Office Politics, Gossiping, Intrigues: Thriving in the jungle of the workplace

This post is labeled under Career Move


Fresh from college and beginning to make a career often shock young professionals as they enter the workforce. They begin to worry if ever they will survive a new environment of office politics, gossiping, intrigues among others. Will the kind of friendship forge on business setting built to last?

Why people gossip?

The underlying reason why people gossip is to protect themselves who they think becomes their competitors in doing they job. “She’s new, pretty and likeable by everyone. The boss likes her so much because they came from the same college. I will never make equal on her because she’s intelligent, witty and I am ugly and mostly despise by my colleagues. Is boss preparing to replace me now with her around?”

Courtesy of codecraftersinc.com

The nature of gossip comes from the envious feeling of co-workers. A position being threaten, a person with all the insecurities begins to be defensive with all factors in that may cause one’s extinction. A colleague of yours may plan an offensive attack if things go wrong: blaming takes place. An imaginative mind may even concoct stories why a person fell short in doing the job. Personal attacks become common during breaks and in between pep talks in the office. As the swine is thrown to the pit, you can see how ugly it is if you are on that kind of situation. Are you one of those who spread rumors which destroys others reputation caused by jealousy or envy?

Gossip? No thank you.

“But sir, people in the office talks about it. I can’t help but to listen. “ The moment you sense that your co-workers are staging an attack to your boss or to the other person in the office, excuse yourself from the conversation tactfully then leave. On situation where you are cornered to comment on things happening around, never utter a word that will diminish one’s reputation. Learn to preserve the dignity of the person who is not around and definitely you will earn the loyalty of those who witnessed your humble display of gratitude.

Earn PR by doing good work

Concentrate doing your own work best. No matter how trivial it is to you and to others, good work will be noticed. Zig Ziglar applies the “Better than good” approach in order to be productive and never get tired in doing one’s work. I remember my friend Eugene who is doing an analyst job for 3 Operations Managers of a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company. He is keen, particular on details and on-time in delivering the tasks given to him. Emails pour in and circulate within our department every time these 3 managers (together with their colleagues in the business) are happy the way Eugene delivers the service.

He is a quiet person. You’ll have second thoughts of disturbing him when he is doing his job. He devotes undivided attention and sometimes willing to sacrifice a little of his breaks just to deliver the goods to his customers on time: making the extra mile. Our boss seldom sees and talks with him. Often we kid him how he made a killing as one of top performers in our group. The last time I had checked on him when I left the company, he was offered to consider as one of the choices to occupy the team leader post.

Forget colleagues who spent their time browsing the internet and playing games. Work and backlogs will catch up on them. They will run out of good alibis why things are not done on their end. It is easy to detect unproductive performance. They may be closed associates of the boss but the boss will protect his/her own turf first before protecting others. Yes, the games they play will be played on them. Watch as you proceed to the next stop: heads rolling.

“Sir, I am not a suck-up. I can’t bear my colleagues’ practice of being around with the boss but backstabbing her at the same time. I was once told that in order to stay in the business I must learn this ugly method of influencing to move up.”

Everyone needs a good PR (public relation). My advice is to do your best in everything you do and the rewards will come later. Never under estimate the power of compliments coming from a third party source. On the case of Eugene, he needs not to say anything to cement the good performance he had. Those 3 Operations Managers he renders services with became his promoters of a job well done. Your boss will never been proud of having you working under him/her. Everybody loves the winner.

Increase your Circle of Influence

A Circle of Concern is about anything you have no direct influence or just interest you. It may range from how the stock market will crash, to the weather forecast of how bad it is on the weekend; gossip about the boss, etc. Circle of Influence is things over you have control or influence like how you feel as you value your work so much no matter how uninteresting it may seems to others. Committing to finish and deliver “the goods” to the customer is a good step of earning influence. Little by little (you may not even notice it), your circle of influence becomes bigger and hard to contain as you add credibility in doing your work best.

As my former student who never gets tired whining countered “My boss does not even know what my job is. She never bothers to check how am I doing.”

Turning adversity into opportunity, I think THAT situation is good. With credibility earned, backed up with compliments from you customers and colleagues, who do you think the boss will consult if something falls on your area of expertise? Need I say more…

Habit of setting aside a small amount every payday will one day pay you dividends; same goes with work. Now, it is no best time to make withdrawals because the principal amount is not earning interest yet. Wait up. Make a habit of saving by doing unprecedented work and you will reap the rewards later.

Thrive as you increase the radius of your influence!