Office Politics: What It Is, Examples, & How to Handle It

What You’ll Learn

You may notice that some coworkers seem to hear about opportunities first, certain opinions carry more weight, or important decisions start taking shape before a meeting even begins. These dynamics can affect your work and career, whether you actively participate in them or not. Understanding them can help you protect your work and career without getting caught up in gossip or unnecessary conflict.

Below, we’ll break down what office politics is, positive and negative examples, common political behaviors, and practical ways to navigate them in the workplace.

What Is “Office Politics”?

Office politics is the culmination of informal power dynamics, relationships, and unwritten rules that influence how decisions are made in the workplace. These dynamics can affect who has influence, access to information and resources, visibility with leadership, and opportunities for advancement.

Positive vs Negative Politics in the Office

Positive office politics uses workplace relationships and influence to build support, share credit, and advocate for ideas or resources. Negative office politics involves behaviors such as gossip, exclusion, withholding information, taking credit, or undermining others to gain an advantage.

The key difference between negative and positive office politics is how people use their influence at work. Positive behaviors can help you build support and advance your goals without putting your coworkers at a disadvantage. Negative behaviors, on the other hand, can damage trust, limit others’ opportunities, and contribute to a toxic work environment.

The Psychology of Office Politics: Why It Happens

The psychology of office politics stems from how people respond to relationships, competing interests, emotions, and uncertainty at work.

Several factors can shape these behaviors:

Common Types of Political Behavior in the Workplace

Common types of political behavior at work include credit-taking, gatekeeping, information hoarding, strategic visibility, alliance-building, upward influence, undermining, and positioning for advancement.

Here’s how they may appear in the workplace:

Not all of these behaviors are inherently positive or negative. Look at the pattern, purpose, and impact. Does the behavior help people collaborate and advocate for their work, or does someone’s influence depend on limiting opportunities, information, or recognition for others?

What Are Examples of Office Politics? 10 Common Scenarios

Examples of office politics range from building support for an idea or advocating for a coworker to withholding information or taking credit for someone else’s work. These situations often involve relationships, influence, visibility, or access to decision-makers.

Here are 10 examples of negative and positive office politics scenarios you might encounter at work:

Negative Office Politics Examples

• 1.

  Taking credit for someone else’s work. A coworker presents another employee’s idea or contribution as their own during a meeting with leadership.

• 2.

  Making decisions before the meeting. A small group privately agrees on an outcome before a larger team discussion, leaving other employees with little meaningful input.

• 3.

  Sharing information selectively. An employee gives important updates to certain coworkers while withholding them from others, giving some people an advantage.

• 4.

  Giving a favorite employee the best opportunities. A manager repeatedly assigns high-visibility projects or valuable opportunities to a preferred employee without a clear work-related reason.

• 5.

  Gatekeeping access to leadership. A coworker controls who gets face time, information, or opportunities to communicate with senior leaders, using that access to strengthen their own influence.

Positive Office Politics Examples

• 1.

  Building support for an idea. Before proposing a major change in a meeting, an employee talks with affected colleagues, gathers their input, and builds support for the proposal.

• 2.

  Giving a coworker visibility. A team member makes sure leadership knows who contributed to a successful project rather than taking all the recognition themselves.

• 3.

  Advocating for your team’s needs. A manager builds relationships with other departments and uses those connections to make a case for additional staff, budget, or resources.

• 4.

  Making your work visible. An employee keeps their manager informed about progress and results so their contributions aren’t overlooked when discussing assignments, raises, or promotions.

• 5.

  Building relationships across teams. An employee develops connections outside their immediate department, making it easier to collaborate, exchange information, and get support when priorities overlap.

Managers often shape these workplace dynamics, whether they decide who gets opportunities, recognize employees’ contributions, or advocate for their teams. Monster research found that 55% of workers have stayed at a job longer because of a great manager. Separately, 56% said they’ve left a job primarily because of a bad manager.

How to Navigate Office Politics Effectively: 9 Tips

To navigate office politics effectively, understand how influence and relationships shape your workplace, build strong professional relationships, stay informed, and address problems based on their impact.

Conflict is one reason workplace politics can become difficult to navigate. According to another Monster survey, more than 1 in 4 workers (28%) cited workplace conflict as a key source of work-related stress.

These nine strategies can help you manage workplace dynamics without getting pulled into unnecessary conflict:

• 1.

  Observe Before You Get Involved

  Especially when you’re new to a workplace or team, give yourself time to understand the dynamics before taking sides, sharing strong opinions, or assuming you know why something happened. Pay attention to existing relationships, recurring disagreements, and how coworkers interact before drawing conclusions from one meeting or one person’s account.

• 2.

  Learn the Informal Org Chart

  A job title tells you someone’s formal authority, but influence can come from expertise, relationships, institutional knowledge, access to leadership, or a track record of getting things done.

  Identify the people who are trusted for different reasons:

  • Who does leadership consult before making a decision?
  • Who has expertise others rely on?
  • Who connects teams that don’t normally work together?
  • Who can move a project forward when it’s stuck?
• 3.

  Build Relationships Before You Need Them

  Build professional relationships across your team and, when your role allows, across departments and levels of the organization. A strong internal network can give you context, expose you to different perspectives, and make collaboration easier when priorities or responsibilities overlap.

  Keep these relationships genuine and reciprocal. Offer useful information, ask for other people’s input, recognize their contributions, and follow through when you offer help to build lasting trust.

