I am Autistic and a paper that I am working on involves a “political mindset” to solve a problem. I am seeing ways to survive office politics but I am not sure ultimately what it is. Please help.
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Keep in mind that there are formal and informal power structures at a workplace. Formal power structures are obviously bosses, etc.
Having people higher up on the food chain who like you and/or highly value your work can be a huge benefit — if there is a problem, they may vouch for you; if you have an idea, they can promote it for you; if you have a complaint, they can elevate it to people even higher up in the company for you.
But there are also people who have more power than their formal position would suggest. A good example is executive assistants / secretaries. Or people who have been at the company a really really long time. Getting on their good side can make your life a lot easier.
And some people have a lot of power not because of their actual position in the company, but because a lot of people (or the RIGHT people) like them. How toxic this dynamic is depends on the personalities of people in the office.
Office politics is understanding there these different points of power, and navigating between then.
However, it is also important to play to your strengths. Some companies have way less office politics than others. And in many companies, just doing good work and being pleasant is enough to create and maintain a healthy and profitable work environment for yourself.
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