performers are and led to a rapid base salary and bonus growth in 3 years across 2 different companies (used the same principles when planning a move into a new company as well). I learned this from my first boss and it has resulted in ~2-3 years of expenses more saved in my ERE calc over my brief career.

[Tyler9000]

Yeah, do your best to be the wheel that does not squeak and study the whole enterprise like an anthropologist to understand why people do what they do without trying to judge or make sense of it.

This is very insightful. Early on in my career I worked in a product design environment that also employed a handful of real-life anthropologists. They taught me how to observe, ask good questions, and listen in a way that helped me understand what motivates people even when they can't verbally articulate it. While applying those techniques to new product ideas was certainly useful, I quickly realized that it was just as powerful in a corporate environment. Marketing, finance, and engineering might as well be completely different cultures, and learning how to observe, question, and listen to decipher their core unspoken motivations made my personal work all the more impactful. Once I learned to quickly pivot every presentation and conversation to the target audience, navigating office politics was sorta like Neo seeing the world in code.

[Tyler9000]

And when is it time to complain about load and when are you lazy?

There's never a good time to complain. However, the appropriate time to push back is when you know you won't be able to meet your commitments.

When I was a very young engineer eager to please, I once happily accepted a project deadline without question and proceeded to work as long as it took to meet it. I did a damn good job, but the final work was still a little short and I had to explain it to my boss who was also new to managing people. In tired frustration, I said that I had been working long hours and was exhausted. He kinda smirked and lectured that a professional engineer should expect to work 50-60 hour weeks occasionally as that's part of the job in a deadline-driven business. When I replied that I had put in over 80 hours a week for the past several weeks he had a look of horror and told me to take the rest of the day off. Apparently that sort of thing also reflects poorly on his project management skills. That's the day he learned to keep an eye on my timesheets and I learned that agreeing to every request without properly communicating on my side is no good for anyone.

As for techniques for professionally saying "no", Riggerjack's advice to talk about priorities is good. Keeping the conversation in terms of meeting your commitments is also helpful. Your best defense is a reputation for hard work and dependability.

[wood]

Stahlmann doesn't seem like he comes from the USA, but the responses sure do.

In my experience, level of "employee entitlement" varies between countries/cultures.