Avoiding the Game of Politics

If you are just beginning your accounting career, you can quickly find yourself in the middle of office politics. It comes with human nature, no matter what the culture of your workplace. People will always try to manipulate co-workers for their benefit, exaggerate their own contributions while criticizing the contributions of others. In every workplace I have been, I've maintained a strict rule of "professionalism at all times." In so doing, no one will believe the jealous criticism of co-workers that come against you, because your actions will speak for themselves. However, despite your best efforts to keep your head above the waters of office politics, at times co-workers may try to pull you under.

A friend of mine recently found herself in this situation, as her company's HR Director had personal disagreements with her boss and tried to put her in the middle of it. Her employer had instituted an upward feedback program, asking staff to review their direct supervisors. Her boss, the Finance Director, was consistently absent from work and unavailable to his direct reports. Because the HR Director had personal disagreements with the Finance Director, he was looking for a way to get his rival into trouble with the company's CEO. HR approached my friend, and asked her to include several specific criticism about the Finance Director in her "anonymous" upward feedback form. While this is inappropriate in so many respects, my friend's greatest protest was the unprofessional manner in which she was placed in the middle of her co-workers' personal disputes.

My recommendation to anyone in such a situation is to remain professional at all times. Even though my friend had every right to criticize the Finance Director in her evaluation, doing so in a personal or negative manner would have played into the political agenda of the HR Director. I advised her to complete the evaluation honestly, drafting it in a manner in which she would like to have a review done of her job performance. By including praise as well as recommendations for performance improvement in her supervisor's evaluation, the anticipated incriminating negativity that the HR Director was hoping for would be absent. And my friend would avoid jeopardizing her professional reputation by getting in the middler of a personal dispute.

No matter what political battles rage around you between your co-workers, supervisors, and clients, if you maintain a professional response and avoid joining the fray, you will be respected for your maturity and wisdom.