Office politics is unexpected in most cases. But its presence can be noticed in almost every organization in the world. Sometimes, it becomes very intense that ruins the work environment of an organization.

In this blog, we will look at the ways how an employee can deal with office politics on an individual level. 

Normally, the employees engage in office politics to materialize a specific purpose or increase their power within the organization.  Most of the time it happens to get a promotion or to get approval for certain decisions or projects. Sometimes, they even break the chain of command to get such approval. Backstabbing, spreading rumors, and ass-kissing are the most common and traditional weapons of office politics. Also, they always try to take credit for someone else’s work. 

Generally, the most diligent, talented, and intrinsic one becomes the target of office politics. The politically influenced personnel try to suppress the diligent one just to satisfy their jealousy or to hide their own incompetence. It affects the work environment adversely.  Here we will describe some ways to stay away from office politics –

Reduce dependency on others

This is very important to have the ability to work with the team for achieving a common goal. But everyone in the team has a certain role or responsibility. So one should be capable enough to perform his own part without waiting for others to help him. It will reduce his dependency on others. Once he becomes capable enough to perform his tasks on his own, he will not be harmed by any conspiracy against him. 

Continuous improvement

One’s responsibilities change over time. To cope up with this change, one needs to improve his knowledge and skills continuously. And we all know improvement comes with practice and learning. So, to make continuous improvement of knowledge and skills one should regularly study related subjects and implement those learning in his daily activities. Here, different articles, blogs, journals, online & offline training, workshop, YouTube, seminar, speeches, etc. are recommended for subject-based learning. 

Spreads your knowledge among your colleagues 

No one wants to kill a duck that lays a golden egg. So if you help your colleagues by spreading your knowledge everyone will admire you instead of going against you. Everyone in the office wants to keep a good relationship with the person from whom they can get help. Therefore, when you will help your colleagues by teaching new things and solving their problems they will not do any politics with you. They will rather be your well-wisher. 

Keep a record of your work

In every office, you will find someone trying to take credit for your work.  Instead of exposing him directly, you should document your work properly. Report the progress and output of your work to your supervisor and coworkers on a daily basis. It will help you to prove your level of productivity to the organization. Also, your outcome will no longer be questioned by the management. Daily reporting can play the most vital role in this regard.

Develop your networking Skills

This is very important to create a strong network with your coworkers. This network can be built by maintaining a good relationship with your colleagues. A good relation with your colleagues will increase your acceptability in the office. It will increase your chance to get support from your colleagues during your hard time. So, it will be very tough for someone to backstab you maliciously. To build a strong network you must focus on cooperation, trust, respect, communication, and honesty. 

Don’t get personal with anyone

When you will be the victim of office politics, it is natural for you to get angry with people. Sometimes, you even become revengeful and intend to teach them a lesson. But it will not bring any positive result for you rather such behavior will only complicate the matter. In this case, you need to become more calm and resilient. Be confident, focus on your skills, build a network and document your activities without getting personal with any of your coworkers.

Summary

Office politics is unexpected but it exists everywhere. Organizations form various policies, processes, and mechanisms to minimize this bad practice. At the same time, the employees can adopt the followings to keep themselves far from office politics –

  1. Reduce dependency on others
  2. Continuous improvement
  3. Spreads your knowledge among your colleagues
  4. Keep a record of your work
  5. Develop your networking Skills
  6. Don’t Get Personal