Tag: workplace

Office politics. But here's the thing: When we're talking about office politics, all we're really talking about are the unspoken rules of influence that exist in every organization. If you work in your average professional environment, you can't get things done without influence. Those who do the latter are what give office politics a bad name. Once you have a better understanding of how that influence is attained, you have every ability to use that power in a way that is ethical, above board, and to create much better relationships with the people you're working with. People use office politics for these things all the time - we just don't notice them as much as the negative because we're more likely to give our attention to the things we don't like, rather than the things we do. At the end of the day, it's nothing more than adapting your behavior to get the best outcome out a specific situation at work, and hopefully that's an outcome that helps you make progress towards your most important goals. Each day this week, I'm going to publish a new article outlining my five principles of office politics to help you understand and navigate the psychology of the human workplace. Understand their work style will help you adapt to them. At the end of the week, you'll have a playbook that you can use to up your office politics games and use the power for good, not for evil.

A recent study by Randstad U.S. shows that the political climate is impacting stress at work as well as employee engagement and retention. Randstad U.S. found that 64% of people say political discussions at work have grown more heated over the past five to 10 years and 72% feel stressed or anxious when heated arguments occur. Here are a few ways to navigate the stress of politics in the workplace: Get clear on your work When things get heated, minimize other common causes of job stress and burnout. More than 35% of employees say they don’t know what’s expected of them at work. The power of sleep is one of the many reasons I’m so passionate about bridging the gap between sleep and career development in the theory and practice of career coaching. Think about how the disagreement relates to an area of your career development plan. If you don't have a career development plan, then it's time to get one to give yourself direction for the remainder of the year and into 2019. Working with a coach is an efficient way to develop self-concepts and research how your values align with company values. Heated political discussions can also turn individuals into office bullies and even cause you to feel undermined. The goal of career burnout coaching is to help you address your cause of burnout by implementing coping mechanisms that are proven to improve the way you think, feel and perform at work.

The data showed that while almost half of respondents enjoy talking politics with colleagues because it helps them understand other viewpoints, 53% admit they limit social interactions with co-workers who have differing political beliefs. Audra Jenkins, chief diversity and inclusion officer for Randstad North America said that the study showed that the topic of politics itself is extremely divisive in the workplace. Without a strategy in place, organizations run the risk of impacting their diversity and inclusion initiatives by creating another barrier that limits the diversity of thought.” The survey found that over half of employees had witnessed heated political discussions or arguments at work and over a third have been involved in them. The survey also found that differences in political viewpoints whether expressed online or in person can be alienating and damage workplace camaraderie. Forty-three percent have at least one colleague whose political views don’t align with their own and have felt excluded at work as a result. So how can managers create a culture of tolerance and respect in an organization of employees with wildly differing political opinions? Jenkins says that banning political discussions outright in the workplace is neither appropriate nor realistic. Fifty-eight percent of employees wouldn’t interview at companies that publicly promoted political beliefs they didn’t support. Just over a third of employees would take pay cuts to move to companies that promoted causes aligned with their political values. Sixty-seven percent of millennials say they’d quit their jobs over political differences with their bosses versus just 15% of 50- to 64-year-olds.

I am constantly subjected to political conversations and remarks — and most of my co-workers have political views very different from mine. I always felt and was taught that political conversations do not belong in the work place, and that one should definitely not bring those topics up with colleagues (or people in general) you don’t know well. Meanwhile, a separate survey by Peakon, an employee analytics firm, found that more than a third of American workers avoid talking politics with colleagues altogether, to avoid disputes or discomfort. So if human resources or management is simply blowing this off, they’re making a mistake. If even one of your colleagues gets it and agrees, try to make that person your ally in minimizing these discussions in your presence. It might also help your cause if you can put up with some political commentary from time to time, so you don’t come across as trying to stifle others — you would just really appreciate more conversational variety. If that just doesn’t work, you should bring the issue to the attention of H.R. or a manager, and explain the problem: You don’t begrudge anybody their opinions, but this situation has gotten stressful enough that it’s having a negative impact. This doesn’t mean that your employer can, or should even attempt to, simply silence your partisan colleagues altogether. It makes no difference how weak or ineffective the person’s direct manager is.