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Office Conflict Essay

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Office politics are an inevitable part of every organization and are often acknowledged by employees when it is seen in action, yet many find it difficult to define. It is critical to not only recognize office politics, but to know when it will be beneficial to participate. Often, office politics are seen as something negative. However, this may not necessarily be the case. By using a few unwritten rules, one can win at office politics and hopefully advance in their career objectives. This paper will discuss the unwritten rules of office politics and how I respond to them in my work environment. Rule number one in office politics is to never do anything that will permanently anger or demean anyone that will help you in the advancement of …show more content…

This ensures that she is not standing in front of any senior personnel explaining why she did not follow through with a direct order. Rule number two is to “open your eyes and ears but keep your mouth shut”. Office politics take place at all levels of an organization and therefore does not eliminate the high end employees of an organization. I often see a certain supervisor that leaves early, comes in late every day, takes extended lunches, and does not document his timesheet accordingly. Yet, he will conduct a written counseling on any of his employees on their first occurrence. Most people assume that because they are supervisors that they come to work on time and take their lunches according to their lunch schedules. This is not always the case. I could play the office politics game and start broadcasting this certain supervisor’s behavior to other employees. Instead, I choose to observe and not contribute to his unethical behavior. This leads me to rule three of office politics, “even if a person chooses not to actively participate in office politics, that person's behavior and workplace behaviors are shaped by existing office politics”. A better example of this would be if a coworker was having an affair with someone in another department and everyone in the office knew about it. The unwritten rule of office politics would probably dictate that this is not my concern as long as it does not affect the person’s workplace performance. Although

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