office politics

plural noun

often disapproving

: the activities, attitudes, or behaviors that are used to get or keep power or an advantage within a business or company

Examples of office politics in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The office politics were complicated; partly to avoid being used as a lever to force Shawn out, Whitworth took the Atlantic job and moved to Boston. —Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, 12 Mar. 2024

The picture that emerges is that of a busy editor, pencil in hand, her head bent over the page to keep office politics out of her line of sight. —Hillary Kelly, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2024

However, these events can sometimes encourage unfiltered conversations and behaviors that may contribute to toxic office politics. —Sho Dewan, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2024

The snappy dialogue draws moderate laughs, often by squeezing banal office politics against the scarier kind. —Jesse Green, New York Times, 8 Feb. 2024

Lawrence, who wrote for W and WWD for the better part of two decades, deploys her insider fluency with aplomb, describing the microaggressions of office politics as deftly as nepobaby influencers turned vegan caterers. —Chloe Schama, Vogue, 12 Jan. 2024

So when working at a U.S. government agency, she was taken aback by brusque, sharp-elbowed office politics. —Stephen Humphries, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Oct. 2023

Remove red tape and other ‘bad’ stressors Unnecessary red tape, office politics, ambiguity and interpersonal conflict create a lot of negative stress for employees, which hinders work performance. —Tobias Dennerlein, The Conversation, 8 Sep. 2023

There is no need to overthink this or worry about office politics, etc. —Roxane Gay, New York Times, 29 Sep. 2023