Office Politics

There are few things in life that seem as unpleasant and inevitable as office politics. Thankfully, my current work does not exactly have the allowance or motivation for the nasties. Unfortunately, that is untrue in the case of my working friends.

The details differ, but the pattern remains. Where there is a common want, scarcity and an inability to share that want, conflict arises. What is worse is that most people find it pretty impossible to be civil in a situation such as this. In fact, it appears that asking colleagues to play fair is akin to telling warring states to be gentlemanly while waging war. i.e. Not Gona Happen (tm)

Adding more spice to the gumbo, the worst scenarios almost invariably occur when fighting for a position in senior management. Only the best connected and most hardy need apply. It is a decision made which occasionally completely disregards personal ability in favour of some unknown favouritism.

Of course, that is simply an example of a situation gone completely out of hand. The bad news, of course, is that the situation in reality may not be much better.