Office politics

It’s all a big game really. All these so-called managers and senior managers and their ilk, really, all they do is to play politics. Been having some ghastly run-ins with them lately and it’s really turning me off.

Firstly, have had senior managers approving presentations in private, and when the presentation got shot down in public, these people just look out the window and pretend don’t know. When in fact they already approved it and now in the face of public criticism, they slink away and wash their hands off it and let us get shot. This is a fine example of lead by example, people leadership, desired behaviour etc and other key words currently being bandied around. Secondly, have had senior manager plot and plan 95% of the presentation, with his fingerprints written all over it, and when present to the Director, and the director shoots holes all over it, he twiddles his thumbs, sits back, looks out the window, and lets ME take the blame/fall for it, when in fact his fingerprints were all over 95% of the presentation. And he had the guts to turn to me and say ‘see Alex? That’s right. Dato is right. You should have done it this way that way just like Dato says. I told you what. Why you never do?’ etc. OMG.

And then, there was that recent instance of heavy politics being played out where senior managers tried to use me as a pawn for them to play up their own visibility and simply poke weak holes. At the end of the day, they claim and say they want the truth, but they cannot handle the truth. When we give the truth, they go all haywire and go mad and bark like crazy. What they want to hear is what they want to hear. If they don’t hear that, they will keep jumping on you until you say what they want to hear. And they do not have the gumption or balls to speak the truth.

Now, they are trying to use extremely flimsy, subjective and weak excuses to deny someone dear to me the promotion she so richly deserves. If you look at her technical competencies and achievements, real hard deliverables, she has done above and beyond what the company claims it wants. And just because some hotshot upstairs took a personal and subjective bias against her, now all the senior managers are scrambling to nitpick/exaggerate/stretch the truth to finagle some sort of justification for the director’s claims, just to appease the aforementioned director and save their own asses. No one has the balls to stand up for her. And when shit happens, everyone slinks off and lets her be the fall guy. How can these people sleep at night? How can they call themselves good Muslims or Christians or whatever? And you wouldn’t believe some of the petty things they pick at. And it is extremely subjective. In fact, the bias is so clear when you compare what they say about her against her peers, who demonstrate the same ‘weaknesses’ which are left unchecked or heeded.

So…senior management and managers…it’s a game. Play it smart and with a clear conscience. Do what we got to do.