Office politics is almost a fetish subject of mine. I've worked in a toxic office or two in my time and have no desire to repeat the experience. In fact I formed disassociated.com plc as a result. Anyone interested in avoiding one of the murkier sides of working life ought to check out Calvin Sun's list of 10 ways to survive office politics. The best way to ... Read full entry

Are office romances a development of the last couple of years? I don't think so, yet the line "these days it is unusual to find someone who has never had an office romance", would suggest that is the case. Put single (or, yes, even attached) people together in just about any regular setting, such as a workplace, and romance will bloom. There's nothing new, or "these days", about it. After ... Read full entry

There are potentially seven different types of difficult people you could be working with right now. I think I've meet most the "types" at one time or another. I'm no expert in workplace psychology, but have found most people's "inclination" to be difficult takes root in either a personal unhappiness and/or insecurity. The first type, the Aggressor, has three sub-types: the Tank, the Sniper and the Exploder. The Tank is ... Read full entry

Diversity Isn't Rocket Science, Is It? 53 per cent of women working in IT and engineering professions said that in order to succeed in their careers they had to "act like a man", according to a recent report which says "a pervasive macho culture" is still very much dominant in the workplace. In one case study a female programmer who was given a male sounding nickname received varying email communications from ... Read full entry

Office politics is here to stay. Like or lump it (personally, I lump it). However, according to a recent article, it may be possible to take some of the negative elements of office politics, and apply them positively. These elements can be succinctly defined as:power relationships and ... Read full entry