Dear members,
Let's tap into people's experiences of office politics. We all know it exists, and may be able to navigate through, by learning from other peoples's experiences.

Looking forward to your responses.

@Ajanlekoko
Interesting topic.

Why don't you post your experience(s) first?

LOL@Cristalz,
Apparently someone posted this using my ID.
Maybe when I get over the initial shock, and find out who dunnit, I'll consider posting my views on this topic.
Might have been a rogue member of my household!
Meanwhile Seun, you need to find a way to enable the dot dot dot on this forum, it keeps coming out like a comma. If I need a comma, I'll put on in!

@ Ajanle

Very simple - just space out the dots and they'll appear

Office politics? Very interesting

I remember a project I had to work on with my colleague. I was the newest member of the team so I went in all guns blazing for the project meeting with all my material prepared and all. Apparently, the my colleague didn't understand and felt the meeting was an introductory one after which we would prepare the material needed. Essentially I stole her thunder. Funnily enough, she was giving me these looks but I didn't understand. She later went to talk to our boss that she really wanted to work on the project, but that the boss shouldn't tell me that she was pissed that I basically pre-empted her (she's sort of my 'senior' within the team). Anyways, my boss made the decision to put me on the project and take her off and she never really liked it after that. I guess the politics worked in my favour in this case, though I was completely oblivious to the melee going on.

I was simply the over eager new team member who was bored and didn't have anything else to do. I think the boss has taken a 'liking' to me (she's female) so maybe that was what gave me some advantage, and I tend to be pretty easy going. Dunno if it's really 'politics' as such, but whatever it was, it worked out for me in this case.

hey debosky,
Thanks for the tip . . . see I tried it!

@Cristalz,
I found the culprit . . . and it was none other than Mrs AjanleKoko herself! Price to pay for staying logged on all the time, huh.

As per the topic . . . well, well, well, another long rambling post coming up! Maybe will even be modified 3 or 4 times.

The office environment to me is like WWE's Royal Rumble, only with a twist - everybody starts in the ring. In fact, most people, especially the young entry level types, usually spend their first few days at work determining what's up for grabs and just who to take down on the way to the grabbing.  In the beginning I like to play dumb, so that I can watch everybody's strategy while no one's watching mine. Maybe even become everyone's good pal, and establish a reputation as the Westside Gangsta - the guy wey no send. That tends to get even the baddest among the bad to drop their guard where I'm concerned. Everybody will want you in their 'cliq'. Don't join any, just be good friends with them all, so you can get the grapevine gist easy without having to do the old trade by barter, i.e. drop your own info before I drop mine.

The good thing about this tactic is that (1) everybody is too busy with the struggle to focus on what's important - which is equipping yourself to deliver on the job, and (2) people tend to forget that you're actually as smart as they are, maybe even smarter. By the time they figure it out, it is way too late and you have moved on. Of course, you placate them and pacify them, and try to keep the balance.

I am a huge fan of Prison Break. How I've been able to survive and come out on top most times is by adopting the Scofield way, i.e. I make sure I put the game together, or modify the game to run according to my script, and deploy the various 'teams' or 'cliques' to assist unbeknowingly to further my objectives, or at least factor in my objectives with theirs. I rely more on superior intelligence, as Scofield usually does,  to take my enemies down on my way up. Whether you like it or not, you probably have enemies, else you're a threat to no one. We all want to move up the career ladder, remember?

Then, most importantly, I avoid the heavy hitters, cos if you cross their path, they don't take chances, they basically gun you down in a jiffy. I'll give you a short example. I have been in a situation once where I was in direct competition with a chic that was actually sleeping with the overall C-Level in charge of our group (not rumour, confirmed gist) . Now that's a heavy hitter for you. The babe was ambitious, vindictive and a totally proud machine, cold and dangerous. I just generally went into my Dumb Joe mode, while I watched her decimate all her competitors and the others who tried to suck up to her. My hunch was that with her attitude, she has to step on nails at some point. No need interfering with the course of nature now, abi?

