No, not the game that you and I just lost. I’m talking about the corporate game.
Back when I was in the Air Force, my supervisor would always tell me, “Play the game, Agent. Play the game.”
Now I was talking to my girlfriend last night, and she and I agreed that the reason we’re both not more successful in our jobs is because we don’t “play the game.” If I wanted to play the game, I wouldn’t know how.
So what does it mean to “play the game” in the business world?
I know how to play the game, but refuse to.
Game players take responsibility for others’ accomplishments. They use words like I and me, instead of us and we. They arrive early, and leave late and are always cheerful and energetic - to your face. They speak a lot in meetings, even when they have nothing to say. They hob-knob and kowtow. They copy the boss on emails and they are always standing in the bosses doorway. They use a lot of jargon.
They do whatever the company wants them to do with a smile on their face, and I don’t mean just their job duties. Extracurricular activities, after hours staff parties, unpaid team-building activities, United Way campaigns - they participate gladly in all of them. They wear as much flair as they can possibly fit on their vest, in other words.
I’m not sure that playing the game always has negative connotations, but it’s surprising how often the movers and shakers are all flash and no substance. It seems that with them, everything they do is for the sole purpose of impressing someone that can make their life better.
Sorry, you all lose. I’ll restart.
Do you know how to play the game?
Hello. Gigantic slacker here.
Some of this I don’t get why it’s a bad thing. I’m not “Somebody’s Got a Case of the Mondays” irritating, but I try to be friendly in the office. I try to get in early – it’s easier on me – and stay late if I have to. I copy my boss on my emails because he copies me on his emails and we all need to know what everybody is doing. And my boss doesn’t even have a doorway.
I do hate jargon though.
Kiss up, kick down. Them’s the rules.
It means being tactical at times. When your boss offers you a game nice game of chess when all you want to do is advance global thermonuclear war, it’s best to sit back and consider.
I admittedly used to do this, but my boss counseled me to “stop trying to be the star” and “give others a chance to shine.” I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now.
I’m sure there’s a game in my organization, but it doesn’t seem like this is how you play it.
It’s kinda like chess, but with dice, and all the pawns think they’re gonna be promoted to kings eventually.
Yeah, that’s what I was getting at. Some of the game-playing might end up benefitting someone, somewhere, but that’s never why it’s done. There’s never an honest desire to do a good job or help somebody out.
I see it as the “square wheel theory” that my mother likes to use. (I wish I had embraced that theory earlier.)
They want square wheels, which you know won’t work. You mention that round ones are better, but they insist on square… so you build the square wheel, but have the round one in reserve, so when it fails, you look like the hero on both fronts.
It’s not “the game,” but it’s a great alternative.
Some clues, which I refuse to play along with.
Complaining = Disloyalty.
Asking Questions = Telling your SUPERIORS how to do their jobs.
As one former supervisor said; “Appearance is 90%”. Clearly true in his case as the substance was rotten to the core, but he ‘played the game’ and got promoted.
Basically, follow every minor and illogical rule without complaint or deviation. Never question anything, no matter how stupid. Display unswerving loyalty to your boss and every other high level person in the organization. Don’t criticize your equipment, your tools, your procedures or your organization, or someone will consider it disloyalty. Keep a positive attitude every minute of the day. Be extremely mindful that your true feelings don’t display themselves in any way, especially on your face. “Go along to get along.” Jump through every flaming, barbed wire hoop they put in front of you as if you were being fed steak.
Go home at night and weep for the remnants of your soul.
There’s a difference though, I think. If you bring good cheer into the office because you feel good or want others too, that’s great. It’s when a person is selectively cheerful in order to get something that it becomes a problem.
There’s one person at this office (no longer in this department, thank god) who was the consumate game player. When things went wrong, she’d blame someone beneath her. When something went right, she’d take all of the credit. She’d only be friendly when she wanted something, but otherwise she was pretty nasty. And she had all these little power play things she’d do to show who was boss.