• 4.

  Make Sure the Right People Know Your Work

  Don’t assume good work will automatically get noticed. Make your contributions visible to the people who need to understand your work, using the communication channels already available to you.

  For example:

  • Share meaningful results in project updates, team meetings, or one-on-ones.
  • Update relevant stakeholders at important milestones rather than reporting every task or small win.
  • Speak up about your contribution when discussing project outcomes, challenges, or next steps.
  • Connect your work to a clear result, such as solving a problem, improving a process, meeting a goal, or helping a project succeed.
  • Give coworkers appropriate credit while clearly stating what you contributed.

  Be strategic about who you update and how often. Don’t broadcast every win, copy unnecessary people on emails, or bypass your manager without good reason. Use established communication channels and tailor your message to the audience: Senior leaders may need the outcome and business impact, while project leads may need more detail.

• 5.

  Stay Informed, but Treat Rumors as Rumors

  Office politics and workplace gossip often overlap, but gossip can be a risky source of information. Stay aware of developments that could affect your work or opportunities, including shifting priorities, reorganizations, leadership changes, and important decisions.

  Treat secondhand information as unverified. Office politics can encourage bad habits like gossip and rumor-spreading, but a coworker saying layoffs are coming, a manager dislikes someone, or a promotion has already been decided doesn’t make it true. Don’t repeat rumors, add speculation, or make career decisions based on them.

  If the information could affect you, verify it through a reliable source, such as your manager, an official company communication, or the person responsible for the decision. Stay informed without becoming a source of workplace gossip.

• 6.

  Address Problems Directly When You Can

  When you have an issue with a coworker, talk to them directly when it’s reasonable and safe. Avoid complaining to other coworkers first, taking sides, or letting a fixable problem turn into a larger political conflict.

  Be specific about what happened and what needs to change. If you’re repeatedly left out of meetings you need to attend to do your job, for example, explain that you’re missing necessary information and ask to be included going forward. Focus on the behavior and its impact rather than assuming you know the person’s intentions.

  If the problem continues or a direct conversation isn’t appropriate, consider involving your manager or another appropriate resource.

• 7.

  Keep a Record When the Stakes Are High

  Document decisions, responsibilities, approvals, deadlines, and significant changes that could affect your work. A short follow-up after a meeting confirming what was decided and who owns each next step can create clarity for everyone involved.

  More detailed documentation may be appropriate when you’re dealing with repeated credit-taking, shifting expectations, exclusion from necessary information, conflicting instructions, or another pattern that could affect your performance or reputation.

  Keep records factual and professional, including dates, decisions, communications, and specific incidents rather than assumptions about someone’s motives.

• 8.

  Choose Your Battles Based on the Impact

  Before responding to workplace politics, consider how much the situation actually affects you. A rude comment or one-time exclusion may be frustrating but have little effect on your work or career.

  Pay closer attention when there’s a pattern or real consequence. Repeatedly being left out of important projects, having your work misrepresented, losing access to information you need, or being denied opportunities without explanation may require action.

  Focus your energy on issues that affect your work, reputation, relationships, or career opportunities rather than getting pulled into every workplace conflict.

• 9.

  Know When to Escalate a Problem

  If workplace behavior involves harassment, discrimination, retaliation, threats, serious bullying, unethical conduct, or a potential violation of company policy or law, treat it as more than office politics.

  Use the reporting or support channel that fits the situation. That may be your manager, another leader, HR, an ethics or compliance channel, a union representative, or outside professional or legal guidance. Review your employer’s policies and keep factual records of relevant incidents, communications, dates, and people involved.

How to Deal With Office Politics as an Introvert

Introverts can navigate office politics by building influence through smaller professional networks and communication methods that work for them. You don’t need to be the most social or outspoken person at work to build influence and stay informed.

A few ways to do that include:

• 

  Build a small network through one-on-one relationships. Get to know your manager, close collaborators, and a few trusted colleagues across the organization. You don’t need a huge network to stay connected, get useful context, and build professional support.

• 

  Use written communication to your advantage. Clear project updates, meeting follow-ups, and thoughtful messages can help you contribute ideas and keep your work visible.

• 

  Prepare before important conversations. If speaking up on the spot is difficult, go into meetings with the points, questions, or ideas you want to raise.

• 

  Stay involved in what’s happening around you. Working independently can make it easier to miss shifting priorities, relationships, or decisions. Stay involved enough to understand what’s happening and speak up when your work or opportunities are affected.

How to Handle Office Politics in Remote & Hybrid Workplaces

To handle office politics in remote and hybrid workplaces, stay visible, maintain relationships with coworkers and leaders, and make sure you have access to the information and conversations that affect your work. The challenges can differ depending on whether you’re fully remote or split your time between home and the office.

If You Work Remotely

Remote employees can miss the informal conversations that happen before meetings, after calls, or around the office. To stay connected:

If You Work a Hybrid Arrangement

In a hybrid workplace, who’s in the office and when can impact access to people, information, and opportunities. To manage those dynamics:

“Playing” Office Politics Without Getting Pulled Into Drama

Office politics will change as coworkers, managers, and priorities change. Keep track of what’s happening around you, invest in relationships that matter, and speak up when something affects your work or career. You can be strategic about your place in the workplace without getting caught up in every rumor, alliance, or conflict.