|
Many techies mistakenly think that by burying
their head in work and consistently producing results, they will
be able to avoid office politics. But this does not happen, office
politics is a ‘necessary evil' one has to learn to live with, says
MOHAN BABU
A topic most management courses and training
sessions skim over is the one that drains most of the energies out
of employees and managers—it is office politics. Not many of
us are immune to office politics, gossip and the “informal
circuit,” and individuals who spend eight or ten hours a day
in a working group tend to develop a subculture of their own. As
part of the subculture there is a need among individuals to be recognised,
bonding with peers, and of course looking forward to promotions,
kudos and brownie points from bosses. Individuals try to stand out
from their peers, sometimes using unorthodox means. Cartoonists
like Dilbert have generated a cult-like following by evangelising
office politics and the idiosyncrasies in the workplace.
Politics, favourism, sucking up to influential
people is not something alien to the working climate alone. Most
of us get used to it right from school and college days where the
“teacher’s pet” always bags the higher scores, gets
plum assignments, etc, while the school bully gets his way by threat
and coercion. The same attitudes are carried to the work environments
as individual grow up and join organisations.
At the receiving end
It therefore comes as a surprise that a
lot of very good techies do not have the stomach for office politics.
However, this does not preclude them from being at the receiving
end of political games played by colleagues and co-workers. By remaining
“geeky” they further alienate themselves from the sub-culture
around them. They tend to mistakenly think that by burying their
head in work, and consistently producing results they will be recognised.
However, this is not really the case because of a number of complex
factors. For instance, many people tend to forget that managers
and bosses are human too and come with the same moods, idiosyncrasies
and quirks as the rest of us. Some of them are highly technical
but many survive mainly on their gift of gab. Managers sometimes
tend to succumb to the same smooth-talk and salesmanship by employees
who are trying to one-up their colleagues.
Different types
Office politics takes different forms.
The most common being the rumour mill, a.k.a. water-cooler gossip
where talk about impending changes, discussion on hearsay, organisational
changes, what someone overheard, etc, are discussed in detail. No
topic is out of bounds in a rumour mill and it can range from work-related
topics to personal gossip about affairs, delicate issues, problems,
etc. Technology has also contributed its bit to the sustenance of
gossip circuits in organisations. The practice of forwarding e-mails
containing gossip, tidbits on organisational issues or other personal
matters is widely prevalent across organisations of all sizes. Sometimes
e-mail exchanged in “confidence” between two parties surfaces
at inopportune times, causing acute embarrassment or even legal
headaches. This is especially true of those exchanging mails about
company confidential information, gossip, etc. A recent study conducted
by IT research firm Gartner found that at least 34 percent of business
e-mails are unnecessary and that 30 percent of the time business
users spend managing their e-mail is spent on messages that contain
no business value.
If you can’t beat them, join them
The workplace is a social organisation,
even where formal rules for ethics and work are in place. Therefore,
it is hard to fight the scourge of gossip and politics. Individuals
need to learn to live and work with it. Working with politics and
gossip means trying to understand the nuances of dealing with people,
learning to snap malicious gossip and actions at the root and of
course being a part of the gossip circuit to be keenly aware of
the happenings. This cannot happen by just ignoring the presence
of politics, but by being keenly aware of it and in some instances,
being a part of it. For instance, individuals need to realise that
they can be both accountable and make mistakes on their road to
success. Learning from these mistakes is far more likely to happen
when people help each other out, and do so when they most need it.
Individuals can also try to build a culture that values everyone
and places them at the heart of the department, and company. One
can begin by encouraging open and blame-free debate within the immediate
team, draw out everyone’s contributions, their hopes, fears
and ideas for the future. Some senior managers try to get into such
gossip circuits by practicing MBWA (Management by Wandering Around)
techniques where they chat with their subordinates informally on
all topics and try to get a “gut feel” for the mood of
the organisation.
As organisations and workgroups become
more international, individuals need to learn the subtleties of
cross-cultural communication, especially as the forms of informal
communication across cultural and national boundaries may vary.
For instance, gossip can take the form of small-talk as one waits
for the office elevator, a cup of coffee, etc, or as a filler during
project meetings. Such small-talk may contain loaded hints or information
that one could observe and use. For instance, if the boss talks
about his impending week-long holiday, he is also hinting that there
will be an opportunity for someone to fill in his shoes when he
is away and is trying to find that temporary replacement. The bottomline
is clear. Much as we individually loath office politics and gossip,
we need to learn to live with it and maybe benefit from it sometimes.
Mohan Babu is a US based software consultant
trying to find the ‘sweet spot’ where IT meets business.
E-mail: mohan@garamchai.com
|
