Comment by xvector
15 hours ago
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.
15 hours ago
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.
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.
It also comes that the well-compensated people are probably that because they know how to advocate for their worth, which usually includes a list of things they will tolerate and a list they will not, whereas "market rate" is just happy to be there and more inclined to go along with, ya know, whatever.
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.