Chapter 4: PLOP Culture

Peer-level office politics—PLOP. In a perfect world, individuals receive recognition, salary increases, plum assignments, and promotions based entirely on merit. In the real world, the role that office politics plays in career advancement and success ranges from a minor schmooze factor (e.g., learning how to play golf because your boss does) to selling your soul in exchange for a megastar spot in the boss’s eyes (e.g., stealing a colleague’s report and claiming it as your own).

As companies grow and change, shrink and implode, job descriptions and job duties are expanded or contracted, results orientation is intensified, and competition for desirable assignments, visibility, acknowledgement, and reward heats up, you will certainly run into individuals who are willing to do anything to get ahead of the pack. Add to this unclear job definitions, subjective performance evaluations, a win/lose culture, and a follow-the-leader orientation, and you have a recipe for an unhappy workplace.

Seven Deadly Sins of PLOP

Whether the economy is strong or weak, as you move up in your profession, the outlook for career growth becomes more limited (think pyramid—there are many positions at the bottom, fewer at the top). With fewer positions available, the “look at me!” behavior begins, demonstrating the downside of office politics. These Seven Deadly Sins are usually individual behaviors, rather than group behaviors (discussed later in this chapter). Have you experienced (or exhibited) one or more of these?

1. Someone to pick on. In an environment where there are fewer and fewer upper-level opportunities, you may see the behavior of finding a victim to persecute. Whether you are on the sending end or the receiving end of this sin, it provides a temporary relief for the sender’s sense of insecurity, while it plays to the recipient’s fear of rejection.

2. Gossip. Not all gossip is negative (as in backstabbing). Sometimes it is used to share cheerful and truthful news (“John just told me he got a promotion!”). Sometimes it is used to pass on distressing, yet truthful news (“I heard from David that John is being laid off, and John does not know it yet”). Sometimes it is just tantalizing drivel (“I heard from Mark that John is having an affair with the grocery clerk”).

   At best, gossip in the office is a way to build intimate relationships. In a politically charged office where knowledge is power, however, being the purveyor of gossip may only serve to decrease your credibility and trustworthiness, and ultimately ruin your reputation. If you share information about someone that you would not say directly to that person’s face, you have crossed the line.

3. Personalize everything. In a politically active office, feedback comes in many colors. Sometimes it is delivered in a positive and productive way, and sometimes it is not. Allowing any comments or behaviors, whether idle gossip or constructive criticism, to touch you personally makes them part of your life. This will feed your fear of failure or rejection, and keep you from moving forward.

4. Saying yes when you really want to say no. Do you say yes to things that you would really rather not do, and then find last-minute excuses to back out (or just not show up)? This is a demonstration of your limited dependability and reliability, integrity, honesty, and maturity. It is also one of the best ways to lose friends, respect, and your job.

5. Arrogance and abrasiveness. This sin is a disguise for insecurity, and it gains energy from the fears of others—fear of being wrong, fear of failure, fear of rejection, and fear of being humiliated. Attempting to demonstrate your knowledge or your power by displaying your anger or showing a total disregard for others is to confuse decisive leadership with your ego.

6. Whine. This sin is committed by people who just are not taking responsibility for their lives. People who are always complaining, always expecting the worst outcome for every event, always believing that nothing’s ever right, and constantly criticizing their workplace, their coworkers, and their own lives are playing the role of something between a victim and a martyr. While using this behavior may provide you with sympathy, you may also be viewed as immature and unable to handle increased responsibilities.

7. Proving you are right, no matter how hard you must push. If you have lived in a “right/wrong” system, being “right” was the equivalent of being good, and not being right (or being “wrong”) was the equivalent of being bad. If you believe that all your value and worth is tied to your being right, then being wrong destroys your self-esteem. The result is that you push to be right, even when you are wrong.

Peer-Level Office Politics—Unhealthy Competition

In my coaching practice, I often see examples of the Seven Deadly Sins—sometimes from the recipient’s perspective, and sometimes from that of the perpetrator. I have found that, regardless of the emotional reasons behind these sins, the results are usually the same: If your reaction to office politics shows you to be abrasive, whiny, arrogant, blaming, egotistical, or a gossip, you will be perceived as a difficult employee, and you will probably lose your job, especially during a merger, acquisition, or downsizing. Here is an example of several of the Seven Deadly Sins in action:

Julie was a superstar regional vice president of sales in a Midwestern telecom company. After a round of layoffs, the company rewarded Julie by expanding her sales region, leaving her with fourteen states to cover—and she was thrilled.

As the economy improved and business increased, the company decided to add an additional regional VP to the sales staff and peel a few states from Julie’s roster.

Ann accepted the new position of regional VP, including relocation from her Oregon home base to Chicago. When she arrived, her new boss assigned Julie to show Ann the ropes, introduce her around, and help make her transition into her new job, new company, and new city as easy as possible.

For Julie, having fewer states to cover meant fewer sales, and fewer sales meant lower commissions. Julie did not support an addition to the sales staff (although she never discussed her opinion with anyone—Sin 4). Julie was also uncomfortable with the threat of a new hotshot, and she became aggressive—even hostile—toward Ann (Sins 5 and 7). Julie eavesdropped on Ann’s phone conversations and client meetings by standing near her office door, rifled through her office when she was out, created a wedge between Ann and the shared administrative staff, and even hacked into Ann’s computer after hours to see what she was working on and with whom (Sins 1 and 2). Julie wanted Ann out, and she was willing to do whatever it took to make Ann go away.

Julie could have taken control of her reputation and achieved career success by joining forces with Ann, leading to improved status as both a hotshot and a team player. Instead, she ended up with a 30-day notice to improve, a severely tarnished reputation, and a need to rebuild multiple relationships as well as her personal credibility.

Office Politics and Teamwork

It is true that office politics can be used by the duplicitous as a way to force their career advancement, but office politics can also be leveraged by savvy professionals with strong boundaries in support of a healthy set of shared values.

When they are constructive, positive internal political structures are a great way to learn about the true power sources, to get a sense of the unspoken goals and direction of the team or company, and, for the purpose of making a valuable contribution, to get a sense of your new boss’s behavior and goals.

Positive Office Politics: Use Your Powers for Good, Luke

Luke was a director-level controller for an up-and-coming software development firm. He had been diligent in honoring his value of continuous learning; one of the first things he did was to find a peer-mentor in the management team. This was not easy for Luke, since he was somewhat shy; nonetheless, he asked the director of operations if she would be his internal mentor, and she agreed. They began by meeting once per week to get to know each other, to learn their mutual goals and interests, and to clarify corporate goals and objectives. After a few weeks, they began to invite a different member of the senior leadership team to join them for lunch each week. These luncheons were ad hoc; there was no real agenda, other than to find out what was important to each VP within the team.

Luke and his mentor often met during the week between their luncheons for “drop-in” discussions where they talked about everything—new initiatives, the economy, trends in the industry, and the goals and objectives of the organization.

At one of their leadership luncheons, Luke learned from the CFO that a new VP of logistics position was being created, and that the CFO thought Luke was the right person for the job.

After only 11 months as controller, Luke was promoted to a VP position. He was in the right place at the right time, and he created that scenario by leveraging the culture of his organization—again, office politics.