Ask HN: How to stay out of office politics?

[log101]

How to stay out of office politics (as a junior):

- Always put your headphones on, at some point they'll get tired shouting at you and ignore

- Do not speak unless you have to, but don't look anti-social either

- Do not comment when the office is talking about a co-worker, it'll bite you

- Do not act weird (golden rule of life), speak, walk and sip your coffee slowly

- Arrive as early as you can, and leave as late as possible, you should OWN the office and shouldn't miss an important event

- Always smile and be kind, they will hesitate to raise their voice

- Smell nice, brush your teeth, they might use your shabbiness as an ad hominem argument

- Don't get too friendly nor too cold, both ways end in regret

Here are the tactics I've developed in my first 6 months. I'd love to hear about yours!

[dave4420]

In your one-to-one meeting with your boss, demand that they protect the team from office politics.

Find a different job where your boss is good at shielding their team from office politics.

Sometimes it will be your boss’s boss who should be insulating you from office politics instead.

[Shinmon]

Not sure if this is irony or not.

[PaulHoule → Shinmon]

"Brush your teeth" is good advice.

[version_five → PaulHoule]

I think "smell nice" is pretty under-rated, though I'd suggest the nicest smell is so smell at all

Personally (at a normal work-interaction distance from someone)

Nothing > normal BO > food > cologne

[Shinmon → PaulHoule]

Yeah, but...do besides a very few people actually have problems with that?

[PaulHoule → Shinmon]

Unlike a lot of problems, odors are easy to fix.