One thing I dislike working in a company is the amount of politicking. Corporate suits normally equate to corporate bitching and backstabbing. The company I am working for right now is not as bad as others I have worked for, as the culture is family-friendly and places emphasis on loyalty, but that is not to say that office politics are non-existent.
One thing I observe in every company is that people have their own cliques. So if you do not belong to that particular clique, you will somehow be ostracised. You will not be asked to lunch, nor offered to buy lunch for you, and even if you offered to buy lunch or snacks, they will refuse, but when it is someone from the clique they will accept. Furthermore, people will not talk much to you, nor help you, and when you mess up something, they blow things out of proportion and you get into big trouble. As a result, if you are not able to get along with certain people, you will be a loner and have to fear for yourself.
This was what had been happening to me the past few days. My rank is that of an executive, but I assist the Legal Counsel, so I am in between a secretary and a professional support officer. The senior secretaries and assistants are on the same scale as me. My level is where the corporate office is, so most of the directors and high-ranking officers are there, which means most of the secretaries are there too. Needless to say, the secretaries themselves are in a group of their own, often going for lunch and buying lottery together.
I do not mind not being part of the group, because these are normal heartlanders who speak more Mandarin, married with kids, and forever dreaming of striking lottery. I seem to be an outcast, but that is ok as we have different interests so even if I am part of their group, I have no idea what to talk to them about or relate to what they say, as they will be talking about their families, children and in-laws. But because I am not part of their group, I seem to have this feeling that I am not welcomed. My boss expresses the same view too, that the people here are cliqueish and does not make a new staff feel welcome.
And because I am not part of the group, they do not take it upon themselves to help or guide me along, and leave me to settle in on my own and seem so reluctant to help. A few days back, our managing director asked for a certain document that was dated ten years ago. The documents I know are stored in the data room, as they were used when the company got listed. Whatever that was not in the data room would be in the fire safe.
However, the old documents were nowhere to be found. When I spoke to the secretary who was handling the documents, she told me to look for it myself; it would be somewhere. It was precisely because I have looked everywhere and not able to find the document that I asked her! If I could find, why would I even want to bother her? So I looked all over again and still could not find it. I politely and apologetically asked her again, and then she reluctantly told me there was a storage room somewhere at the back where the old documents are stored.
Six months in the company, and only now someone tells me there is a storage room for old documents?! It is not as if the room was so easily obvious and accessible; I had to go to the back of the building before I even saw it! When I went in, I wanted to faint on the spot because everything was in a mess. Those may be old documents, but if they were to be haphazardly kept, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack! Anyway I managed to find the document, but could people not make my job easier by just telling me in the first place where I would most likely find the documents? Then I could have saved a lot of time. It was not as if I had so much time to go searching for documents all over. I have other work to do as well.
Another incident was due to some documents which I vetted for the China company. Apparently, no one bothered keeping me in the loop after I sent out the amended draft. And since no one said anything, I took it that the documents were fine, as is the practice. It was only when a colleague asked me about the status of the documents that I realised that the documents were not executed yet. When I asked if the documents were ready for execution, all she said was she did not know and asked me to check my emails. But how to check if I was not kept in the loop for the later negotiations? I had to spend some time asking all around before someone got back to me, sending me the final version of the documents before I was able to get everything ready.
Why could people not make their instructions clear from the start? This would save lots of miscommunication and trouble. For anyone to work efficiently and effectively, he / she would need to know what is going on, and if no one bothered to brief the person from the start, nor help when the person asked, can one really be blamed for not knowing what to do and where to search for things?
One thing I observe in every company is that people have their own cliques. So if you do not belong to that particular clique, you will somehow be ostracised. You will not be asked to lunch, nor offered to buy lunch for you, and even if you offered to buy lunch or snacks, they will refuse, but when it is someone from the clique they will accept. Furthermore, people will not talk much to you, nor help you, and when you mess up something, they blow things out of proportion and you get into big trouble. As a result, if you are not able to get along with certain people, you will be a loner and have to fear for yourself.
This was what had been happening to me the past few days. My rank is that of an executive, but I assist the Legal Counsel, so I am in between a secretary and a professional support officer. The senior secretaries and assistants are on the same scale as me. My level is where the corporate office is, so most of the directors and high-ranking officers are there, which means most of the secretaries are there too. Needless to say, the secretaries themselves are in a group of their own, often going for lunch and buying lottery together.
I do not mind not being part of the group, because these are normal heartlanders who speak more Mandarin, married with kids, and forever dreaming of striking lottery. I seem to be an outcast, but that is ok as we have different interests so even if I am part of their group, I have no idea what to talk to them about or relate to what they say, as they will be talking about their families, children and in-laws. But because I am not part of their group, I seem to have this feeling that I am not welcomed. My boss expresses the same view too, that the people here are cliqueish and does not make a new staff feel welcome.
And because I am not part of the group, they do not take it upon themselves to help or guide me along, and leave me to settle in on my own and seem so reluctant to help. A few days back, our managing director asked for a certain document that was dated ten years ago. The documents I know are stored in the data room, as they were used when the company got listed. Whatever that was not in the data room would be in the fire safe.
However, the old documents were nowhere to be found. When I spoke to the secretary who was handling the documents, she told me to look for it myself; it would be somewhere. It was precisely because I have looked everywhere and not able to find the document that I asked her! If I could find, why would I even want to bother her? So I looked all over again and still could not find it. I politely and apologetically asked her again, and then she reluctantly told me there was a storage room somewhere at the back where the old documents are stored.
Six months in the company, and only now someone tells me there is a storage room for old documents?! It is not as if the room was so easily obvious and accessible; I had to go to the back of the building before I even saw it! When I went in, I wanted to faint on the spot because everything was in a mess. Those may be old documents, but if they were to be haphazardly kept, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack! Anyway I managed to find the document, but could people not make my job easier by just telling me in the first place where I would most likely find the documents? Then I could have saved a lot of time. It was not as if I had so much time to go searching for documents all over. I have other work to do as well.
Another incident was due to some documents which I vetted for the China company. Apparently, no one bothered keeping me in the loop after I sent out the amended draft. And since no one said anything, I took it that the documents were fine, as is the practice. It was only when a colleague asked me about the status of the documents that I realised that the documents were not executed yet. When I asked if the documents were ready for execution, all she said was she did not know and asked me to check my emails. But how to check if I was not kept in the loop for the later negotiations? I had to spend some time asking all around before someone got back to me, sending me the final version of the documents before I was able to get everything ready.
Why could people not make their instructions clear from the start? This would save lots of miscommunication and trouble. For anyone to work efficiently and effectively, he / she would need to know what is going on, and if no one bothered to brief the person from the start, nor help when the person asked, can one really be blamed for not knowing what to do and where to search for things?
2 comments:
The good thing about electronic communication is that there is traceable proof.
That's why the taichi master in my office includes as many people as possible in the e-mail CC, and keep the messages very short so that no accountability can be tacked to them.
As for lunch, I am thankful that I am the type that prefers to eat alone. And that my office seems better "politically".
Politics exist everywhere, even in the best places. It only depends on the degree. Perhaps maybe for guys its different, since ladies are the ones who like to huddle in a group and gossip about everyone else except themselves.
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