At the end? Well, eventually, after a couple of years of her looking virtually indestructible, there was a reshuffle and the oga was moved out of the operation entirely. Before you could say 'payback' our girl was suddenly kicked out for defective certificate reasons. Just like that.

Regarding your superiors, I notice some peeps like to take on their ogas. I have a theory of 'live and let live, it's their time, wait for your own', as far as ogas are concerned. I would advise all office politicians to take a page from Handel's book. In his time he had words with the ruler of Hanover, George, who was his patron at the time. They had issues and Handel left for England in a huff. Do you know what happened later? George the Elector of Hanover in 1714 was asked to become King George 1 of England! Something very similar has happened to me in the last year or so. An oga everyone felt was a total asswipe (xcuse my French), but wasn't directly my oga in my previous job, ended up becoming my boss in my current job. Lesson learnt? Never let a senior person at work know exactly how you feel about them. If possible make them think the exact opposite. Remember how Michael Scofield (Prison Break again, sorry!) always ends up teaming with the same set of obnoxious and vile critters, but he's always one step ahead of them all, eventually.

Hope the post didn't end up too cryptic.
Cheers.

Hello all,
This is Mrs Ajanlekoko, i created this thread as a way of knowing how it goes in various establishments.

debosky:

I remember a project I had to work on with my colleague. I was the newest member of the team so I went in all guns blazing for the project meeting with all my material prepared and all. Apparently, the my colleague didn't understand and felt the meeting was an introductory one after which we would prepare the material needed. Essentially I stole her thunder. Funnily enough, she was giving me these looks but I didn't understand. She later went to talk to our boss that she really wanted to work on the project, but that the boss shouldn't tell me that she was pissed that I basically pre-empted her (she's sort of my 'senior' within the team). Anyways, my boss made the decision to put me on the project and take her off and she never really liked it after that. I guess the politics worked in my favour in this case, though I was completely oblivious to the melee going on.

I was simply the over eager new team member who was bored and didn't have anything else to do. I think the boss has taken a 'liking' to me (she's female) so maybe that was what gave me some advantage, and I tend to be pretty easy going. Dunno if it's really 'politics' as such, but whatever it was, it worked out for me in this case.

Debosky,
Nice one you got there but you really need to watch your back. It's never that simple and people never let go that easily.

I have learnt the simple way of speaking only when it matters. Like Mr Ajanlekoko, I pretend work only with my colleagues and is willing to help who needs it. I never show off with contemporaries but only when the big bosses that can make a difference are present.

I'll return with my Nairaland ID then post instances.

Cheers

Hi,
This is my ID.
Will be posting instances soon, and also keeping tabs on my hubby!

Mrs_Ajanle:

Hi,
This is my ID.
Will be posting instances soon, and also keeping tabs on my hubby!

wahala dey o!!!!



thank God say madam no dey into NL. . .

oyb:

wahala dey o!!!!



thank God say madam no dey into NL. . .

No issues jare, at least you can never find me in some of the off-colour or controversial forums.

Office politics is ment for politicians now

Lovely topic.

I work in a one man coy (a big one by the way) and the office politics in this place is crazy. Everyone is fighting to be in the good books of the big boss and in the process is willing to bring down everyone and everything that seems to be an obstacle. Even an innocent bystander is not left out. All the man needs a txt to the effect that someone is not perfoming and he fires the person without dueinvestigations and confirmation. So u guys can imagine how this place looks and feels like. Cant go into the dirty details cos lots of my colleagues are members of NL.

Politics is everywhere. Where you have two or three people living/working together, politics is almost inevitable. And Office is no different. Office politics range from the complex and continuous one to the ordinary, simple and one-off . It could be very intriguing. It makes or mar people. Yet, some are harmless.

More to come when I'm less busy.