The other day during lunch hour, a colleague told me something "big" happened while I was away on vacation. Thinking there might be no variable bonus this year or even a pay cut, I crossed my fingers while waited for her answer expectantly.

"You know, so-and-so had a squabble and most of us could hear them in our offices!" Was her reply.

I wasn't sure if I should be grateful or relieved to hear it has got nothing to do with the $$$ issue, but... office politics? The mention of these words is enough to send you scurrying out of the office doors.

Despite the stress and competitiveness of today’s office work, why should one allow such thing to happen within the offices internally (or externally)? Don’t we have enough problems at work? Don’t we waste too much time shooting darts at someone’s back than doing his/her work productively? Sadly this will carry on unless we learn to respect the other party more, and not trying to put one another down just because he/she feels she is more senior or anything else that matters. I feel communication plays an important part, no matter what position you are. Often, miscommunications occur because no one really cares enough to sit down and discuss things openly. Sometimes, we made assumptions but ended up it wasn't what the other party was thinking, which in turn resulted in miscommunications and then the vicious cycle begins.

On the other hand, some of us did it because we want to outshine the other party. Or we are jealous and feel we should do something to win the bosses' approvals. Whatever the reasons, there are always ways to create office politics. Which is why I rather keep a low profile but sometimes it will get to you no matter how hard you try to dodge it.