Taking One for the Commons
“Office Politics” — while not specifically a misnomer — is not quite the ideal term for a lot of what goes on in an office. The political part almost solely deals with attempting to manipulate (in the value-neutral sense of the word) the forces that distribute scarce resources among viable recipients.
Office politics are efficient up to a point at which one of two governing conditions breaks down: (1) the allocating forces lack the ability to use the incremental information generated by the politics to reach an optimal solution, or (2) politics consume so many resources amongst the players that incrementally more efficient resource allocation cannot compensate for the productivity loss.
Of course, it falls on the leadership to maintain the first condition. And, the second condition would not arise unless the players believe the additional effort will yield more results than simple effort and accomplishment.
The rest has virtually nothing to do with all this and involves not stepping on toes. This can almost be likened to one of our beloved voting-style reality television shows. These almost always provide a blend of two major factors to determine outcome: individual achievement and popular opinion. Failing to achieve puts one in a sort of “hot seat.” But being disliked generally makes the final decision.
So, a reasonable way to look at things is that your reputation and likability effectively buffer you from occasional lapses in performance. Leadership sets the tone for how much positioning occurs in an organization, but in the end our decision to be trustworthy, likeable, and kind may in fact shield against being targeted by those very political forces.
Why did I think of all this nonsense? Somebody left a coffee on the automatic coffee machine’s little drain deck, and I finally decided after a few hours of waching it turn gelatinous that I would be the one to pour the thing out and get it out of the way. People were reluctant to do this all day, apparently. Maybe because they were afraid the owner would show up and feel slighted by such an action.
One positive thing about the working world is that in general people tend to recognize the value of being reasonable and nice. It’s almost endearing when silliness like the cesspool coffee cup occurs, because it shows how conscious people are of possibly offending someone.
Or, nobody wanted to bother running it down the drain.
We’ll never know. But I hope everyone enjoys the de-tragified Commons.