Harmony in the Workplace – How to Steer Clear of Office Politics

A workplace situation can quite often put people in contact with others who they might not have naturally befriended in a situation outside of work. The phrase office politics covers a whole range of behaviours that can happen as a result. Quite often we are told this is part and parcel of workplace life, and failure to engage in politics will sideline us in favour of someone who is less qualified but better able to ‘play the game’. However, the nature of the human mind is such that politics doesn’t end when we put on our coats and head home from work; instead we take up time and stress outside work thinking about it too.

How can one detach oneself from this process? Well the answer of course depends on the case, so here we list a few of the most common problems:

• Many times we have to work in a team with someone who isn’t putting the work in, but is instead thinking of all kinds of ways into making the boss think he is. It helps to have an accepted and reliable measure of the work done by someone. If you feel someone is deviating from this standard, try and bring it up with the person involved sooner rather than later, to avoid the ‘well, it wasn’t a problem before’ answer.

• When you disagree with a colleague over the best approach to an issue, try and take your own ego out of it and look at the problem objectively. In many cases, what determines the result is not the approach taken but the attitude of the team members. Try and put yourself in the other person’s shoes: is it really ego or does he/she honestly want what is best for the company? Even if it is the former, it is sometimes best to to put harmony first anyway. A less-than-perfect solution done in unison can often be better then the perfect solution which required civil war to achieve and which will slow down productivity in the future.

• Avoid office gossip. Many people define office politics and gossip as separate, but in reality, participation in gossip is usually aligning yourself with the gossiper and against the gossiped about, and is very often a two-edged sword: ‘whoever gossips to you will gossip about you‘, so the Spanish proverb goes. Hearing gossip can be as bad as spreading it, because true or not, it will stick in your head anyway and negatively affect your view of someone you might have previously admired. It can be very hard to tactfully steer clear of such talk; you can try deflecting the conversation with a question about something else of interest, even the gossiper’s own life. If a particular name is mentioned, you can interject and apologetically say you have to work with that person and knowing that kind of gossip could make things difficult.

All the above guidelines are very easy to say, but implementing them does require a certain degree of inner strength and self-confidence. Hence it might be worthwhile looking at a daily practices that will build up this inner strength – for example meditation or daily exercise. Just by being calm and centred in your own being, you slowly but surely create a harmonious atmosphere in the space around you.

References and resources:

2) Maintaining harmony when working together: suggestions [http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/sri-chinmoy-answers/part29/50.html] by philosopher Sri Chinmoy at http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com

3) Meditation home study course.