Best Ways To Deal With Office Politics and Hysteria
Avoid Office Hysteria for Good Health and Career
Starting a new job in an office is one good way to start a career and to learn new skills to bounce you up the ladder of improvement and better living standards. However, offices, retail shops, and all kinds of businesses can be boiling pots of politics that waste everyone's time and energy. Avoid contact with such behaviors.
Because of group dynamics, peer pressure, and office politics, an office job can deteriorate into something lonely, discouraging, and overly dramatic. It can become damaging to self and health.
You will find that many people have not moved on past the middle school or high school mentality. As a result, the grown-up office experience is more than they can handle. It is always best to avoid getting involved with office politics. Stay neutral and others will hopefully leave you alone. Or, all sides may gang up on you, so be prepared to handle that.
If you are entering a career in an office setting that is already full of immaturity and drama, you can do these things to avoid involving yourself:
How to Avoid Office Politics - Disengage!
Don't take the nonsense personally. Don't get involved. Eventually, you will become a target, especially if you are good in your job and don't favor any "political" sector at work. You will at sometime become the next victim of hysteria aimed you way. Rather than accept the role of victim, just ignore it. Disengage yourself whenever someone tries to draw you into conversations or actions that will involve you in nonsense. When people look at you funny, just walk away. Never try to put an end to it, because such efforts will fuel the fires of hysteria. Withdraw you energies to someplace more suitable and productive.
Bring headphones and an iPod or Walkman. Listen to music or talk shows as you work and stay productive, ignoring distractions. You can also enjoy music you love during work time. This will force people that would otherwise try to engage you in chatter to find a different way to communicate with you. Hopefully, t they will disturb your work only if it's something important.
Use headphones and an iPod at work is possible.
Identify the gossipers. for success at work and a calmer life, you should observe office behaviors and interactions during your first few days on the job and see whether there are a couple of workers that instigate problems.
Once you have all that sorted out confidently, avoid those people or at least avoid social interactions with them.
Don't talk to them, don't socialize with them, don't eat lunch with them, don't ride the elevator with them, and certainly don't go out for alcoholic drinks with them. If you are caught in a social situation with them. stay engaged with other people.
At company parties, ignore them. Prevent them from having any but the most minute first-hand knowledge about you. Retain some privacy and then anything gossipy they say about you will be groundless.
Let your Yes be Yes and your No be No. Get your story straight. Openly let all your coworkers know from the start of your first day on the job that you aren't interested in trivial details.
Always be to the point and "all business", though cordial, so that everyone will know you aren't into drama and will not participate in it. Your supervisor and boss will then see you as a potential promotional candidate for leadership.
Have fun in healthy ways. Don't let the drama queens get you down.
Stay out of office politics, but talk with co-workers that are mature and levelheaded. Go out, have fun, and get to know them. When it comes time to spread rumors, stay out of it.
If someone asks you if you know what the latest story is, just say you don't know and don't want to know.
Don't let the drama queens get you down!
"Don't Chat!"
"Gossip"
Dictionary
gos·sip (gŏs'əp)
noun
- Rumor or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature.
- A person who habitually spreads intimate or private rumors or facts.
- Trivial, chatty talk or writing.
- A close friend or companion.
- Chiefly British. A godparent.
SYNONYMS gossip, blab, tattle. These verbs mean to engage in or communicate idle, indiscreet talk: gossiping about the neighbors; can't keep a secret-he always blabs; is disliked for tattling on mischief-makers.
Thesaurus:
gossip noun verb To engage in or spread gossip: blab, noise, rumor, talk, tattle, tittle-tattle, whisper. Idioms: tell tales, tell tales out of school.
© 2007 Patty Inglish MS