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Help dealing with office politics

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Cannon_Ball1

I finished university last year having graduated in business studies. I applied to work at the head office of a top company and they started me off as a finance assistant. I thought I was good at office politics with my strategy being simply to work hard, keep my head down and not flaunt myself. But boy was I wrong. Help!

I am targeted by about half of my team with passive aggressive abuse just ambiguous enough to leave me without anything solid to complain about. I also get ignored, given the silent treatment and they will randomly start laughing at me for normal comments. My team leader seems to be the ring leader although I could be wrong as the department manager behaves this way towards me too. The other half of the staff turn the other way so as not to be targeted themselves. And there is another one of me in the department getting the exact same treatment too.

In my opinion all my positive strengths - business degree, working hard, being friendly and sociable, being confident and strong willed, being professional with others, are what are making me the target. Also I'm more qualified than my team leader and department manager in management (but not in finance or accounting).

Obviously that paragraph is mostly my perception but after being there and tolerating this for almost 6 months I think its pretty accurate. There is also a history of long term sick in the department with the last one (the one I replaced) being off for over a year. I know with 100% certainty he quit because he couldn't take being ignored or given the silent treatment anymore.

Please can I have comments and advice. Particularly if you have been in a similar situation and started at a company with brutal office politics. Ideally I need to reverse this situation as the benefits side of this job are absolutely amazing.

I think its wrong to pretend to be negative, unsociable, unprofessional and to do the bare minimum work I can get away with. But by not doing it I just add to the perceived threat to their career ambitions or jobs that they see me as. Am I right here? Should I in fact lower myself and pretend to be these things? Something tells me they want me worse than them so they get the promotion not me (and yes, I'm not even after promotion, not until a couple of years down the line at least).

I have some ideas I've not tried:
1. Do a report on the team using my business studies degree on how to improve its performance and given it as a gift to my team leader to help him. And hopefully turn him into an ally.
2. Same as above but on the department and give it to my department manager. And hopefully turn him into an ally as well.

Giving genuine praise to staff (I haven't tried it with managers) doesnt work, in fact it gets a negative please dont make me a target reaction. I have watched some people come into the office and deal with the most negative ones by bringing them on board with them. By using me and the other one as the targets! With me I've heard comments such as he has a business degree, he is after your promotion or job, stuff like that. Its funny but stressful too.

Do I simply ignore it all and press on ahead. My gut instinct tells me with so many targeting me in the office (including the line manager and department manager) this is the wrong move. I'd probably turn up one day, get called into the office and told we no longer need your or something. My relationships with everyone else around the business are either positive or neutral.

Does anyone here have specialist HR advice on dealing with office politics they are willing to give me?

Finally let me say I've been resisting and doing the passive aggressive abuse thing back which I think was the wrong move. Obviously I haven't done anything they can have me for as I copied their tactic. This might well of made things worse so how do I repair this, stop myself being targeting without holding myself back in my career, and come out the winner a few years down the line?
 
Absolutely DO NOT do either of the 2 examples you give above of doing a report and gifting it to your team leader or department manager. That says - look you don't know what you are doing, but I do, so do it my way. You will be, rightly, taken apart.

You may be better qualified than others in your office. You may be better qualified than your managers. The fact that you mention it on here may be part of the problem - your attitude may reflect that you consider yourself better than them.

A newcomer, with a degree but little real experience, giving praise to colleagues is completely out of order. You are saying, again, that you are better than them.

Get on with your job, professionally and properly, and listen to your colleagues. Don't tell them what is wrong or what you would do better. Just do your job and ask them for advice if there is any doubt about what you should do.
 
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You want to do a report on the team/company and you think this will help your situation?

You can not be a better qualified manager, you are either a good manager or you are not. No amount of degrees will make you good at that. I agree with newchodge, the fact you have said it means you are thinking it and that could be coming across in the way you act.

Have you tried to play down your degree? ie you did itfor the uni life?
It may help if people think you are not after their jobs or to become their manager.

The last office I worked in I did not initially get brought in to the clique as I am fairly quiet and quite happy being on my own. Eventually as I got to know more and more people I became more involved and went out on more nights out with the team and department. Is there anyone in the team you get on with? Pay day drinks, maybe invite 1 or 2 of the others who are alright and get them alone without the ringleaders and break them down gradually.
 
