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Office Politics Is Risky, Especially if You Don't Play
By Joyce Lain Kennedy

Dear Joyce: In your column about reasons given by human resource (HR) specialists for job layoffs, an important one you missed is incestuous behavior. Managers tend to travel in packs, with past co-workers and the omnipresent gluteal osculators (Joyce: I had to look up those last two words).

I have seen this behavior in three major corporations. What it boils down to is favoritism for the sake of protecting your assets (Joyce: Assume another quaint expression).

Most corporate lower and middle managers are extraordinarily ill-suited for their positions; many were taken from the ranks of the totally incompetent and put in a "no harm" job. Reaching into previous companies where they've worked, they hire, promote and protect their buddies, who in turn, cover for them.

Anyone who is not in a particular manager's clique is centered in the crosshairs when workforce cuts are made. I think the old adages expounded by "HR professionals" as to why certain people are laid off and others aren't are nothing short of drivel from the uninformed. -- T.J.

Dear T.J.: Don't sugarcoat it! Whether you're right or wrong, enlightening us or harboring a grudge, it's an article of faith in career advisory circles that more people are fired for being unable to get along with others than for being technically unable to do the job.

Anyone who hopes to avoid being blown off course when the rolling blowouts occur has to give due respect to the game of office politics. In "The Secret Handshake," author Kathleen Kelly Reardon lists four types of political animals in the workplace:

Purists These are naive souls who believe you get ahead because you work hard and are really good at what you do.

Team Players These collaborators place team goals before their own goals.

Street Fighters These are the people who love to work the system, thriving on infighting and one-upmanship.

Maneuverers These are pushy self-promoters who aren't wedded to either hard work or teamwork. Rules are to bend.

Reardon's research concludes that Street Fighters and Maneuverers will rise in a highly political organization although they may bomb in one that's apolitical. Purists and Team Players might find themselves outside the loop if they're oblivious to the need for political savvy.

Dear Joyce: Regarding your column "E-mailed Résumé Finds Way Back to the Boss," I know of other ways bosses get résumés from employees who don't want that to happen; they are:

Sniffing on the Net Most Internet résumés aren't encrypted. A company can capture a résumé just by having someone sniffing for that company name in the text of a message or an attachment.

Ruse Identity Not all who call themselves headhunters are really headhunters. Sometimes, representing your employer, they report on employees.

I believe this happened to me four years ago when I got a call from a man identifying himself as a headhunter. When I called him back that night from my home, I explained that I sought a job with a Company A and sent a résumé. He said he had connections with Company A and asked for a signed statement agreeing to give him rights for 90 days to present me to that company. Baloney.

He didn't arrange a single interview for an Oracle database administrator! After I left my old employer and became a consultant, I did a contract job for Company A. When management asked if I could join Company A permanently, I explained about the headhunter. Guess what? There was no record of my résumé.

I sent an e-mail to the so-called headhunter but received no answer.

Warn readers of some forms of treachery they can encounter in the jungle. -- K.H.

Dear K.H.: You bet. But "sniffing" the Web means hacking. It's illegal and intrusive, like picking through someone's letters in a mailbox. Few employers will risk hacking up the names of employees who want to leave.

The "headhunter" was probably an opportunist who not only lacked connections but follow-through. Or maybe his reputation was such that Company A wouldn't deal with him. No more exclusive contracts, right?

Thanks for warning readers to look both ways before crossing over to a job search.

Send career questions for possible use in this column to Joyce Lain Kennedy at Box 368, Cardiff, CA 92007, or e-mail her at jlk@sunfeatures.com. Sorry, the volume of mail makes personal replies impossible.