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Whispers in the corridors of Whitehall

Study finds office politics at its most rife in the civil service (and lowest in the legal sector). From Robert Stewart, consulted leading psychologist at uCheck.
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Study finds office politics at its most rife in the civil service (and lowest in the legal sector). From Robert Stewart, consulted leading psychologist at uCheck.

Whispers by the water cooler, a quick gossip as the kettle boils, or a raised eyebrow in a meeting: we’ve all experienced office politics at work. Our colleagues, the people we often spend more time with than our own friends and family, can become our closest allies, where discreet chats about the accounts department being late for work again, underpin our daily work routine.

Delving deeper into the office politics of business sectors throughout the UK, to find out which industry harboured the highest levels of hushed conversations. They also wanted to see how people felt about office politics: is it something to avoid at all costs or a tactic to help you get ahead at work? The survey of 1,500 respondents firstly asked whether people felt that office politics existed in their workplace. The results of the survey found that the civil service had the highest rate of office politics (78 percent according to employees in that sector), followed by advertising (77 percent) and engineering (also 77 percent). According to the survey, it’s the legal sector that has the lowest levels of office politics (57 percent), followed by tourism (60 percent) and the retail sector (62 percent).

You can see the full breakdown of business sectors and levels of office politics using this handy infographic. So, should civil service workers be avoiding the water cooler or making an active beeline for it? Workers were asked whether they thought joining in with office politics would help them gain promotions, and surprisingly, over a third answered yes. Interestingly, however, when broken down by gender, the survey found that the majority of workers holding this view were men (72 percent).

Following in a similar suit, nearly a third of survey respondents felt that office politics can be a positive phenomenon in the work place, 59 percent holding this view were, again, men. Furthermore, almost half of workers felt that getting involved in office politics was unavoidable, however when separated by gender it was pretty close; 48 percent of women believing they could avoid office politics if they wanted to, compared to 52 percent of men.

It may appear surprising that such a considerable number of people find office politics unavoidable, however, it is worth considering that standing around the water cooler discussing colleagues doesn’t stray too far from our evolution, albeit with watercoolers replaced with waterholes and colleagues with predators. People have a natural tendency to want to find their position within a group or tribe, so office politics becomes an inherent part of the work environment. People can often feel that if colleagues are engaging in talk around others, that they can become the object of the topic unless they become complicit. Thus to be part of the in-group, they feel it a necessity to become involved. Often others will seek their opinions on colleagues, thus leaving the individual with little choice but to voice their thoughts.

Whilst one would hope that a mutual respect would exist between all colleagues working under the same roof, we are human and possess a number of biases and judgements regarding others. Equality within the workplace is a key part of well-being and strongly correlated with high states of satisfaction and subsequent productivity. However, when we perceive an injustice, office politics and comments on others becomes inevitable, regardless of whether we have the full picture or not.

Many are also cognisant of the fact that progression at work isn’t purely correlated with competence, for many work is still a social club with the most popular players progressing the fastest. Because of this, it’s likely that the perception of engaging in office politics could assist one in their career. However, this should be considered very carefully, for whatever words are spoken explicitly, many more judgements are made by others implicitly and reputations can be impacted. Once you are known for speaking badly of others, it can become very difficult to rebuild your reputation. A few poorly chosen words can last a career.

When thinking about office politics and how to manage it, consider the longer-term outcome. A small conversation may benefit you there with that person, but the longer-term impact of others judgements of you will be much more damaging. Prepare yourself a script; “I can see your point, but it’s really not my place to comment etc. You may receive the cold shoulder or feel silly, but your reputation will soon become consistent as the person who doesn’t engage in office politics and therefore is more trustworthy. Living by a specific set of valued behaviours will benefit you more than any.

www.ucheck.co.uk

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