Commentary: Office politics is not optional – learn to play the game or be its victim

LONDON: If there is one thing most people seem to hate more than politics, it’s office politics. Back-stabbing, conniving, sucking up and kicking down: Being on career-enhancing manoeuvres makes people a target of derision among colleagues. This is often laced with envy if their machinations produce results. As the Divine Comedy put it in their 2019 song Office Politics: Press the flesh, do the deal. Book your place on the hamster wheel. But in recent weeks, I’ve had a rethink, after being embroiled in holiday-period, mid-life job chat with friends and contemporaries. Many feel stymied, overlooked or are bored and miserable in roles they have outgrown.