the.com/office politics
the art of getting ahead by managing perceptions instead of doing the work.
means the informal power games people play at work to gain influence, credit, or advantage outside the official org chart.
from the term crystallized in the 1970s-80s corporate boom, when hierarchies got complex enough that surviving them required a whole unspoken skill set separate from your actual job.
real coststudies link it to lower morale and higher turnover
paradoxignoring it entirely often backfires worse than playing it
universalappears in every hierarchy, from startups to the vatican