A book I read on Second City said that the first rule of doing improv is to never say no. That’s the first rule of the game also. You never know that what you think of as a useless job is actually important. If you slack off on the trivial stuff, why would anyone give you important stuff? Do it the best you can, and do it a bit faster and better than expected.
I can give lots of examples where this worked fine for me and my kids.
Copying email is good. Saying I instead of we might not work in an environment which fosters teamwork. Standing in the bosses door might not work if you are a pain in the ass. And above all, understand and manage your boss. My first boss was a mathematician and poet turned engineer. I assure you, blindly following every rule wouldn’t have earned brownie points with him. Doing things to help him further his goals (which was good for all of us) did.
Hmm. I suddenly understand why a lot of people at school considered me to be a tool. I thought I was being helpful, volunteering my time to make fun activities.
Interesting.
“The Game” too often has suck-up and backstabby connotations. I’d like to spin elements in a more positive light, you can be a game player without trampling your peers. Yes, you do have to put on an actor’s face, but you don’t have to bring it home with you.
– Deliver a product (widget, speech, service etc) that they want, not what you want them to want. No matter how valuable your 1000 hrs of toil, labor, and analysis is, if at the end of the day your boss wants a single bar chart and a thumbs up and your 100 page dissertation goes in the recycling, then just smile and don’t whine about how hard it was.
– Always give at least a token ear or effort to anything anyone has to say. That whiny shrew in finance auditing can either whine positively or negatively to others about you.
–Be positive, but don’t be the annoying perky cheerleader or morale booster. Bringing in a box of occaisonal donuts will win you far more points than being labeled “United Way guy”.
–Keep a work/life separation, don’t get drunk with the boss. The friends you make outside of work are better and won’t hurt your career if they turn sour.
–Always compliment your peers for what they did, even if you couldn’t care less. Popping into a cubicle and saying “Great presentation, Bob, thanks for the info” gains you some points without being a toady.
–If you want to criticize or complain about something, wrap it up in an appealing management bow. “I think I’ve found an opportunity…”, “I think I’ve identified some waste…”. The words “I think” are important, since the boss can then be seeded with the idea and led to believe that they actually have some further constructive insight and are not just being criticized 
–Don’t be flash without substance, don’t pad your work with fluff and shiny things. “Just the facts, maam”, and then just chat afterwards about golf.
This.
Your boss hired you because he had some goal(s) in mind (increase profits, placate a superior, accomplish something that would land him a promotion, whatever…) He thought you had the potential to help achieve those goals. Understand your boss’ motivations and build trust by demonstrating that you get what he is trying to accomplish. If you disagree with your boss’ judgement, offer alternatives that you feel are superior and still allow your boss to achieve some of what he wants to achieve. Don’t simply complain.
I forget where I read the following advice, but it was something to the effect of “Your boss may not be the smartest, or the most talented, or the most charismatic, but he is the one with the power to make the decisions.” It’s important to always remember that.
As I understand it, “The Game” in this sense is all about conformity and not rocking the boat. Avoid controversy, don’t draw attention to yourself via clothing, manners, etc.; and don’t tell high ranking people things they don’t want to hear, or if you must, find a way to make it less unpleasant for them.
Oak = Epic Fail at the game.
I just can’t do it. I’m the kind of guy that is going to say what’s on my mind, and I’m often not very delicate about how I phrase things. Also never have been a suit & tie kinda guy–as a lawyer, this makes me more than a little eccentric.
If you had said your boss was a “he” and not a “she,” I swear we could have worked at the same place.
A former boss of mine fits this description quite well. Whenever his boss stopped by, he would get all smiley, laugh at his stupid jokes, tell him how great his ideas were. And when something went wrong he’d find a way to make himself an innocent and pawn all the blame on us underlings.
Worst of all he hated when us peons insisted on not playing “The Game” with him - i.e. failing to kiss his ass, questioning his ideas, not saying “how high” when he said “jump,” exercising independence.
The irony is he ended up getting fired for creating a hostile workplace.