Office Politics: What It Is and How to Handle It With Integrity

Say “office politics” and most people picture backstabbing, gossip and the colleague who takes credit for everyone else’s work. So they decide to stay out of it and let the work speak for itself.

The trouble is that the politics doesn’t stay out of you. Decisions about projects, promotions and whose ideas get heard are shaped by relationships and reputation whether you participate or not.

The short answer

Office politics is the informal side of how decisions get made at work: who has influence, whose judgment is trusted and how relationships shape outcomes beyond the org chart. It isn’t inherently dirty. At its core, it’s about power and status, and you can build both ethically by being visibly good at your work, genuinely considerate of others and intentional about how people come to know what you contribute.

How well do you read the informal side of work? The Influence Index is 15 questions that score five skills, including reading the room and choosing the moment. Take the Influence Index quiz.

What office politics actually means

Every workplace has two structures. The formal one is the org chart: titles, reporting lines and official processes. The informal one is how things really happen: who people go to for advice, whose opinion carries weight in a meeting and which relationships open doors.

Office politics is the activity that happens in that informal structure. It includes:

• Building relationships and alliances
• Earning trust and respect
• Competing for resources, projects and recognition
• Influencing decisions you don’t formally control

Some of that can be manipulative. Much of it is simply how human groups work.

Power and status: the two currencies of workplace politics

On The Art of Charm, Alison Fragale, who studies power and status and wrote Likable Badass, drew a distinction that makes office politics much easier to understand. Her explanation starts here.

Power is control over resources other people value. That could be money, information, access to people or the ability to give someone a good performance review. If you hold the resource, you have influence, whether people like it or not.

Status is respect. It exists in other people’s minds. As Fragale put it, nobody can grab status and hold on to it. You only have as much as others decide to give you.

She argued that many people chase power first, hoping status will follow. More often it works the other way. When people respect you, they’re more likely to want to give you resources, put you in charge and help you advance.

She also made the point that power and status aren’t optional. Everyone has to navigate them, even if we rarely have the language to talk about it.

The same skill of reading status and signals matters outside work too, and the X-Factor Accelerator trains it on the relationship and social side.

Common examples of office politics

Here are everyday situations where those currencies are at play:

• Credit and visibility. Your idea gets attention only when a more senior colleague repeats it.
• Informal decision-making. The real decision happens in a hallway conversation or a side channel before the official meeting.
• Gatekeepers. An executive assistant or a long-tenured colleague controls access to someone important.
• Alliances. Two teams consistently back each other’s proposals.
• Reputation lag. You’ve grown, but people still see you through an old label from years ago.
• Sponsorship. Someone respected mentions your work in a room you’re not in, and suddenly opportunities appear.

Some of these feel unfair. All of them are easier to deal with once you can see them.

How people judge status at work

Fragale said the judgments people make about each other aren’t random. They mostly come down to two questions: do I think you care, and do I think you’re good at what you do? Hear her explain it.

The first is about warmth. Are you on my side, or only out for yourself? The second is about competence. Are you capable and dependable?

She described a common trap. When people want to look strong and competent, they tend to downplay warmth. When they want to seem friendly, they downplay their strength. But she argued these aren’t two ends of a seesaw. They’re independent, more like the two axes of a graph, so you can be seen as both at once.

That’s a useful lens for office politics. The colleagues who navigate it best are usually seen as both capable and genuinely considerate.

The myth that you should just stay out of it

Many high performers believe that if they keep their heads down and do great work, the right people will notice. Sometimes they do. Often they don’t, because the people making decisions can’t see everything.

Fragale also addressed the tension between authenticity and strategy. She argued you can be completely genuine and still be thoughtful about how you show up. Her example: on a terrible morning, you don’t have to open a meeting with a 20-minute complaint about your car and your coffee. Choosing a positive tone isn’t fake. It’s considering the people around you.

Being the most capable person in the room doesn’t guarantee your judgment carries weight. The Access Test is a 49-minute training on 13 hidden tests that run underneath important work conversations. Take the Access Test.

How to play office politics without losing your integrity

Invest in status before you need it

Fragale described status as an investment. How a colleague sees you may not matter today, but it may matter a great deal later. She said the best time to build status is when you don’t need anything from anyone.

In practice, that means small, low-effort behaviors over time: being helpful, following through, recognizing other people’s contributions and being pleasant to work with.

Tell your story in small moments

When someone asks “How’s it going?”, most of us answer “Good, busy.” Fragale called these little storytelling opportunities that most people throw away. A sentence about something you’re working on or excited about helps people understand what you do and what you’re good at.

She put it simply: people can’t rely on you for help if they don’t know what you’re good at.

Talk other people up

When people speak well of you behind your back, they build your status before you even enter the room. Fragale suggested two ways to encourage that. First, tell people when you think a colleague is doing great work. Second, ask someone who respects you to mention your work to others who matter.

Frame your ambitions around the group

When you advocate for yourself, connect your request to what it does for the team and the organization. For a promotion, that might sound like: “In that role, I could use these skills in bigger ways for the team and our clients.” It’s still good for you. It’s just not only about you.

For a step-by-step version, read how to navigate office politics.

When office politics turns toxic

Not all politics is healthy. Warning signs include:

• Credit is routinely taken without acknowledgment.
• Information is deliberately withheld to undermine people.
• Decisions are made on favoritism with no link to results.
• Gossip is used as a weapon.

If you see these patterns, document what’s happening, build relationships with people outside the immediate conflict and look for allies or sponsors. If the culture rewards these behaviors consistently, that’s important information about whether you want to stay.

Common questions

What does office politics mean?

It’s the informal side of how influence works at work: relationships, reputation and trust that shape decisions alongside the formal org chart.

Is office politics always bad?

No. Politics can be manipulative, but much of it is ordinary relationship-building, earning respect and influencing decisions in good faith.

How do I avoid office politics?

You can’t fully avoid it, because decisions about you are shaped by it either way. You can choose to take part ethically, by building relationships and making your contributions visible.

What are examples of workplace politics?

Competing for credit, informal decisions made outside meetings, gatekeepers who control access, alliances between teams and sponsors who advocate for people.

Influence is a skill, not a personality trait

Office politics feels unfair when you can’t see how it works. Once you understand power, status and how people judge each other, you can take part in it on your own terms.

If you’re the one who does the work while someone else gets the credit, or you’ve stepped into a new leadership role and are still figuring out the politics, those are skills you can build.

For the work side of influence at work, THEOS, the Elite Operators System is the eight-week program built to train it.

What next

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