Corporate Games aka Office Politics (Part 2)

First of all, I would like to thank my mentor for writing this part for me. Additionally, he told me there is a total of 16 corporate games. I never thought it can be that specific and I definitely curious to know more. So, there will be a lot of articles coming on this topics.

I encourage you readers to direct any questions you have about corporate games in the comments of this post. I shall get my mentor to answer your questions. He warned me though, the corporate game players are going to hate him (and me, since this is my blog) for all these exposures. I guess the last thing I will be affected both emotionally and spiritually is to upset all these players. I, basically, may even be elated to do this.

Here it goes:

Why does corporate games exist and rising?

Statistically over 65% of Malaysians are unaware of what their future holds in their work life.

It is actually a phenomenon which have been observed for the past few years among the working class at the age of between 20-30 years old.

There are primarily 4 reasons to such phenomenon:

Firstly, it is noticed that after graduation, most people would (with the exceptions of rich sons and daughters of the upper class) simply apply for any jobs that are available due to the pressures of the unemployment. "What happens if I don't get a job? What are my peers going to think of me? What will my parents say? How am I going to get the things I want?" That would be some of the thoughts in their minds. This we call, "The Pressure Point".

Secondly, after working on a job which they have not thought through carefully, the people would be hunting again for another job which they thought would be a better job than the current one, thinking "Hey, now that I have some working experience, I can get a better job with my qualification". But in actual fact, they are again considering the pay package as a major factor rather than the job which suits them in the long term. This we call, "The Monetary Factor".

Thirdly, within the companies of which they are working in, they had noticed that some people actually did not work as hard as they ought to be. And some were not as smart and efficient as they should be. But they managed to get promoted, getting authority and also making the "big bucks". So, after the observation, they are now beginning to learn what we call "The Corporate Games". Play their cards right, stick with the herds, play along with the crowd, bully the weak, make use of others, ignore the feelings of others. The list goes on and on. Suddenly, they thought they had found the shortcut to success. "The Corporate Games", so we call it.

Lastly, after being a seasoned "player" for a few years and playing their games, some actually "lost out" due to being exposed of their inability to perform. It can also be the herds had broken up , or they have failed once too many times to cover up. But try as they may to maintain their positions for "survival", they would resort to the most vicious of all corporate games, i.e. they sabotage others. Playing the back stabbing trick, the traps they laid out to their targets, the false achievements which they claimed away from others. The bad things go on and you do not want me to delve into that right now. This we call "The Ultimate Games".

For every beginning, there will be an ending. So, someday, a true leader comes along, hired by the company to "clean up" everything. Thus the day shall be the end of the players.

So, if corporate games are way of life, why don't these people succeed in their life permanently? The answer lies in the most basic law of nature, that is, as the Chinese saying goes, "For every mountain, there is a higher mountain". No matter how good they are, there is always someone who is more skillful in playing games.