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Newchodge said:
Absolutely DO NOT do either of the 2 examples you give above of doing a report and gifting it to your team leader or department manager. That says - look you don't know what you are doing, but I do, so do it my way. You will be, rightly, taken apart.

You may be better qualified than others in your office. You may be better qualified than your managers. The fact that you mention it on here may be part of the problem - your attitude may reflect that you consider yourself better than them.

A newcomer, with a degree but little real experience, giving praise to colleagues is completely out of order. You are saying, again, that you are better than them.

Get on with your job, professionally and properly, and listen to your colleagues. Don't tell them what is wrong or what you would do better. Just do your job and ask them for advice if there is any doubt about what you should do.
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OK, dont do the report.
I haven't been doing praise in a way that says I'm better than you are. I meant I'd say something like 'you sound good on the phone'.
I haven't given advice to anybody on anything, and I'm still learning so I always have to ask for input.
 
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tony84 said:
You want to do a report on the team/company and you think this will help your situation?

You can not be a better qualified manager, you are either a good manager or you are not. No amount of degrees will make you good at that. I agree with newchodge, the fact you have said it means you are thinking it and that could be coming across in the way you act.

Have you tried to play down your degree? ie you did itfor the uni life?
It may help if people think you are not after their jobs or to become their manager.

The last office I worked in I did not initially get brought in to the clique as I am fairly quiet and quite happy being on my own. Eventually as I got to know more and more people I became more involved and went out on more nights out with the team and department. Is there anyone in the team you get on with? Pay day drinks, maybe invite 1 or 2 of the others who are alright and get them alone without the ringleaders and break them down gradually.
Click to expand...

Sure, the half that turn their heads are all perfectly chatty and friendly on lunch breaks without the others around. And I have made friends across the business by just chatting to them in the canteen and getting to know them.

I don't play my degree up, in fact I've virtually not talked about it at all since I've been there. They know I have a degree though.

When I look on the internet sites on office politics I get conflicting advice. An example is to work my absolute hardest and produce results while waiting it out. Another saying use your knowledge to help your manager get ahead (why I thought of the report). Another saying leave now. There must be a specific way of me dealing with this situation that works.
 
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The way to deal with people like that is to stand up to them. Ive had it before and stood upto the person to find out what his problem was. Let people bully you and they will keep doing it knowing they can get away with it
 
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My personal opinion is to be vanilla. Dont try to do anything above and beyond unless asked - you look like you are brown nosing. If you say thats a good phone call or anything like that, it is almost like you are either trying too hard or worse you are being sarcastic.

Just go in, do your job, normal chat about football/xfactor/whatever is the hot topic, stick with the people you get on with and talk to them. You will either get to know the rest in time or you will never get on and thats life.
 
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Your degree is worthless, you saying "I'm more qualified than my managers" is the problem. You've just left the education system, welcome to the real world - which is you actually know nothing about being employed and office politics. You are the problem, not your work mate's or superiors. Accept your place at work (bottom rung) and learn.

Consider it like your driving test, your taught how to pass the exam but not taught how to actually drive in the real world, that only comes with experience, and a newly qualified driver is no where near as good a driver as someone with twenty years experience.
 
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I work in a finance department of ~60 people.

A degree in my department would not get you valued. You have to earn your value, and I find that it's the same in most organisations.

In a large organisation there are established people and established processes. Doing things like writing a report to improve things will make you look silly.
18 months in my role and I am still learning some of the systems. I wouldn't dream of doing a report off my own back and handing it to my manager who has worked there over 20 years.
Look at making small suggestions as they arise. Some of my 'small' suggestions have saved hours and hours of work each week.

If the new guy told me I had a good telephone manner, I'd think he was taking the piss.

Get your head down. Do the work asked. If you're quiet, find work. If you can't find work, ask your manager. Do your best to learn the organisation, its systems, its processes, its history, its industry ... seeing a theme?
 
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OK, I going to try a change and just go with the flow, I will see how it goes. No retaliating, just hard work.
 
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1. You are the new boy, you are going to get ragged. Live with it. If you don't like them apples, don't go to work, live in the woods and eat flies.

