“Office politics” is one of those phrases that used to make me groan. I worked in an office from the time I was a freshman in college until I quit my job last year, and let me tell you, I had my fill. I dealt with situations that would make our presidential candidates wince, and I tried many approaches to deal with it, such as pretending to be completely oblivious to it (a very bad idea, by the way).
But I had one boss, the best manager I’ve ever had, who was great at the game. She’s the one who taught me how to do things like keep a brag folder and remind a senior manager 10 different ways that she still hadn’t approved a proposal. In fact, she was so diplomatic and professional that one of the only “negative” things I heard about her was “she gets along with everyone.” (Yes, she was being bad-mouthed for not taking sides.)
I learned many valuable lessons from this manager, and I came away with a much different understanding of office politics.