Ask HN: What are the unwritten rules of politics in company environments? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are the unwritten rules of politics in company environments?

17 pointsthrowaway64417 comments

In my career so far, I've never been properly immersed in a company or corporate environment -- I've mostly worked at arm's length (e.g. by freelancing)

Were I to find myself starting at a sufficiently large company, what are the unwritten "political" rules and rituals where my ignorance of expected behavior or failure to adhere to the norms could cause friction?

I'm pitching this question broadly: It could apply to situations between you and people at the same level, or between you and your reports, or between you and your boss, or any of the above when others are watching. Permute with valences like "when everything went well" vs. "when things went badly" etc.

Not looking for hard science, just the opinions you've formed.

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The real power hierarchy is often nothing like the org chart. You need to reverse-engineer the ground truth of who is aligned with whom, what cliques/tribes exist, who has it in for whom etc.

And this is crucial: you must _NEVER_ let on that you are thinking this way -- you will be targeted as difficult, political, divisive, not a team player etc.

The hardest thing to come to terms with in a large org, esp for spectrum-y nerd dev types, is WYSINWYG. No one is allowed to admit that the place is toxic with politics -- until perhaps you are best friends and really trust each other, and then only when drunk, and even then half the time your "bestie" will use this off-the-record talk against you.

It's kind of like the first rule of Fight Club.

I work outside the Bay Area so the rules likely differ for me:

* Always be tolerant and respectful

* Don’t discuss politics at work. If you want to have a political discussion with coworkers do so outside the office at a social event, but even that is risky depending upon the subject matter and company culture. It’s best to play this one safe and not mix politics and work.

* Always be helpful and supportive to your teammates. Be an advocate that supports positive growth but not a team player that supports mutual defense. That is the difference between being a leader versus cronyism.

* Never make your boss look bad, which includes taking all initiative to stay off the various shit lists.

* Always be honest. An unwelcome truth is better than a lie. That goes to character, dependability, and trustworthiness.

* Be firm when you are an expert. I have had employers in the past that encouraged positive confrontations such that discussions arrive at an ideal compromise instead of tacit agreements from personality cults.

* Learn to enjoy writing documentation. If you want to be competitive against your peers without becoming a toxic asshole do so by contributing the most back to the team, which includes great writing.

* Always put the product first. This is likely to cause a fair amount of friction with your developer peers who put their code preferences first. Always do right by the business and keep the moral high ground. Your best defense is good writing.

> Always put the product first. This is likely to cause a fair amount of friction with your developer peers who put their code preferences first. Always do right by the business and keep the moral high ground. Your best defense is good writing.

But don't do so at the expense of your own mental health.

Your ability to sustainably contribute to the product matters. So be willing to avoid PHP if your mind is allergic to it.

If I were in your shoes and was able to offer the wisdom of a few decades+ of work experience and hind-sight I would offer this piece of advice -

As a 'newbie' respect the food chain.

In a large corporate environment there are power-games and power-struggles, empire building and a whole new world of "soft power" and back scratching. If you buck the food chain by going over someones head the sharks will gather. As a tadpole it is best to learn how to swim well enough to avoid the sharks.

With that said - DO go over somebody's head if something is really wrong/serious, just don't do it for the 'gee it is so obvious that we should be doing xyz but no-one will listen" type things.

I once worked at a relatively large game company and I witnessed a game designer do pretty much exactly what you described in the last sentence. It caused a minor havoc with the CEO breathing down our GM's neck. That game designer was fired within the next year (or 6-mo). And I think he learned his lesson too -- he's a smart guy and went on to have a thriving career at his next company.

  If a project fails, there will always be a scape goat.
  If a project succeeds, credit will always be stolen.
  Your boss hired you to make his job easier, don't make it harder.
  Your boss hired you because his project is failing, expect pain.
  If your boss gets fired, this is your opportunity to get promoted.

> "If your boss gets fired, this is your opportunity to get promoted."

If your boss gets fired and you are seen as part of their clique, expect to get shoved out the door as well.

Been there, was surprised by the door. But in the end all is well, it was a toxic company.

    You have a credit account for each person in the company.

    If you have credit with your boss, and unknown to your boss’ boss, everything’s fine.

    If you have credit with your boss’ boss, but your boss doesn’t, something’s not fine.

Are you taking the job to learn or to get paid? That really changes what rules to follow.

If youre a new hired, perceived to be top performer, and you under perform, your bosses boss will criticize your boss. Usually you can use this to your advantage

Taking this further, as an employee, you have more leverage than you think

If you are on W-2, there is exactly one person who you are truly accountable to at work: your supervisor. This is the person who was given an amount of money to do a task, chose to hire a person with some of it, and chose you to be that person. Your list of priorities at work needs to flow from or be approved by that person.

Teams work cross-functionally, which means that in addition to the org-chart there are informal power dynamics between groups and individuals in those groups.

Just stay out of it, it’s for lame people.

The boss is always right. Your only job is to make the boss look good.

Or make them look bad... if you want their position ;-) mwa-ha-ha-ha

I guess if you do it stealthily and the blame somehow doesn't fall on you. If the boss's boss finds out, then they probably aren't going to promote a backstabber into a position closer to them.

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