Wander Woman

I ’ve been working in this place for like a year. For the first six months, things were fine – people were friendly, cordial and co operative. We had even managed to become ‘friends’. Then the bitching started. Its difficult to imagine how people can badmouth you – and people whom you considered to be your friends. And what are the stakes? One step up? One increment ? A little closer to the top management? At the risk of sounding clichéd and unbelievably moralistic, I don’t really appreciate backbiting and it disgusts me to think that people whom I considered my friends indulge in this. SN bitched about ST to me and vice versa ( I never paid much attention. oh why didn’t i?). Now SN and ST have traded stories (behind my back . why am I surprised?), and are collaborating against me. Not that it matters anyway, because people themselves fall in the graves they dig for others. Not one for ambitious pseudo relationships, I see I have to cultivate just that.

The workplace is a jumble of many different personalities and they are always not clearly typified. For example the chatterbox may double up as the complainer or the gossip may turn into the credit-grabber by day end. It is understandable, everybody wants to get credit for all the things they have done and some things they haven’t. Work would be really great if it wasn’t for the people at office. If you think office politics is just about being ‘nice’ to people and that we don’t really need to bother about it , THINK AGAIN ! Office politics aren’t just for suck ups (though theres plenty of that too!), its about maintaining relationships. With most of us spending more than 8 hrs at work, the office is more or less like a second home. We have to make it comfortable for ourselves – and that means avoiding conflict situations with the people you are working with. . Conflicts assure that everybody is sucked into tunnel vision and focus on immediate differences. The immediate reaction is