Office politics and fitted sheets are basically the same thing.
Before you truly understand fitted sheets, they entangle you, waste your time, and you can’t fold and put them away properly. Sure, there are people who have a proper folding method, but who has the time to learn this kind of skill? Yet if your fitted sheets are a bundled mass at the back of the closet, you’ll never feel like you’re great at everything. But if you ask those who have mastered fitted sheets, you will notice that they have no stress about this topic. It’s all very simple and easy, just something that needs extra attention.
Office politics is the same thing. It entangles your day-job with something you think shouldn’t be such a big deal. There are “proper” ways of dealing with office politics, but are there a gazillion methods and it’s bewildering.
Are office politics even a real skill? Or is it just some nuisance that sits at the back of your career history, making your best efforts seem unfinished. The funny thing about office politics is that it’s always messy when you don’t do anything about it. But there are people who just apply the correct efforts using a couple of simple rules, and they seem strangely calm. How do they do that?
Here are your instructions for handling fitted sheets.
You need two sets of bedding so don’t have to wait all day for everything to dry. Wash all bedding in one load, but place the single fitted sheet in the drier on its own. It will dry quickly. The rest of the bedding goes into the drier as another load, and will dry faster unentangled.
When folding a fitted sheet, just fold it in half like a towel, bringing two fitted ends together. Match the corner of elastic bands together, and the sticky-out parts are nested inside one another. Do this with all four corners in pairs. Then fold it in half so you have three corners and a semi-circle hanging on the bottom. Fold it again until most of it looks like a proper rectangle and the semi-circle is not visible. It will look pretty good but not perfect. Store it with the rest of the folded bedding, and leave it there until you need it.
Then stop complaining about fitted sheets.
Here are your instructions for handling office politics. Perceive more than one set of overlords; the one you report to currently, plus their boss, plus the person you’re probably going to work for in three years. Do all of your normal work as one effort, applying intelligence and exertion plus your own special thing.
Like putting a fitted single sheet in the drier, treat each office-politics-item as a single-purpose puzzle, and apply your best judgment with partial disregard for other concerns. Who is going to backfill the senior vacancy? We’ll have to rely on the selection process. Why do those two people dislike each other? If one of them trusts you, ask politely about their history. Was that story I heard personal, and should I not pass it on? When in doubt say nothing. These items are confusing when bundled together and entangled with your normal efforts. So keep it simple.
Now, bring it all together into a clear understanding of what the general dynamic is. Store all of the agendas together in one place in your mind, simple and organized.
Leave it there until you need it.
And don’t complain about office politics.
Stuart Murray Speaks 