OFFICE POLITICS
Managing Office Politics
By Joe Nyutu
Types Of Political Animals
Tasker
“Can you please do that for me? Thanks!”
The power dynamics of task-executing is
that people who assign tasks are bosses,
and people who execute those tasks are
subordinates. By telling others what to do,
taskers are positioning themselves as the
most powerful party in that relationship.
Taskers are very power-conscious
individuals. Some of them resent being
told what to do by their bosses and, in
a sort of “the oppressed becomes the
oppressor dynamic”, they seek revenge
on their colleagues. In some cases, taskers
can also be insecure bosses who tell their
reports what to do in very direct ways just
so they can “show who’s boss”.
And finally, the last category of taskers is
highly ambitious individuals who want
to climb the corporate ladder and have
a good career. In their warped minds
“being the boss” only means having power
over others, and tasking is their way of
showing that power. Usually, they pick
people whom they think are easy to boss
around. However, the most ambitious and
dominant of them will try to task almost
anybody. The most knuckleheaded taskers
will even try it with their own bosses.
When in the presence of a continuous
tasker, 95% of the times these are employees
who are power conscious, selfish and often
socially ruthless individual. These people
are very poor team players because they
see workplace politics in black and white
terms: there are those who give orders and
those who execute.
Here is a typical example of expressions
of tasking: Tasker: Can you please do X
for me or Can you (please) take care of
By and large, grumpy players are un-
happy people with little social life. Some
of them are grumpy because they are
frustrated with their own insignificance,
both in the office and outside of it. In
some other cases, they can be very aso-
cial, introverted or at odds with people.
If that is the case, they are defending
their “me” time and the only refuge of
safety they have is with themselves.
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it by EOB it’s very important. The “very
important” bit makes them sound smart
and strategic. It is indeed people with
high-level visions who are able to assign
the correct priority to tasks.
The Grumpy Players
The grumpy players operate on the
assumption that the less people can
task them, the more office status they
acquire. They play office politics very
defensively, fortifying their desk-turf from
encroachment and keeping as much of
their time for themselves.
Who Are Grumpy Players: By and large,
grumpy players are unhappy people with
little social life. Some of them are grumpy
because they are frustrated with their
own insignificance, both in the office
and outside of it. In some other cases,
they can be very asocial, introverted or
at odds with people. If that is the case,
they are defending their “me” time and
the only refuge of safety they have is with
themselves. In rare cases, they are simply
trying to defend against very aggressive
taskers but have no idea how to do it
assertively. And that’s why the two types
of grumpy players are: Aggressive and
Passive aggressive.
If you are afraid of approaching a colleague
because they always seem on the verge of
exploding and yelling at you, you know it
is the aggressive type. Finally, watch out
for grumpy players who are grumpy with
a few selected people or only with you.
You might be dealing with ego-defense
mechanisms or it might be they simply
don’t like you. I dealt with lots of grumpy