03/04/2018
What makes a senior person to do politics in a software company?
Answer
We all know that every company has limited resources and limited amount of funds. And a good company allocates these resources thoughtfully, managing expectations of all its employees and maximising the growth of the company at the same time. Due to limited resources, there is always a competition between the employees regarding who gets the maximum benefit. Some people choose to work hard for the benefit of the company, hoping that their leaders will recognise their efforts and reward them appropriately. While some would also use other means to influence their peers and leaders to get the maximum benefits from the company. By other means I mean engaging in office politics.
In my opinion, the reasons can be diverse and many, but some of the main reasons that come to my mind are:
Ambition: Many people are ambitious about their careers. Some choose to keep their integrity above their ambitions while some don’t. So, if someone is overly ambitious to the point where they don’t care about losing their integrity, they might engage in politics to get an edge over the competitionInsecurity: Some people sometimes get insecure of their peers and hence would engage in dirty politics to cut the competitionGenuine belief that you can do better than your peers. Sometimes, a person might genuinely believe that they can actually do better than their peers who are competing for the same position/project etc. But they’re not sure if their leader might offer them the opportunity or not. So, to make sure they get that opportunity, or in other words, to safeguard their interests, they engage in politics. In a way, this is a combination of the first two pointsJealousy: Sometimes its out of pure jealousy due to the success of other employees. Some people just don’t like to see someone else succeed and they would do anything to harm the other person professionally
These are some of the reasons that come to my mind