Nowadays, with the economy struggling to recover and inflation on the rise, it would not be unusual to see employees trying harder to keep their jobs intact. Politics definitely play a major role in the attitudes of employees and how a manager uses their power can sometimes be a deal breaker for many employees.
Most would begrudgingly agree that they have taken part in some form of a clique (Reuver, 2006). This high school-ish behavior lacks the professionalism that sorely needed in the modern workplace. Those on the outside find themselves at the mercy of the clique. Usually, it’s the newcomer or the overachieving employee that finds themselves as the target of discrimination from the clique. Rumors and gossip are just a few of the weapons that tightly knit office groups use to discredit their adversaries and push them so far to the outside that they end up quitting.
Usually, the manager or supervisor is unaware of the juvenile behaviors taking place within company walls. Unfortunately, employers do not contribute as much time to observing office politics as they do their own personal affairs. Often times, a singled out employee will keep the problem to themselves for fear that reporting the incidences will label them as trouble makers or that the conflict with the clique would cost them their job or safety in extreme cases.
Another troubling issue in office politics is not only the absence of attention paid to office harassment by cliques, but sometimes, the manager endorses the behavior by playing favorites. One of the most obvious and common examples is when an employer plays favorites among the staff when the boss’s own family is the favored person. Often non-related employees will find themselves backed into a corner and feel as though their hands are tied because if the issue is brought to the foreground, they could possibly lose their job (Synnot, 2009). Even though this is illegal, it still happens.
However, not all...