10/28/2006
Kill Your Career or Sell Your Soul?
In this Kiplinger article, one of the stated career killers is avoiding office politics.
While I generally view office politics as a negative thing, there are, of course, pluses to dabbling in it. Getting in with the upper powers-that-be can be beneficial to your career. Just be careful what you agree to or the information that you give away. Just because you want to advance your career does not give you license to throw others under the bus.
For me, I just see way too many downsides to it. It’s far too easy to fall in to disfavor with those powers-that-be. Once that happens, it’s too late to have any redeeming value – even if you do a great job.
Is it fair? Of course not, but that’s not the point. There is no such thing as fairness in business.
Tomorrow I’ll tell you a story about someone who continually tries to redeem themselves in the eyes of their superiors – often to the chagrin of their coworkers.
While I generally view office politics as a negative thing, there are, of course, pluses to dabbling in it. Getting in with the upper powers-that-be can be beneficial to your career. Just be careful what you agree to or the information that you give away. Just because you want to advance your career does not give you license to throw others under the bus.
For me, I just see way too many downsides to it. It’s far too easy to fall in to disfavor with those powers-that-be. Once that happens, it’s too late to have any redeeming value – even if you do a great job.
Is it fair? Of course not, but that’s not the point. There is no such thing as fairness in business.
Tomorrow I’ll tell you a story about someone who continually tries to redeem themselves in the eyes of their superiors – often to the chagrin of their coworkers.
