Office Politics

[deleted] · 2014-12-11T17:45:35+00:00

Look for a mentor. Find someone who knows what the fuck is going on and learn as much as possible from him. If you're lucky you'll find a good one. Stay away from office gossip and bullshit. People will try and pull you in and drag you down to their level. Don't allow this.

omanisherin · 2014-12-11T18:06:47+00:00

Be Professional, meaning: Do what you say you will do, when you say you will do it. This is especially difficult as a software developer.

Find out the things that cause your boss the most pain and problems. Be the solution to them. Also protect your bosses reputation, and make sure he knows that you have his back (don't complain about him or inter department problems to others). At the end of the day, he will most likely have the biggest impact on your performance reviews, promotions and raises.

Do not talk to much about your personal life at work. People will judge you and be jealous of you on things you would not believe (religion, spending habits, hobbies), and until you've seen how office politics works, do not expose to much of your personal life.

Do not date co-workers in an office setting. It has a high chance of breaking your or their frame in your workplace. This might be hard to do, but there are a lot of girls on the planet, and few of them can affect your income like a crazy ex in the office.

Do read or listen to the 48 laws of power audio book, and do find a mentor.

As a new software developer you will find that older developers may treat you as a liability, and perhaps a threat. Some will try to dominate you by withholding information and demeaning you (software developers are not social creatures for the most part, and all of them fear change). To break through this and start building camaraderie, ask for help.

When asking for help as junior developer, only ask well thought out questions that you couldn't resolve using Google.

Good luck!

tombreck2 · 2014-12-11T16:45:53+00:00

If you haven't already:

Read 48 Laws and How to win friends and Influence people.

Remember: the best way to advance your career is to go to happy hours.

whatcanredditdo · 2014-12-11T18:57:25+00:00

Start out by doing the job they hired you to do. No need to kiss ass or worry about other people when you are busy doing your fucking job.

Zaorish9 · 2014-12-11T19:21:52+00:00

Start by simply doing the work you are asked to do. Ask around for help and find the people who like to help, and make friends with them. Always be kind to people of lower rank. Do the most extra work for the person who can best help you back. (Usually boss, sometime a higher ranked guy.)

If you meet someone with better skills and knowledge than you, resolve to become his student and friend and supporter no matter how upstaged you might feel.

Always be cheery and good humored. Never ever be in a bad mood for any reason ever.

Girls will try very hard to flirt and niceguy-you for favors. Just laugh and be polite and ignore them.

Zachar1a · 2014-12-11T16:36:07+00:00

Just do the things you said and you'll be fine.

smoochy2012 · 2014-12-11T17:07:35+00:00

One thing I wish I had learned earlier is to ignore the emotional roller coaster. People around you will be constantly creating all sorts of drama. Focus on your work, focus on improving your skills, focus on creating value for the company.

User-31f64a4e · 2014-12-11T20:33:17+00:00

Drop your ego. If you need to feel good about yourself based on external validation, you're in trouble - perhaps especially in STEM fields, as the culture can be disrespectful at times. If you don't care what people at work think and say to and about you, and don't get caught up, then you can learn and function effectively. You'll also find yourself doing better than the trolls before very long.

Don't try to put on an act. This is often related to the point above - shoring up ego by pretending to be something you're not. Too likely to be caught out, so just don't do it.

Admit when you're wrong; don't apologize and grovel, just admit this trivial fact and move on.

The only thing you can control is you. Even once you have reports, you can't really control them - only provide stimuli and hope for certain responses. So don't focus on externalities. Focus on your own excellence.

Ask for work. When you don't have anything to do, go bug your boss. If he is horribly busy maybe do things proactively, but it's generally better to just be hitting your boss up for stuff to do.

Keep learning. Software is not a static field. Keep learning languages, frameworks, techniques, design patterns. Read the classics. Play with stuff at home. Take any classes that work will pay for.

Develop your Social Skills. A little bit of polish goes a long way. By the time you are a CEO, Social skills are 90% of what the job needs and technical/business savvy are 10%. This ratio is inverted at the bottom; to move up means increasing your social skills.

Make connections. Later those will turn in to employment opportunities, or people you can use to staff your projects. For now, just make friends with as many top performers as you can. At work, at meetups, at the local hackerspace, wherever.

jez99 · 2014-12-11T22:08:59+00:00

A little off-topic, perhaps:

Never ever ever bang anyone who you work with. Think twice about even socialising with co-workers outside the office.
Avoid the Yooman Resources department to the greatest possible extent. They are your enemy.
Unlikely in your line of work, but if you will report a female manager . . . well, that's a whole subject in itself.

Year_Of_The_Horse_ · 2014-12-11T16:52:37+00:00

Trust no one. Kiss your boss's ass. Don't be the last one to arrive or the first to leave.

Title	Office Politics
Author	skills_are_everythng
Upvotes	2
Comments	15
Date	December 11, 2014 4:25 PM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/TheRedPill
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/2ozf8a/office_politics/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/TheRedPill/office-politics.26213 https://theredarchive.com/post/26213

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