Take5Moment - Blog: Office Politics

Office Politics Blog

mary

Mary Delmege
Mediator

Mary recently retired as Director for nine US Commercial Service offices in Southern California and Hawaii. In this capacity, she worked closely with Commercial Service offices throughout the world. Ms. Delmege's organization offered counseling, market research, matchmaking services and coordination of overseas trade shows and missions.

www.marydelmege.com

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Office Politics – Good or Evil?

No matter where you work, the issue of “office politics” is always present. The real question is, is this a bad thing or a good thing. The answer is that it depends on the situation. “Office politics” are actions that you take outside of the normal chain of communications and outside your strictly defined job description. We can all think of situations where these activities waste time, hurt people and generally raise the level of drama in the workplace. On the other hand, it would be naïve to think that your interests are best served sticking to your job and not engaging in professional self promotion.

If you want to be recognized for your special talents or abilities, you may go out of your way to volunteer for special assignments and you may want to make sure that key decision makers are aware of what you have to offer. In order to accomplish this you have to be a good student of your organization. Make it your business to know who are the key decision makers – it’s not always clear from looking at the org chart!

So the short answer is that if the office politics are just “stirring the pot” or actively damaging another person, don’t do it! If you are genuinely trying to advance your own career by helping the organization fulfill its mission – go for it. My future blogs will talk about what works and what doesn’t.