4 ms·
I don't think this is useful for most employees. The writer has the perspective of an executive - someone making the decisions. Politics at that level is high s
by Hasu 4y ago
I don't think this is useful for most employees. The writer has the perspective of an executive - someone making the decisions. Politics at that level is high stakes and about managing relationships. In my experience, politics get more toxic as the stakes are lowered. A small startup deciding what feature to prioritize next quarter is a political discussion, but everyone involved has skin in the game.
No, politics is toxic and bad when it comes to decisions that are low stakes for the company as whole, but have major implications for individuals who don't have much input into the decisions. Seating charts are incredibly political and toxic for precisely this reason. They're usually determined by middle managers, have little impact on the company's bottom line, but have a huge impact on the people who have to sit in the chairs. Not getting the window seat you wanted, or being put next to the person who eats fish at their desk for lunch once a week is going to majorly impact your day-to-day. If someone gets a good seat because they're sucking up to the manager while someone else is getting work done and gets a crappy desk assignment, it feels political and unfair.
- sleepymoose 4y ago>it feels political and unfair. What I took away from the article: The behavior you're describing comes naturally to humans by our nature. We are an individualistic species and in most cases, we work towards things that will better our own situation or benefit ourselves in some way. Generally speaking, we (as humans) don't focus on fairness. I agree with you that low stakes decisions like seating charts being decided by personal bias that's influenced by office politics isnt' ideal, but that is the current situation. I also don't think that we're going to be changing this any time soon. If we can't even make large scale changes in society's thinking on things like racism, how will we go about fixing even more basic social interactions like this?
- Hasu 4y agoI don't think it's easily fixable, but I don't think the author's advice to embrace office politics is very good advice for most people, because it isn't easily fixable, and if you're low on the org chart and don't have much influence, the primary kind of politics you can reasonably engage in is at that level. One fix for the seating chart problem is to do away with seating charts - give everyone a laptop and equip all the desks with identical equipment, and let people sit where they want. This has costs and other downsides, but seating chart politics isn't a problem anymore. But if you're someone who has an assigned seat, you don't even have access to the political relationships to advocate for that change, so your only options are to A) not play politics and roll the dice, or B) find out how to make the people who determine seating charts like you. The only available politics in this situation are toxic politics, so "embrace politics" is inherently toxic advice. Opting out of the politics game is a rational option for the many people who just want to get their work done and go home.