Ignorance is bliss
One of my managers once told me that I am too "naive" and that I don't understand office politics. I felt a little weird hearing that comment, because I did not see a need to understand office politics, and I will explain why. Imagine you are driving a car in a road full of traffic, and suddenly the vehicles in the lane next to you start moving ahead and your lane does not seem to move. What would you do? You will try and squeeze yourself in the next lane (by putting on the indicator, hopefully!) so that you can move ahead too. At least that's what most people do. Now imagine, that the lane next to you does not exist, and that you are waiting in the traffic for it to clear so that you can move ahead. Now what would you do? You would peacefully wait in your lane and move when the traffic moves. So what is different? When you start comparing your lane with the next, that's where the problem starts and the peaceful waiting goes for a toss. I have been working i...