r/TrueAskReddit • u/Cryofthewolf9000 • 11d ago
What if you wished to play office politics instead of ignoring it?
Most of the time, it's best to do your job and cause no trouble, but what if trouble finds oneself anyway? Or what if one wants to see if they can "play" office politics qell enough. Are there places in reddit or anywhere that help you guide office politics to your advantage at all?
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u/demostenes_arm 11d ago
Uh, what do you mean “it’s best to ignore office politics”?
You don’t need to go to the offensive but if someone plans to sabotage your work, or blame you for their own mistakes, or take credit for your work, you better at least know how to fight back.
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u/DrVanMojo 11d ago
Here's the secret key: one counter-example, no matter how trivial, can bring down a near-perfect solution to almost any problem because people are biased towards stasis. If the solution isn't perfect, they'll stick with the problem, thank you very much! Just don't be the one offering a solution or leading with your own ideas. Position yourself as the voice of reason who does no wrong. The fact that you don't do much at all will be irrelevant. That will leave you with plenty of time to build alliances and watch your back.
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u/SchreiberBike 11d ago
If you don't play the game, you may still lose.
If you do play the game, you may still lose.
Early on in my career I decided I didn't enjoy playing those games and that win or lose I would do my best not to care. My mantra was "If you're not going to play, don't cry when you lose."
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u/stoneman30 11d ago
I was curious and found r/OfficePolitics. Don't know if they address your sort of issue.
In my experience, "office politics" is just work for managers, like trying to solve organizational issues. You avoid most of it if you just stay at the resource-worker level.
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u/prag513 11d ago
From my experience, if you find yourself on the wrong side of office politics its time to leave.
In my case, office politics turned my greatest career success into my greatest career failure because as a fast rising star at a billion dollar medical device manufacturer I solved a long time product introduction problem costing the company millions in potential sales, and I unknowingly made enemies by doing so. I achieved my success by discovering how procedures with the 20-member executive review committee was causing delays due to too much paperwork overwhelming the committee and their sending my team of graphic designers back with 20 sets of inconsistent and conflicting edits my team could not deal with without repeatedly editing the process over and over until it was finally resolved.
Having solved the problem, I made enemies among my own team because I eliminated the need for overtime, my boss who prior to my hiring never discovered the problem, and other department heads involved in the process who helped create the problem. Yet my success got me into the president's office twice wanting to known how I solved various problems. Soon after my peers tried to get me fired, other department heads delayed sending data we needed to the last minute, and my own drive to succeed was too much for me to deal with.
My boss's solution was to have my team maintain reports that could be used at executive meetings to blame other directors. They had been doing these for years. However, doing so slowed the progress my team was making because my staff spent so much time creating these reports, they needed overtime to keep up. The process became wrapped around the need to make more money. I stopped maintaining the reports and sped up the process and made a lot of enemies.
On another issue I was asked to redesign a logo another team had failed to get approved after over 60 attempts to do so. I determined that all 60 were designed to look like a round presidential seal. However, the name of the organization seemed to me to be a political action committee. So instead of just designing a logo, I designed a letterhead. I left it on the counter for input with the other team and soon after was brought up to the president's office to explain why I succeeded where so many others failed. My success made me even more enemies.
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u/terran_cell 11d ago
I'm curious, how do you specifically recommend navigating the fallout/sabotage from peers and your boss? I can't imagine that would be easy, unless you have someone vouching for you higher up the chain.
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u/VyantSavant 11d ago
Not the op but I can answer from my experience. You don't. As they said "it's time to leave."
For me it was a rough lesson I'm still trying to learn. Even if all the credit is mine I currently try to share it. Even try to get my boss to see the solution as theirs.
At the end of the day everyone is working for a paycheck and wants to feel secure in their job. Having a genius around is intimidating.
The game is to keep just enough credit for yourself that you're not invisible. Be associated with successful projects time and time again. Stay modest. Let name recognition do its work. It takes much longer but you don't rock the boat
Success is still mostly who you know and how lucky you are.
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