Office community

I was reflecting on office politics (rife where I work). I have many more questions about this than answers.

Most of us work as part of a company community, but often that community turns sour, divides into cliques marred by in-fighting. You may get a few people in a team who have genuine friendships, but those individual friendships don’t translate into groups of people who care about each other and work thoughtfully together.

I’m not suggesting we can like everyone we work with, any more than members of families or monastic communities do. But how can we make over our working communities into groups of people who can at least respect each other and work together creatively?

What are office politics? Attempts by people to feel secure, in control. Why do we refer to and think of “office politics” as an entity by itself and not caused by anyone? The way we talk about office politics you’d think it was some kind of poison gas cloud pumped into the building from outside.

Starting points: everything must have a starting point.

What size does an organisation have to become? Two people, twenty-two? How do we work back to the point where patterns of behaviour and interactions begin to change?

Is it possible to discern whether those little spreading ripples of behaviour change are going to be good or bad? What signals give us the clues? Are we able to stop destructive patterns of behaviour in ourselves or others? Is behaviour clearly creative or destructive from the start, or does it first follow a neutral pattern?

Are office politics inherently destructive or are they just a fact of life, a current that you can dip a toe into or keep away from?

Is this corporate sourness to do with the ethical stance of the organisation. In other words if we feel good about our working contribution, are we more likely to see kinship in colleagues rather than enmity?

And why does it take tragedy (9/11, the Madrid bombings, the London tube bombings and so many other examples) to strip us to our essentials?

I wish I knew. Perhaps it is more natural to us to compete than to co-operate. But I wonder if we can each help turn the tide by conscious choice in that split second of decision whether to listen to that bit of gossip, whether to pass it on, whether to fall into habits of negativity, whether to be impatient with our colleagues, whether to mock them when we speak of them, whether to assume our bosses are out to get us.

I’d be interested in the views and experiences of others on this.