Does anyone else here get frustrated by office politics?

As you may know I work for Discovery which is a HUGE international company but I'm based at a smaller company they own called Antenna. Antenna is lovely, the people are great and everyone knows everyone.

When I go to Discovery there's loads of bitching in the team and everyone is a stickler for 'procedures'. I've go by the philosophy of if it gets the job done and no big financial costs then just DO IT. We've got an American boss over at the moment and she goes by that too.

Yesterday I asked why Antenna staff have the VPN software and not Discovery staff. My colleague said it's because it takes 5 minutes per machine to update the registry and install the software. I was gobsmacked!! 5 whole minutes - wow So they're stopping people working remotely accessing email and the servers with ease because it would take a little time to install? I install it on all machines and it's no problem at all. I was working on the mac for a lady I worked with 13 years ago (I know - madness) and I just gave her the software. Was a quick 2 minutes install and she quickly picked up how to use it. She was SO pleased and I got that warm feeling inside because I'd made someone's work life a bit easier.

There I feel better now

I'm quite lucky I suppose, Speedo is a global company, but we're like a huge family, so although there is a bit of sniping and back-biting occasionally, for the most part people have it out, we're encouraged to challenge procedures that we think are bonkers, and we have a very cooperative attitude because the company is physically only small, 165 employees on site.

Sometimes we have trouble with the Asia side of the business, but they are really flexible, and everyone is open to "feedback" sessions so they get worked out quite quickly, I've only come up against one thing so far that is a dogmatic issue, but the entire Admin team is working on changing that culture. I have worked in places before where people played the "Corporate Game" but I always refused to play and so people stopped trying to involve me. I was surprised that the Nationwide is the place where it was the worst, not sure why it surprised me, it is a financial institution after all, but I always had the impression (before working there) that it was very open and honest, whiter than white.

Everywhere I've worked everyone has bitched about everyone else. I try to ignore it.

You ladies are lucky. Linux, where do you work?

The smallest company I worked for was 5 people including me. That was my last job (as a telecomms engineer). There was still politics, because the two directors (old friends from a previous job set up together) didn't like spending money and obviously didn't have a great amount of resource within the company. Yet they were both personally wealthy. However, as people, I got on with them both and still pop in every now and again. It was a lovely vibe overall and in some ways I wish I hadn't left.

The largest place I've worked was Natwest before, during and after the RBS takeover. We completed the largest IT integration project in the history of the world in a day once. Whilst it was very corporate at Natwest, RBS was a whole new level of [LIFTED]. Politics was rife at Natwest, but your team in your branch was what mattered most and some of my best work days were spent in a team of 3 running St. Ives during the summer. Great town, great vibe, great girls. Happiness

Caz, I wholeheartedly agree with your viewpoint. The time, money and energy it takes to cost things and be procedurally correct, often defeats the object IMO. What you need is people in decision-making positions to either:
a) have a clue; or
b) have staff they can trust to guide them without it being a free-for-all.

In my experience, both of these situations are entirely rare. Of course, the more people you have in a company (or any group for that matter), the more bickering and [LIFTED] you have. Take Methodism, or the Death Star, or the British government.

So in answer to your question, yes, I get very frustrated by office politics. As much, in fact, as I get about politics in general.

Glad you feel better though

Sadly, the Peter Principle still applies. Especially in the techy field, where you get techies who rise to management jobs despite having no management skills/ social skills / empathy with anything that doesn't have a keyboard (I'm mention no names at this point).

You have to have techies doing techy stuff and specialist managers managing them. However this does mean that the techy career path tends to cut off, because most businesses seem to be of the opinion that telling someone else to do specialised technical work should be paid more than actually doing specialised technical work. I've never understood that one.

As for office politics, we have the reverse of that at the mo. We've just been through a big round of hiring and firing and as a result, most of the people in the building now don't actually know many of the people they don't directly work with. Morale seems to have actually suffered - there's little sense of 'community' in the place any more. I think a little bit of office bitching can actually serve a viable purpose in that sense, it's part of how we interact and associate with each other. Course, it can go way too far and Caz's example strikes me as plain bloody-minded laziness using procedure as an excuse to do sod all. I can't imagine that's uncommon.

Jon

The guy who told me that is very knowledgable in lots of things and I have worked very closely with him the last 3 years. Mostly I listen to what he says but everyone in the team is kicking against him now and including me especially since the boss lady from the US said 'just do it'.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Very glad I work on my own though most of the time and don't have to work with the other guys on a day to day basis. Although it is great to know there is a large IT department that can help me when I need it

My Boss is a total knob. He seems to spend all his time posting on X404 or using Facebook.

I do so hate office politics, and it's one of the reasons I could never work for a large organisation.

+1

I could do without people who 'tout' (tell) on other people, the length of an internal phone call for example, just to make themselves feel good. At least, I'm guessing that's the reason, cos why else would you care if it wasn't affecting your work? Nothing like that has happened to me thankfully

I have to say, in my current line of employment, the men are as bad as the women in that sense, but the women in this place are ridiculously bitchy in general

I used to until I found that I could throw in a comment and let the politicians argue amongst themselves. As far as 'head in the sand ICT policies' go, this authority promotes homeworking but won't open up links to servers for fear of an attack. Furthermore, they steadfastly refuse to offer broadband saying that dial-up is sufficient for e-mail purposes E-planning has done nothing to open their views any

Al

One of the best bits of being a contractor - you get to avoid most of it

I work part time so I get to avoid that crap at work - it gets really bitchy at NXEC!

I think politics is rife in any organisation with any amount of people. I'm president of the Opera Society - something which should just be good fun - but I spend most of my time organising people and events on the grounds of politics and settling disputes without confronting people...

Now imagine if money was being dealt with too!

+1

Although I am a permanent employee, (employed by Manpower direct supporting IBM on the Friends Provident contract) I am still a classed as a contractor, which suits me fine. I just don't get involved in office politics anymore. My philsophy is to smile and walk away

Local Authority is the same. Office politics, 'in' crowds, favourites, usless people keeping jobs going unpunished, ineffective management, back stabbing, blah blah blah.

Those among you who have named large organisations might want to consider editing out those names. Otherwise some of you could find yourselves experiencing additional unwanted office politics thanks to the activities of 'reputation management' teams at external PR companies.

The worst politics and in fighting I have ever witnessed was in a supermarket. Those checkout girls can get really riled at each other.