She was the co-founder of the company who successfully ran a small business for past 10 years on her own. Then her husband left job and they managed to get foreign investors to launch a bigger venture, of course she played the key role in this upgrade. I was appointed as the Principal Architect of the company, second in command to the board of directors. I recruited the entire technical team, also played the role of HR head temporarily. All team members were fond of me and were very motivated for the work, I won’t deny the fact that I quite enjoyed my popularity. I wanted take the startup to a new high and thought my team’s spirit is perfect to go the next level. My team consisted of a few old employees who were part of the old company run by the female co-founder. She was center of attraction in her old setup and could not take my popularity in right spirit. Suddenly I felt strange behaviors among my team members, as if they were into some kind of war against me. After a few days of shock I finally understood that each of my team members are being instructed and convinced to behave against me by the senior staff and senior staff were motivated by that female. In next few weeks office environment became so polluted that I had to quit and move onto another job. This seemed like a case of “jealousy” . The lady herself was quite talented and accomplished on her own, she didn’t need to run after me just out jealousy. I wanted to take that small company to new highs but they are still a 4-5 people company with yearly turnover of few lakhs, they have lost all their foreign investors. When I started the company with their founders we were a 15 people company with over 1 crore yearly turnover having four foreign investors.
I have realized with my life, workplace politics can demotivate or depress you, it might even slow you down but if you are tough enough and keep your calm then it doesn’t have the strength to stop your growth.
I relate an incidence where i was the victim of pretty politics in office during my stay in Mumbai. Notwithstanding i lost the battle,i never fought with them as i resisted my temptation to wash dirty linen in public. As a consequence i left that organization.There are myriad reasons that incubate dirty politics in organization. The maggot of dirty politics in organization can be effectively controlled by adopting policy which discourages the proliferation of nasty politics.It is difficult to completely get rid of but to control it to such a level where it encourages conducive situation thereby enhancing productivity of an organization.
I faced ‘sexism’, “inferiority or superiority complex”,“favoritism”, “greed”, “jealousy” and I survive every battle. But, its true sometimes I have to struggle. Politics is everywhere – home to office. If you can enjoy the game, its sure you will survive.