Comment by Nextgrid
18 hours ago
Office politics happen when people determine they can get more money by engaging in politics instead of working. This is just an indicator people aren't being paid enough money (since people politicking around is detrimental to the company, it is better off paying them whatever it takes for them not to engage in such behavior). "You get what you pay for" applies yet again.
Politicking is just group dynamics. In large companies people engage in politics because it becomes necessary to accomplish large things.
Of course a group can also have bad actors but that’s not really an issue with politics specifically. Politics are neither good nor bad.
> In large companies people engage in politics because it becomes necessary to accomplish large things.
At a large company, your job after a certain level depends on your “impact” and “value delivered”. The challenge is getting 20 other teams to work on your priorities and not their priorities. They too need to play to win to keep their job or get that promotion.
For software engineering, “impact” or “value delivered” are pretty much always your job unless you work somewhere really dysfunctional that’s measuring lines of code or some other nonsense. But that does become a lot about politics after some level.
I would not say it’s about getting other people aligned with your priorities instead of theirs but rather finding ways such that your priorities are aligned. There’s always the “your boss says it needs to help me” sort of priority alignment but much better is to find shared priorities. e.g. “We both need X; let’s work together.” “You need Foo which you could more easily achieve by investing your efforts into my platform Bar.”
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Politics is just what happens when three or more humans get together. It's an inescapable part of human nature.
Hard disagree, most of my coworkers make well north of $1M and office politics is at an all time high.
I believe office politics happens when there are simply too many people at a company or org.
What industry is that, if I may ask?
Office politics happen when the number of people at an office exceeds 2
Exceeds 1. Politics is the craft of influence. And, debatably, there's a politic even when population size=1, between your subconscious instinctive mind (eat the entire box of donuts) versus your conscious mind (don't spike your blood sugar).
I think too many people happens because a company would rather hire 10 "market rate" people than 3 well-compensated ones. Headcount inflation dilutes responsibility and rewards, so even if one of the "market rate" guys does the best work possible they won't get rewarded proportionally... so if hard work isn't going to get them adequate comp, maybe politics will.
Alternatively, companies hire multiple subject domain experts, and pay them handsomely.
The experts believe they've been hired for the value of their opinions, rather than for being 'yes-people', and have differing opinions to each other.
At a certain pay threshold, there are multiple peoples who's motivation is not "how do I maximise my compensation?" and instead is "how do I do the best work I can?" Sometimes this presents as vocal disagreements between experts.
There is definitely also a manager dick-measuring contest based on headcount, going on in large orgs.
> a company would rather hire 10 "market rate" people than 3 well-compensated ones
The former is probably easier. They don't have to justify or determine the salaries, and don't have to figure out who's worth the money, and don't have to figure out how to figure that out.
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Parkinson's law of organizations clearly explains why orgs grow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law
I believe incompetence is the key. When someone cannot compete (or the office does not use yardstick that can be measurable) politics is the only way to get you up.
Switch to what Nobel prize to man instead of the woman who do the work … sometimes. Take the credit and get the promotion.
It's a question of what you want to invest your time in. Everyone creates output, whether it's lines of code, a smoke screen to hide your social media time, or a set of ongoing conversations and perceptions than you have a use in the organization.