Last week, our social media highlighted how to spot a toxic work environment, what constitutes bully behaviour from bosses, and how to ask for vacation time. You know…the stuff that isn’t fun to talk about, but that every employee (and employer) has to face at some point or another.
Which leads us to office politics—the other proverbial elephant in the (board) room.
When people complain about their jobs, they’re rarely actually speaking about the work. In fact, more often than not, they’re referencing the people.
Humans, we do have our faults. When ambition is combined with opportunity (promotion, project management, more money, career advancement, chances to shine) and risk (loss of job, feeling lesser-than, making mistakes, feeling embarrassed in front of the team) it’s a recipe for passive aggressive behaviour and game playing.
In other words, (office) politics.
So, how do we navigate it? Our first point, is: work hard and be nice. If you follow us on social media, you may have noticed the repeated use of this hashtag—it’s no mistake.
At the end of the day, kindness and hard work have a sneaky way of rising above the game -playing (and potential rudeness) that come with a competitive team dynamic fuelled by ‘risk-anxiety’.
So, if it’s true that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% what you do with it, then how we react to a troubled team dynamic will shape how we navigate our way through it.
Some tips on saying goodbye (or see you later) to office politics:
1) STAY OUT OF IT! It’s okay to be on one person’s side over another, but you’re not responsible for fighting other people’s fires. Offer general support with statements such as “It’s just politics, this too shall pass” and remind yourself there’s drama happening everywhere and it won’t last. However, if you actually manage the team where the drama is ensuing, address the issue in a non-partisan way, head-on, making sure the team knows that their actions are not a reflection of your work ethic and have been noticed and unappreciated.
2) DON’T PARTICIPATE IN OFFICE GOSSIP! Further to ‘staying out of it’, nothing good can come from joining in on office gossip. Again, you’re in a room full of friends, sure, but you’re also in a room full of colleagues—many of whom are going after the same jobs as you. Nothing good can come from participating in ‘water cooler talk’. Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!
3) ESCAPE THE WORK ENVIRONMENT! Okay, this one can’t be done by all. But, if you can tackle your workload at home or a coffee shop or even just work with your door closed or behind a cubicle, until the wave of office drama passes by, then you will have come out of it relatively unscathed. Keeping a low profile is recommended until everything naturally works itself out.
Worst case scenario? If office politics begins to feel less temporary and more like ‘the norm’, then it’s possible you’re wading in ‘toxic work environment territory’. Time to look for a new job. Owner of the business? Time to do some restructuring and address your office morale head-on. Out of difficult times, there’s opportunity for change and growth.