My Thoughts
Office Politics Isn't the Problem. Your Approach Is.
Look, I'm going to say something that'll probably ruffle a few feathers: most people who complain about office politics are actually just bad at it.
There. I said it.
After nearly two decades watching businesses across Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth stumble through the same interpersonal dramas, I've come to realise that handling office politics isn't some dark art—it's a bloody essential business skill. And if you're not learning it, you're basically driving your career with the handbrake on.
The Myth of the Politics-Free Workplace
Every second week, some bright-eyed graduate walks into my office claiming they want to work somewhere "without all the politics." Mate, I've got news for you—that place doesn't exist. Even in a two-person startup, there's politics. It's called human nature, and unless you're planning to work with robots (which, let's face it, might be preferable some days), you better get comfortable with it.
The companies that claim to be "politics-free" are usually the worst offenders. They're like the person at a dinner party who announces they "don't do drama" right before starting an argument about the wine selection.
I remember working with a tech startup in Brisbane where the founder proudly declared his company was "different"—no hierarchy, no politics, just pure meritocracy. Three months later, I was called in to mediate a dispute between two developers who'd spent more time undermining each other than actually coding. Turns out, when you don't acknowledge politics exists, it just goes underground. And underground politics? That's where things get properly toxic.
What Most People Get Wrong About Office Politics
Here's where I see most people stuff it up completely: they think office politics is about being sneaky or manipulative. Wrong. Dead wrong.
Real office politics—the kind that actually works—is about understanding relationships, influence, and how decisions really get made. It's about recognising that your brilliant proposal might die on someone's desk not because it's bad, but because you didn't bother building support for it first.
Take Sarah (not her real name), a project manager I worked with in Adelaide. Brilliant strategist, absolutely useless at reading the room. She'd present these meticulously researched proposals to the executive team and then wonder why nothing ever happened. The problem? She completely ignored the fact that the CFO and CEO had a long-standing disagreement about budget allocation, and her proposals accidentally landed right in the middle of their ongoing cold war.
Once Sarah learned to navigate difficult conversations and understand the underlying dynamics, her success rate went through the roof. Same ideas, different approach.
The Australian Problem
We've got a particular challenge here in Australia. Our cultural preference for egalitarianism means we often pretend hierarchies don't matter. "Oh, just walk up to the CEO and tell them your idea!" Yeah, right. Try that at BHP or Telstra and see how far it gets you.
This tall poppy syndrome creates this weird situation where people engage in office politics constantly but refuse to admit it. We'll spend twenty minutes in the kitchen discussing why Janet's project got approved over ours, but heaven forbid we actually develop a strategy to position our next proposal better.
I was working with a mining company in Perth where the general manager genuinely believed everyone just spoke their mind freely in meetings. Meanwhile, his direct reports were having what I call "shadow meetings"—the real conversations happening in car parks and coffee shops after the official meeting ended. The cognitive dissonance was extraordinary.
The Three Types of Political Players
In my experience, there are three types of people when it comes to office politics:
The Naive: These folks genuinely believe hard work and good ideas automatically win. Bless them. They're usually the most frustrated people in any organisation because they can't understand why their obviously superior solution isn't being implemented.
The Machiavellian: These are the schemers, the ones who see every interaction as a chess move. They're exhausting to work with and usually create more problems than they solve. They give office politics a bad name.
The Politically Intelligent: These people understand the game but play it ethically. They build genuine relationships, understand stakeholder motivations, and know how to create win-win scenarios. These are the ones who actually get things done.
Guess which group tends to run companies?
Why This Matters More Than Ever
Remote work has made office politics even more critical, not less. When you're not sharing physical space, those casual relationship-building moments disappear. The people who understand how to build influence and maintain relationships across digital platforms are the ones thriving.
I've watched teams where the most technically competent person got passed over for promotion because they treated Zoom calls like data downloads instead of relationship-building opportunities. Meanwhile, the person who remembered to ask about people's weekends and actually listened to the answers? They're the ones getting the interesting projects.
Consider this: 67% of senior executives say political skills are more important than technical competence for leadership roles. (I made that statistic up, but it sounds about right, doesn't it?)
The Skills Nobody Teaches You
Here's what they don't teach in business school: how to read a room, how to build coalitions, how to disagree without creating enemies, how to give people credit in a way that builds your own influence.
I learned this the hard way early in my career when I corrected my boss in front of their boss during a client meeting. I was technically right about the project timeline, but politically? I might as well have set my career on fire. My boss never forgot that moment of public embarrassment, and it took months to rebuild that relationship.
The smartest move would have been to discuss it privately afterwards or find a way to raise the concern that didn't make anyone look foolish. Politics isn't about being dishonest—it's about being strategic with timing and context.
Building Your Political Intelligence
Start small. Pay attention to who talks to whom before meetings. Notice which projects get resources and which ones languish. Observe how successful people in your organisation communicate their ideas.
Most importantly, stop thinking about office politics as something dirty. It's just human dynamics at scale. And if you're going to spend 40+ hours a week navigating these dynamics, you might as well get good at it.
The alternative? Watching other people get promoted while you wonder why talent alone isn't enough.
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