Political Quagmire at workplace ( How to identify and avoid being Mr. "A")

Ok. so I'm back with a new post on my blog. First of all Twitter ain't working in my office :-) so not much of twitter for me.

So the main area of focus for this topic is going to be Office politics. First of all I'm amazed by the term office politics so i tried to Google to come up with solid description which can map the scenarios , however Google results were too abstract. I would term Office politics as the act of Bitching and selfishness, as this matches with the incidents i see around me most of the time. Interesting fact is i discussed this phenomena with my friends and contacts in other company every one is unanimous about the concept and existence of bitching and selfishness at workplace.

I generally think that this type of practices generally grows up as company expands, more people come into the company and they make worst place to work for others :-). I was reading "The Search" this a book on search industry and Google workplace practices. Among the other thing one thing i find very true in real world practice. It is the rationale behind Google hiring process. book says that most of the companies (i would say Team/Project as well) starts well with like minded people working towards common goal to achieve. Somewhere down the line when company starts expanding we need more people and this is the point most companies avoid completely.

The result is first comes person A which hires Person B and Person C , where B and C would never raise voice against A so A is Secure and this chain process sparks Off. At the end, result is that you have people at the position they not deserved to be. The same practice holds true for a team or project in a company which started well.

The end result is you have very interesting play ground all set for Office Politics, then comes the act of bitching and selfishness. very much like what we see in our National Parliament. Most of the time person "B" and "C" hired by "A" are incompetent for the job they are hired and Mr. A being smart use the same thing to keep "B" and "C" in control, instead of motivating Mr. "B" and "C" to perform responsibilities and achieve a common goal, Mr "A" will let the problem spread as these people are surviving key to Mr. "A".

Last nail in the coffin which is a blessing for Mr "A" is the process of compensation and yearly review in most of the IT companies in India. Which is not 360 degree or full proof, it will mostly rely on Mr "A" feedback or some Mr "E" which is might be the person of Mr "A" political tree or outside the tree having good reputation with Mr. "A".

So in nutshell Mr. "A" will make sure those incompetent people are hanging around in the company and Mr. "A" can use these people to exploit the loopholes in company. Most of the time i think Mr. "A" in each company Will have common traits and i have top 5 as per my thinking.

Go ahead and read 5 points below, give yourself a thought the people you work with in your team/project lets see can you find Mr "A" in your team/project :-)

1. Wears Mask

It means it will change identity in order to fit better, feel more comfortable in a situation, very much like a chameleon. So this guy that walks into your office is the not the same guy that walks into your colleague or boss’s office. One face, multiple masks.

2. Loves Gossip

I understand the gossip is the term which refers to discussion about the fact which you haven't confirmed as true. So another signal to you to identify Mr. A, if you have a person around who is always probing or coming up with news about office happenings which you deep inside know is irrelevant , you know where the devil is.

e.g Mr. "A" Says: " Hey do you know that Project Manager in X team resigned and from Y team a person going to take his place"

Now you are deep inside your code or some other work and you thinking what the heck he cared about it and if he do so why he is telling to me, as per you this guy should be more interested in the work which you think more important for team.

Now unwillingly you might ask "ohh, great how do you know that"

At this time Mr. A has accomplished his feat he will give you a grin.

3. Want to build empire

Mr. "A" want to build empire and he will act like a vampire ,to spread the disease and have more people join his trap. The Mr. "A" will not attend to his responsibilities and will be more interested to find pray.

4. Non- Transparent

Mr. "A" always keep you guessing, All his agendas are clearly invisible to you. He will be invisible with guise about his agenda.

5. Will protect his turf

I read this somewhere " Politics about power and power is about protecting turf. Protecting turf is not about the team work or success" (except for the person protecting the turf , Mr. "A").

This is the key to success to Mr. "A", he feast on the weakness of "B" and "C" and rules. As for power Mr. "A" will always have power this is the catalyst with which this whole process starts. (Another clue for you to identify Mr. "A")



Closing notes:

At this time when India is on technical outsourcing boom , we have severe problem of office politics however the strangest point is that people who are responsible to put check on those political quagmires not even bother to notice that. I think the people in higher management should not overlook the point of office politics, they should be more towards ground and should break the nexus of Political people by doing more direct interaction with people at lower level in organisation.

I think most of the time people at higher management do have the idea of office politics web being weaved under them and they tried to overlook this point as attending a meeting with client and discussion with CEO always takes priority. Its very much like you see a spider cobweb in your house you see that and you stops for a while and you think for second and overlook it as you are in hurray to catch your meeting , then after some times you see one more cobweb again this is not in your drawing room so not easily visible and you have weekend coming so you can clean it. Slowly and steadily these cobweb takes all our your house and one fine day some people makes visit to your home and... :-)