From manipulating supervisors to colleagues who attempt to undermine your work, connections and power are firmly woven in the work environment. A large number of us will be influenced by workplace politics sooner or later: 33% of laborers fear going into work as a result of their partners, while it is evaluated that three in every four employees see their boss as the most stressful part of their job.
What is Workplace Politics?
More commonly known as office politics, workspace politics emerges when employees tend to abuse their energy to increase undue consideration and prominence in the work environment. A lot of employees indulge in workplace politics just to discolor their associate’s reputation in order to get benefits and come in the good books of their bosses. What such employees fail to realize is that if they truly have the potential, there is nothing stopping them from succeeding in their workspace.
Politics in the office diminishes the profitability of people and in the long run, the organization is at a loss. Individuals tend to invest their maximum energy in pulling each other’s legs and playing nasty politics at work. People think that it is hard to focus on work due to the superfluous politics in the working environment. Employees need to keep in mind that the company pays you for your diligent work, and not for playing office politics. It significantly influences the relationship among the people at work. Friends turn into enemies because of such politics. A lot of people quit helping, and above all, believing each other. Office politics likewise builds clashes and strains at the workspace. This results in employees hating the office environment and start seeing work as a burden.
Reasons for Workplace Politics in existence
There are a lot of intermittent reasons why workplace politics crops up in any organization. Some of the most common reasons for office politics are:
- Workers trying to come in the spotlight effectively without much hard word rely on workplace politics.
- Politics at work emerge when workers seek to accomplish something beyond their power and control in a limited amount of time.
- An absence of supervision and control at the office environment.
- A lot of gossip at work prompts politics.
- Arrogant bosses
- Envious colleagues
Examples of Workplace Politics
Just like all the other small things in the office, instances of workplace politics are also easy to find but hard to pinpoint. However, there are a few subtle hints that anyone can pick up and recognize the work of office politics.
- Being the office cynic
- Giving someone a piece of your mind
- Sucking up or brown nosing
- Stealing credit
- Sleeping with the boss or a co-worker
- Lazy and annoying co-workers
- Nepotism in the office
- Sneaky tricks at work
Mastering Workplace Politics
All this talk about office politics is futile if there is no solution to getting out of it. But where there is a will, there is a way. If you want to move away from the murky waters of workplace politics, then mastering it is the only option ahead. Follow the tips mentioned below and ensure that you never get your hands dirty in the pool of workplace politics anytime in the future.
Turn colleagues into friends
To settle a dangerous work culture, you have to get included. Studies demonstrate that when individuals feel they don’t have a place in a gathering, their physical well-being and prosperity goes down– so, in case you’re feeling segregated or avoided by negative office politics, it is a good idea to attempt to make friends. This system additionally works with game-playing colleagues– individuals with harassing tendencies regularly attempt to isolate their victims, so the more individuals you have on your side, the more improbable you are to be exploited at work.
Monitor your timings
When you are liable to colleagues’ political strategies – for example, assuming creditfor your work – it’s imperative not to strike back. This ensures your reputation: if your hard working attitude is doubted about by a colleague, you at that point have an approach to demonstrate your efficiency.
Also read: Tips for dealing with bullying and harassment at work place
Try not to sink to their level
At the point when your fellow employees try to make you look bad or undermine you, it’s enticing to do likewise. In any case, this can blowback: you may seem to be petty, and is probably not going to change your manager or colleague’s conduct. A superior approach to manage troublesome colleagues is to ask them for a private discussion. This is the ideal approach to change behavior, as it expects them to think about their activities.
Be a straight arrow
An ideal approach to keep out of trouble politically is to be viewed as somebody who doesn’t play workplace politics — in other words, a straight arrow. Do what you say you will do, alert people about any problems, and concede to your mistakes. Others will appreciate you, regardless of the possibility that they don’t generally agree with you. More importantly, you have a lower possibility of being a casualty of politics.
Set incentives to propagate teamwork
In case you’re a supervisor or senior official, investigate your incentives. If you compensate employees in a division based on how well that department does, you may coincidentally cause damaging rivalry among departments. Everyone will go up against each other, and every one of the departments could wind up in a more terrible position. To limit this plausibility, give employees incentives in light of department results as well as on organization results as well. That way, representatives from various divisions have more inspiration to cooperate and less inspiration to take part in dangerous politics.
Now that you have ample knowledge on how to tackle workplace politics in your organization, go out there and deal with it in your best possible way. Just go through the tips and tricks mentioned above and ensure an office politics-free work life ahead of you!
Also, if you have any instances of office politics in your organization that you would like to share, go ahead and do so in the comment section below!
