Office Politics 101

[WRXtranceformed]

You guys need to find new companies to work for if your managers seriously take these things into consideration. I have no idea how they can form a different opinion of you because you're showing up at happy hour vs. what they see in an every day basis from you in the office.

Trust me, excluding yourself from extracurricular activities is a key indicator of you not being a team player. If you find yourself avoiding all social functions, then perhaps you need a new job where you work in a more fun environment. Work may be work, but you have to find some ray of enjoyment in what you do.

Completely untrue in my opinion. I avoid most of our company functions like softball, football games, etc. because I have my own life outside of work and I like to get away from it when I get the chance. I wake up at night dreaming about work, I spend way more than the typical 9-5 at work, I get work related calls basically 7 days of the week... I enjoy every chance I get to get away from it heh. I like the guys I work with and I definitely hit them up for happy hours sometimes, but a good company with good management like ours isn't going to discriminate against you just because you don't always hang out with your other coworkers. You should be being judged by your talent and your ability to work solo and with others in the work setting, not what you decide to do with your free time.

I'm sure other companies are judging their employees that closely, but I'm glad I'm not a part of it, that's retarded. If you really want to bond with your bosses, find a common ground and be yourself. My boss, it turned out, was really into cars I found out at my first interviews. He has a heavily built Corvette that (before the motor caught on fire) ran in the high 10s. He and I have been talking about hitting up the drag strip together until his car blew up. I wanted to do it not to try to brown nose or get ahead because I trust that my actions are speaking louder than my words, but because I legitimately wanted to hang out with him and race =p

Just my 2 cents. In a nutshell, if it's a company event that's "mandatory" then yeah you should go to show support to your coworkers and management, but if its just some after-hours thing that everyone is going to be at, you shouldn't have to sweat being there because Johnny SucksHisBossesDick could become your division's manager next week instead of you. That's silly.