2. A degree ain't worth a bucket of warm spit. I scraped a poor 3rd at the LSE and EVERYBODY who works at my place is better qualified than I am. Some of them have degrees out of the ying-yang. That does not make them any smarter and it sure as hell don't make them any brighter! Some of the dumbest mother-f***ers had PhDs and some of the brightest and best had failed to finish school altogether.

3. Grow a f***ing pair! Stop whining and moaning about F-all! We had a guy off work with a heart attack at a company I work with. I hailed him with the words "Hey, they told me you were dead! I said 'Where is Brendan?' and they told me that I had totally missed your funeral!" He thought the whole episode was hilarious!

4. I love it when people make fun of me! At one company do, someone did a whole impersonation of me, including my Aspergers-driven twitching, the whole lot! It was merciless, but it was brilliant! Years later, I still laugh about that evening!
 
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japancool said:
It's strange. Here's a poster who also had a business degree with a story almost identical to yours.
http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/threads/odd-working-experience.363455/
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I thought of this immediately as well.

Anyway, to the OP, you either deal with it or you quit. It's as simple as that. In these situations, there's not a lot else you can do.

As the new guy, it's common to be teased a bit where you have to earn their respect first. However, there's no guarantee this will ever happen. You also have to know when to stand up for yourself.

That being said, you should also look at yourself. It's not necessarily your fault, but given some of what you've said in your thread, you may be coming across as a lot more cocky and know-it-all than you think. No matter where you go, you'll find that new employees fresh out of university acting like this will rub any experienced colleague up the wrong way.

Take this, for example:

With me I've heard comments such as he has a business degree, he is after your promotion or job, stuff like that. Its funny but stressful too.
Click to expand...

Have you mentioned to them that you have a business degree, perhaps more than once, by any chance?
 
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The OP may think he's superior to everyone in his office and knows more than they do, but reading this thread, I'm willing to bet good money that THIS is how he really appears to his work colleagues and most people reading this thread:


In a word OP - get over yourself. Start respecting your colleagues instead of looking down your nose at them and they might start respecting you instead of seeing you as someone who thinks rather too much of themselves with no justification other than a business degree.

No one who was REALLY confident and secure would feel the need to act passive-aggressively.
 
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Wait, so does the OP have a business degree, I think I missed that.

There's a guy at one of the places I work who gets the exact same treatment. Not because he's better than everyone else but because he thinks he is,,, he's not.
 
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A little bit of good ole' banter, you should join in and have a laugh and they might respect you. I have people take the mick out of me and I just laugh it off or encourage it by joining in and we at least have a good time - even at my expense.

Don't worry about it too much, have a laugh and where appropriate, have a little dig yourself, and you will be fine!
 
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Yes - you do sound as though you think you're more professional than you actually are. Nobody gives a stuff about your degrees as long as you a) get the job done b) don't make anybody elses life difficult and c) aren't a pain to be around.

Chill out, have a laugh and I guarantee your working environment will improve (unless you work at a bank or something).
 
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I don't have a degree you may have already noticed this in most of my posts

I did build a business though ! but I never took myself as serious as you !
If I'm not happy in the work place and especially at your age I would have said lets have a fight out in the car park >
That's what I would have done at that age ! :)
I would have said " Come out in the car park boy I'm going to test your chin " !

Maybe this is why I have never had a job :):cool:

I have no degree or no proper job :(:(
 
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Everyone is being a bit unfair here. I have worked in places where you get s*** and it is a laugh. I have also worked in places where you get s*** and its not. If someone is taking the p*** out of you but you are invited on nights out for example it is a good sign you are part of the group, if you are having the P*** taken out of you and being excluded from everything it is a bit different.

I have lived in pubs since being a kid and have family who pull you to pieces more if you bite at them taking the P. I have no issues laughing at myself or others but without being there is a little harsh to be assuming he is 100% at fault. It does read like he could be atleast partially to blame, but if he is not the only one and it is all aimed at 2-3 people then it might be a little more than that.
 
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tony84 said:
Everyone is being a bit unfair here. I have worked in places where you get s*** and it is a laugh. I have also worked in places where you get s*** and its not. If someone is taking the p*** out of you but you are invited on nights out for example it is a good sign you are part of the group, if you are having the P*** taken out of you and being excluded from everything it is a bit different.

