It's a fact that all large organizations operate based on politics. Managers collect big salaries, and they don't want to lose that money when they make a mistake. In fact, they strive to make even bigger money by making themselves look good (usually by making someone else look bad). Organizational politics is a complex game of back stabbing and ass covering.
At the manager level, playing politics is not a choice, it's a requirement for survival. Although workers are not generally involved in an organizations political game, you can make big points by helping your boss play the game. You do this by making your boss look good.
Never disagree with or confront your boss in public. This will cause them to lose face. If you disagree with your boss, inform them politely in private that you are expressing your opinion to give the boss more information. Let the boss know that despite your disagreement, you intend to carry out your assignment the bosses way.
Some bosses will try to cover their ass by blaming their mistakes on you. Your best response is to just shrug it off. In an organization, everybody knows who is really responsible when a mistake is made.
Some bosses want honest answers. other bosses want an excuse they can use to cover their ass. Some workers have such good rapport with their boss that they can give them an honest answer along with excuses the boss can use to play the political game (cover their ass).
In an organization a manager or boss is assigned a project and along with that project they are given the resources required to accomplish the project, including workers. If the manager fails to accomplish the project in the scheduled time with the allotted resources, they well may be fired. The interesting thing is that if the manager fails to accomplish the assigned a project, even though it is entirely the fault of one of their workers, the manager still gets fired.
That's because the manager takes total responsibility for their employees. If an employee is not doing their job, it's the manager's responsibly to make sure the employee does their job. If not, the manager can get fired. The employee may get fired too (if the manager has time to fire the employee before they get fired).
The reason I mention this is because your boss may take credit for your work. If your boss may take takes credit for your work, keep in mind that if you screwed up your boss would take the heat. Your best response is to just shrug it off. In an organization, everybody knows who is really responsible for any work that is accomplished.
Never make your boss look bad. Always give advance notice of when you will take time off, and provide a way to cover your responsibilities while you're gone. Try to make your boss look good. In fact, if you accomplish something successful that has high visibility in the organization, give your boss the credit. Then inform your boss of your career goals. That's another rule of the politics game - you take care of me and I'll take care of you.
Your boss is the most important individual to work with to achieve success at Work. Your boss is a unique individual that can get in a bad mood, make a bad decision, or exhibit imperfections just like anyone else. The key to achieving success at Work is to Work around the idiosyncrasies of Your boss.
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