Office Politics –Coming to a new office (the new guy’s perspective)

So you the new guy …

it seems odd as just yes­ter­day you sat at your older office, knew every tac­tic there is and all the office pol­i­tics , and now start­ing all over again.

Have no fear this is why this arti­cle is here. As a new guy you’ll come across new office pol­i­tics, issues you never taught you’ll have to deal with and etc…

You are won­der­ing to your­self – how on earth could I secure my place in this jun­gle? Well, there are few ways, as there is an arti­cle regard­ing find­ing a men­tor and an arti­cle about pick­ing sides, and some other use­ful arti­cles for your read and enjoyment.

This arti­cle is some­thing new… it’s your per­spec­tive as a new guy that lands in a new office and has to learn all the office pol­i­tics and tac­tics from the begin­ning. In most chances when com­ing to a new place of work your super­vi­sor attaches you to some­one in the office, this so called “men­tor” sup­pose to help you – but as you prob­a­bly knows (if you read some of the other arti­cles here) that when assign­ing some­one new to some­one old –it’s a mass.

The vet­eran employee isn’t really thrilled to show you around, and most chances will prob­a­bly be show­ing you his cold atti­tude. A quick note to your­self at this time – most chances the assigned “men­tor” isn’t the men­tor you need to seek for your­self but he is a tuto­r­ial mentor.

There is a slight chance you’ll end up with some­one friendly that will help and answer your ques­tions, again remem­ber it’s not 100% that this one is your men­tor as well. Prob­lems starts when you are start­ing a new assign­ment (or project) accord­ing to the office sur­vivor tac­tics your assigned men­tor prob­a­bly will keep all the infor­ma­tion for him and won’t share so much with you – there are few ways to over­come this problem.

Over­com­ing prob­lems with assigned men­tor can be tricky as it can start a lit­tle fire on your first days at work with some­one you don’t really know (one of the office sur­vivor tips is – never get against unknown “com­peti­tor” , as the assigned men­tor is your com­peti­tor in the future).

There are steps to over­come prob­lems with assigned men­tor, before we’ll start with them take your­self 5 minute break and talk with the guy over a drink in the kitchen – get­ting closer to him can soft him and dry out some antag­o­nism he might have towards. Besides hav­ing a small chit chat here are some steps it’s nice to have and do to pre­vent antag­o­nism in case your assigned men­tor has it:

1. Cre­ate timetable and tasks for your advance and learn – your super­vi­sor will be aware to the timetable and your assigned men­tor won’t want that it will be vis­i­ble that he isn’t will­ing to help. It’s rec­om­mended that each task has a pre­sen­ta­tion and explanations.
2. Ask him once ask him twice, hope­fully 3rd time is a charm – very sim­ple, you are new, he needs to teach you. Some­times assigned men­tors answers ques­tion only when they are asked.
3. You keep ask­ing and ask­ing but the assigned men­tor con­tin­ues to keep infor­ma­tion to him­self – this is elab­o­ra­tion of the even that you’re ask­ing you still don’t get answers. Try to ask oth­ers, as assigned men­tor sees you as a threat on his posi­tion, oth­ers see you as the new guy – less antag­o­nism upon their side.
4. Dou­ble the plea­sure – find some­one who’s new like your­self, or maybe one of the employ­ees that answers you that he doesn’t know, make an alias with him and together go to your assigned men­tor. When you are a sin­gle player in the game of office pol­i­tics the assigned men­tor can over­come you, but when you dou­ble your power and going with together with some­one else it will empower your­self and weak your assigned mentor.

Office pol­i­tics is good for every­thing, even for a new player in the office; the tricky part is to know how to play the game and to learn the new rules. Your new title “the new guy” is only tem­po­rary and soon will be changed as you are the office sur­vivor. New guys when time comes seems to find them­selves as assigned men­tors as well, when you’ll be turn­ing into one – it doesn’t mean you have to make the new assigned guy life eas­ier , if he wants to know the way let him read this arti­cle .

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