Office politics is inevitable. The elementary reason behind workplace politics is dominating psychology of human resources. The melodrama of workplace politics begins when there is a comparison between what people want and what organization wants. People are emotional entities and juggle between their subconscious desires and insecurities. Even, the great American writer Dale Carnegie quoted, “When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic but creatures of emotions”.

Office politics damages the harmony of an organizational culture by overshadowing explicit organizational roles and confiscate crucial organizational systems, fabricating easy functions complicated and tiring and organization non-productive.The matter of fact is: there will always be people who are shrewd, will always find reasons to argue and play blame games either in disguise or contrarily. But, there are ways to create a positive work environment. 

Below are some suggestions that can be practiced to sail in the storm:

Understand the psyche of people around

It is imperative to apprehend the people you are working with: to know what inspires them, what makes them happy, what are their aspirations, and their thoughts about organization. This information will not be served to you on a platter. You have to carefully assemble and analyze this information. The best way is to listen. When you listen to your co-workers, you will be able to develop their confidence in you within a short span of time. The more you listen, the more you understand their psyche. This way, you can effortlessly deal with them.

Maintain clarity

A lot of time people presume that information is concealed and they start murmuring. In order to avoid politics pitching in or junk news floating around because of supposed mistrust among partners, conduct a meeting. At workplace, you should always encourage transparency, which plays a vital role in minimizing the misunderstandings within a team. Make sure people are familiar with the important discussions and they don’t feel left out. Also, you should motivate people to bring forward their thoughts rather than hearing news spreading around.

Document your work

When you are a victim of co-workers political gimmick such as taking credit for your work, it’s essential not to reciprocate. At this point of time, you might feel like exposing the culprit – your co-worker or boss openly, but that’s not the right approach to deal with the situation. Stay calm and document your work to the minutest detail and let your boss or co-worker know what you are doing and what have you done. This way you’re proving your productivity when your work morality is questioned by others.

Don’t get personal

There will be times when your co-workers will try to defame you or degrade you. At this time, you will get angry with people and will feel urge to teach them a lesson and give them a piece of mind. But this should never be done. This can backfire at you. It is imperative to hold your temper and act calmly in such situations. The best way is to have to a conversation in private and develop an understanding as to why they reacted in such a way rather than accusing them or humiliating them in public. This will compel them to cogitate about their actions.

Reachout to HR

The HR’s departments’ duty is to make sure all employees are happy and gratified and are not facing any discomfort. If you think that even after having made all the attempts made to pacify the situation, there is no resolution and you want to contend to your principles, then involving HR is the best move. There could be several ways to reach out to HR- a deferential oral or written complaint, depending on the situation but in a manner which can be used as proof for future reference. Also, you can reach out anonymously to let them know about the situation.

Office politics is generally seen as something that has adverse effects on the people in an organization. The more you conceive about the political environment of your organization in terms of people in power and the political groups that they belong to— the greater you can downplay the negative repercussions while maximizing the positive benefits.