Office Politics or Big Brother Politics?

Well at last Big Brother has finished, the finale is done and the winner has been chosen.  The office workplace is not unlike the Big Brother house.  Every office is full of cliques and splinter groups and is as complex as any other society group.

When a newbie joins the office workplace, it can be difficult for them to work out who plays which role in the office society.  Once you have been working at the same office desk for the last two years, you begin to take for granted all the in-jokes, phrases, taboos and little nuances that took you ages to learn.

Even within the office, there can be miniature societies forming.  Each department can act differently.  In some offices, the occupants of the office chairs will sit there swearing at each other and laughing and joking, whereas in other offices you could hear a pin drop on the office desk.

After just a week or two in his new office desk, the newbie can work out which business or chit chat takes place away from the desk.  Some things are saved particularly for the water cooler gang or those who hang around the kitchen.

Whether in the Big Brother house or in the office, any group of humans thrown together will start to develop complex dynamics and it is interesting to observe our behaviour.