I have lived in pubs since being a kid and have family who pull you to pieces more if you bite at them taking the P. I have no issues laughing at myself or others but without being there is a little harsh to be assuming he is 100% at fault. It does read like he could be atleast partially to blame, but if he is not the only one and it is all aimed at 2-3 people then it might be a little more than that.
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I agree. There are limits, of course.

But given what the OP has said, I think the easiest solution to his problem is to pull back instead of going further in the direction which is probably rubbing people up the wrong way.

IF the main reason is because he's coming across to the experienced staff as a know-it-all fresh out of university, doing things like creating unrequested critique reports for his managers is going to make things 10x worse.

Mind you, I wouldn't put it past this thread being a trolling attempt. I've seen similar threads like this before, and it just appears as though it's written to try and fish for a response. The fact he says he's barely mentioned his degree in the workplace, but proceeds to mention it 5 or 6 times in this thread alone, is a bit suspicious.

Either that, or he mentions it far more than he thinks he does and just doesn't even realise.
 
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Cannon_Ball1 said:
I haven't been doing praise in a way that says I'm better than you are. I meant I'd say something like 'you sound good on the phone'..
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I'd laugh at you as well.

Yes it can be harsh but I've been in offices where nobody says a word to anybody all day long. Everyone ignored everybody else, that's just the way it was. I've also working in places where there was so much chatter you couldn't concentrate.

Suck it up and deal with it or go find somewhere else to work.
 
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Experience will fare thee well in life - Like @The Byre I suffered so much crap throughout my working life, I still do... just let it go over your head... unless your head's too big... I dunno.

The only Degree I have is with a mercury stick up my arse taking my temperature. :D

What makes you think that you have a better chance at being in charge? I don't get it... you can't handle the buzz in the office now, so how can you handle the butkissing or general swipes a supervisor would normally get in most businesses?

I remember years ago starting out at one company, if you didn't do as you were told the boss use to throw the spanner at you... and I'm not talking about a DIY hand-man spanner, I'm talking about the huge beasty things that most Mechanics have wet dreams about!

Enjoy your working life, don't be such a BJ - accept that people will treat you like crap for years to come and you'll soon get over it. :D
 
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14Steve14 said:
I know this is going to sound silly, but I really wanted the OP to send that report to both managers. I just wanted to hear how it affected the situation.
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The next question the OP posted would have been 'how do I remove a report from my backside'.
 
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14Steve14 said:
I know this is going to sound silly, but I really wanted the OP to send that report to both managers. I just wanted to hear how it affected the situation.
Click to expand...

That's similar to how a small part of me wanted Donald Trump to become president. There's a morbid curiosity to see what actually happens.
 
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We told him all of this on his previous account - yes, I think it's the same person. If this is not a troll attempt, then he clearly didn't listen then. I doubt it's going to change now.
 
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This is nothing new and happens daily. Bullies exist in all organisations and it is typically the bully that has the problem, not you, that said you need to look after yourself whilst protecting your position. Most organisations have some type of staff support where you can seek help confidentially, typically there is a helpline number to call and you can speak to a professional about it, they will give you independent help that will most probably give you the tools (empower you) to tackle the situation and move forward. Additionally they will check and validate your thinking to make sure you are on the right track and your wires aren't crossed. You will also have an organisational policy on bullying and harassment, read and check it immediately. If you think that things might escalate then start to record incidents about what has happened/been said/not said/done/not done so that you have a record. Finally, there are charities that specialise in helping people being bullied and they in turn offer free help. You need to act appropriately and professionally in line with the organisations policies and procedures. Good luck.
 
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There is a lot of great advice here and I will just reiterate that you might not be as much of a office politics natural as you think you are. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is being direct in the moment you think you are being attacked in a non-defensive way. For example, if someone says to you, "Wow, that was a REAL good job on that one!" in a sarcastic voice, you can respond right away by saying, "Sounds like you weren't happy with my work, what could I do better next time?"

It can give an opportunity to have a real conversation and also discourages future comments, if they are without merit.
 
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Just from some of the things you mentioned in your post (degree, better qualified, write a report etc) smacks of an air of superiority and would quickly be picked up by others who would be inclined to mock you. The answer is simple though.......
Firstly, understand that you are a major part of the problem and alter your attitude. Listen more than you speak and finally, grow a pair.
A sentiment that I live by is that everyone has problems, issues and bad things happen to them but the difference is not what happens but how you deal with a given situation that makes all the difference.
 
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