Office Politics

July 9, 2012

Interview with Vicky Oliver, author of the book Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers & Other Office Idiots: 201 Smart Ways to Handle the Toughest People Issues

________________

Mike Carruthers:
The people at work, they can drive you nuts. Why is that?

Vicky Oliver:
I think it’s because it’s relentless, I mean especially if you happen to work in a place without walls or doors. The constant barrage on our psyches is pretty intense at the same time you really have to please those people because it impacts your salary.
 

Vicky Oliver, author of the book Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers & Other Office Idiots, says to navigate and be successful in today’s workplace requires a little political savvy.

Let’s say you do a great job it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to get credit for that job and you’re not necessarily going to be complimented on the job that you do. So if you realize that and you don’t wait for the credit – generally you’re better off.

Of course that’s hard to do because we all want approval for the work we do.

And to some extent approval equals promotions and raises but you’re not going to get it on every single task or assignment that you do. And if you don’t sit around waiting for it you have less of martyr complex about it.

And be wary of the office gossip.

If you hang around the office gossip it’s sort of fun but the problem is you almost seem like you’re a gossip and it means you’ve got too much time on your hands. So when it comes around to office cuts a gossip is likely to be one of the people cut.