Meanings
- derogatoryuncountableactions and behavior that are employed to gain or protect status or resources within an organization
Getting the promotion you think you deserve over the person who also thinks she deserves it is office politics.
1999, D. A. Benton, The $100,000 Club: How to Make a Six-Figure Income, Hachette UK, →ISBN, page 423 more examples
As a practical matter, however, you have no more chance of escaping office politics than of inheriting Fort Knox.
1955 December, “How to play office politics”, in Kiplinger's Personal Finance, volume 9, number 12, Kiplinger Washington Editors, →ISSN, page 16Office politics, like regular politics, is the art of who gets what, when, and how. While some denigrate the practice of office politics, it nevertheless is part of organizational life. It is the basis for much of the interpersonal interactivity we engage in on the job.
1994, Gilbert W. Fairholm, Leadership and the Culture of Trust, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 73If we narrow our focus to "bad" office politics, the kind that subverts an organization or undermines the work of people, the self-promoting plotting that others do, then yes, there are things that can be done.
1998, IEEE-USA, The Balanced Engineer: Essential Ideas for Career Development, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 82
Cite this entry
office politics. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/office%20politics
“office politics.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/office%20politics. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “office politics,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/office%20politics.
Source: office politics on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.