Are office politics good or bad? Is practicing them a vice or a virtue?
Office politics are BOTH vice and virtue. But moreover, they are a necessarily evil. You see, offices are places with potentially very large numbers of people, with some goals in common and some not shared. Some people are content to show up, 9 – 5, and go home, others are more ambitious, and still others demand much attention from subordinates and superiors. Many people assume “Office Politics” and think of being “deceitful and underhanded”, as you said in the text to your question. But this is not necessarily the case! Office politics could be used in a positive manner. The key to success in life is the support of other people, and politics is just that: gaining the support of others. If a person works and plays well with others, it can be perceived that they are somehow cheating the system and playing people against each other, when in fact it’s only the natural consequence of having people want their time and attention (which should be the goal of anybody trying to be popular). Pop
