What does "playing politics" mean for software engineers?

pjmlp•about 1 hour ago

Really this needs a guide?

Anyone that has worked on big corp gets thrown into office politics since day one.

srean•39 minutes ago

Yes.

It sure would have helped with my learning curve. Coming from a home and a college where it was ok to criticize or examine ideas openly, it took me a while to figure out what was I doing wrong.

There is a big cultural aspects too. This was in India. Questioning seniors in group meetings is usually a big no no that I wasn't aware of.

Well, I was aware, but I thought that an international big corp would not have that problem. Was I wrong.

smokedetector1•about 1 hour ago

During my first role at <big company>, I believe I accidentally made an enemy of a couple of directors due to ill-timed interpersonal awkwardness and unwillingness to suck up. What can I say - I thought tech was about meritocracy and cutting the BS. I was laid off in the next round despite doing good work. I learned my lesson and now I’m (I think) well-liked.

srean•28 minutes ago

I am bent the other way.

I am very vigilant of whether I am sucking up to anyone.

So in one of my first grad school conferences I see this stalwart professor making his way through different poster presentations. I don't think he encourages it, but people fawn upon him in subtle and not so subtle ways to gain recognition. Afterall he is Michael Jordan.

As I saw him approach, I told myself that I will not send any signals that could plausible be mistaken for obsequiousness.

Turns out he was not the professor I thought he was and with a hindsight of few decades, I was just rude to him ... just because of mistaken identity.

Not overly rude, but not nice either. Wayward ways of the youth.

wolvesechoes•about 1 hour ago

It is funny. Well-socialized person doesn't need this kind of guide, as unwritten rules of social play are learned in the process of growing-up.

But it is clear for "nerds" and "hackers" social is impenetrable, thus preference for interacting with the machine and towards techno-solutionism. What, by the way, the main reason FOSS movement will never liberate anything.

zug_zug•22 minutes ago

It's more than that, some of us actually believe in a thing called "good work."

The idea that powerful manager saying untrue things shouldn't be contradicted may seem like "obviously correct" to you, but actually at the places where 80% of engineers call that shit out that political manager probably gets booted from the company.

But many people genuinely believe politicians are a net negative on the company as a whole, and in startups many people are willing to do/say what's best for the company without expecting some individual return.

fragmede•3 minutes ago

The problem is those rules aren't the same across the world, so what works in one place doesn't apply to the next.

derwiki•23 minutes ago

I recently had a conversation with some friends, and one mentioned that she hates office politics and tries to stay out of it. It clicked for me: people who hate/abstain from office “politics” are just clueless about the social/organizational hierarchy.

Absolutely there is some real political nastiness that can happen, but 98 3/4% of what’s described as office politics really just seems like a) make decisions that are aligned with the company and b) make someone up your management chain look good.

srean•37 minutes ago

> unwritten rules of social play are learned in the process of growing-up.

Could you elaborate. Under which circumstances does one learn these things. Family, surely not. I hope so.

pjmlp•4 minutes ago

Oh family as well, when going beyond the one household, into the remainig family branches especially if money, property are involved, or going against the house culture and expectations for one's life choices.

derwiki•28 minutes ago

I learned this best in university clubs that had elected positions

srean•26 minutes ago

Ah ! Makes sense. Those places seemed quite toxic and I kept my distance from those.

What does "playing politics" mean for software engineers?

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