By Jim Bright
OPINION
It is a miracle of modern work, that very occasionally talent matters. A recruiter friend of mine used to lament that employers hired on skills and fired on attitude. His point was that recruiters should pay more attention to the personalities of those they employ. He was correct up to a point, and that is the point where skill meets politics.
Power struggles, such as in Game of Thrones, play out in work places everywhere.Credit: AP
While it is true some people get fired for good old-fashioned cock-ups, it is rarer than you think. For instance, at the time of writing, I have yet to see the census heads rolling off the guillotine. Particularly when it comes to white collar work, people are more likely to be fired because they got the politics wrong.
Those that advise us to ignore office politics are not only offering injurious advice, but also denying us the sheer delight of our very own up close and personal seat at the Game of Thrones. When two or more people gather to undertake work, politics is present. Even in the simplest tasks, someone will assume the leadership role, others will follow. The decision to adopt these roles is political. You cannot escape it.
As work gets more complex and requires more people to interact with each other, politics becomes increasingly important. Decisions have to be made about how the work gets done, what is going to be prioritised and what is going to be cut. This inevitably creates the potential for winners and losers, if politics is seen as synonymous with power.
It is a mistake to construe politics solely as the battle for power because this overlooks a myriad of other factors that are at play. It also leads to the faulty reasoning that because I am not interested in power, I don't need to get involved in politics.
Politics is also about right and wrong. Funnily enough, most of us do not mind being wrong, but many of us do mind a lot if we are shown up as being wrong. It is a loss of face, dignity and possibly reputation. You see this commonly in work. One person insists on rubbing their boss's nose in their poor proposals and is surprised by the blowback. While another colleague, gently steers their boss toward a more successful outcome happily letting their boss take the credit. The first employee is seen as obstructive, the second as a great team player. That is politics at work. Of course if the Boss is out of favour further upstream, then ultimately, the "obstructive" employee could be seen as the better team player by those that matter. That is more advanced politics at work.
Sometimes the politics are over matters of substance, other times they are over vanity, ego, paranoia, insecurity, vengefulness and a whole host of other motivations. However, to suggest that politics should be avoided at work, is like trying to avoid fast food on the Hume Highway. Virtuous possibly, but it could result in slim career pickings.
Jim Bright is professor of Career Education and Development at ACU and owns Bright and Associates, a Career Management Consultancy. Email opinion@jimbright.com. Follow @DrJimBright.