This is why I hate office politics.
Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
21–30 of 72 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#22Deliberately playing office politics with manipulative behaviors like this is a losing game. These behaviors will be quickly identified and managed out in any competently managed team. If they work, it means you’re in an office that rewards bad behavior. Instead of trying to play the game, work on finding a better job. You’ll be happier and healthier. I’ve had to remove several employees over the years because they w…
Step 1) join a broken/toxic company. Theyre a lot more common than competent ones
Going along with the BS at such a company just makes sure you aren't ever going to be qualified for a non-toxic company.
There are ways to play defensively in the face of such crap. I'm not suggesting you should just let yourself be victimized while imagining that's some kind of high road.
But your options don't boil down to "Be their victim or beat them at their sick game." If you believe that and choose that path, you are part of the problem, not just at the company but for the world generally.
We can't make a better world if we run around justifying our shitty behavior with "But they started it!"
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#23Stop abbreviating everything
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#24While I sincerely hate office politics, I think most people underestimate the value of 2). In order to socialize meaningfully you ought to be curious. And curiosity will spark many new and good things to happen.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#25Deliberately playing office politics with manipulative behaviors like this is a losing game. These behaviors will be quickly identified and managed out in any competently managed team. If they work, it means you’re in an office that rewards bad behavior. Instead of trying to play the game, work on finding a better job. You’ll be happier and healthier. I’ve had to remove several employees over the years because they w…
I don’t think it’s that black and white. I’ve known really smart people who did really impactful work get left behind because nobody knew what they did.
I’d say some of this isn’t necessarily politics and more just marketing yourself, which is key if you want to get ahead.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#26Summarizing, it looks like the "dark patterns" are:
1) work on stuff that's important to the company, but build in public (inside the company)
2) get to know your team
3) work on stuff that's closer to the customer, and #4 cynical comments.
Honestly, most of the YC and PG writings will give you more examples of how to do this stuff. And to the extent that you work in a place that gets stuff done, you will find all of these behaviors serve you well.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#27Check out the book Corporate Confidential from Cynthia Shapiro.
It details a ton of DO's and DON'Ts about career growth, development, and struggles. It was a great read but stung in a few places where I realized my own mistakes. Odds are, you'll have a few of the same.
And to be clear, it details how to make yourself valuable in productive ways that benefit your team, department and company vs just being a pain in the ass.
Affiliate link if you're interested: https://amzn.to/2MdwZm9
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#28WSP has some insights on this
https://wallstreetplayboys.com/office-politics-it-only-gets-...
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#29Deliberately playing office politics with manipulative behaviors like this is a losing game. These behaviors will be quickly identified and managed out in any competently managed team. If they work, it means you’re in an office that rewards bad behavior. Instead of trying to play the game, work on finding a better job. You’ll be happier and healthier. I’ve had to remove several employees over the years because they w…
I don’t think it’s that black and white. I’ve known really smart people who did really impactful work get left behind because nobody knew what they did. I’d say some of this isn’t necessarily politics and more just marketing yourself, which is key if you want to get ahead.
Yeah but if, for example, you follow the advice under (4) you're really not doing good work, and if you carrying on behaving that way you're going to get managed out.
Re: Ask HN: Is there a book that teaches you dark patterns of office politics?
#30Deliberately playing office politics with manipulative behaviors like this is a losing game. These behaviors will be quickly identified and managed out in any competently managed team. If they work, it means you’re in an office that rewards bad behavior. Instead of trying to play the game, work on finding a better job. You’ll be happier and healthier. I’ve had to remove several employees over the years because they w…
I agree with you but I would say there is a lot of value in learning and being able to identify these type of behaviours.
The more people know these things the more obvious and less effective they come and as you said it helps to smoke out potentially toxic members of the team.