Welcome to the Corporate World

According to Wikipedia, Office Politics is a term for both the productive and counterproductive human factors present between coworkers in any office environment.
Office politics differs from office gossip in that people participating in office politics do so with the objective of gaining advantage, whereas gossip can be purely social activity.

Some aspects of office politics:
* Social alliances often form between colleagues of similar interests, and thy may team up
against other perceived competitors.
* Personal factors may divide the groups, often including age, gender, or ethnic background.
* Perceived or real romantic affairs often unbalance relationships.
* Competition for favour between two executives striving for the top may create cliques or
or teams within the organization.
* Those using office politics are nearly always the same people who deny its workings can be
revealed and taught.
* Office politics are involved with information and mis-information. This bears on the formula
for the power: Information with authority permits the exercise of power.

Just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you. Imagine that you walk into your office one morning to find some of your coworkers giving you the cold shoulder..welcome to the world of office politics. Word has spread that you do not like the local football team, or thatyou perfer your coffee black. That you are comfortable enough with your manliness that you wear pink, this is the begining makings of political allies and enemies in the office.
People will always have prejudices, big and small. It is not easy working in an environment where coworker are out to get you, weather it be work load dumping, complaining to the boss, gossip, rumours, they all seem childish for a bunch of adults, but it is there in every office every where, weather you see it or not.
Yes most people say the way to deal with these frustrated, grumpy, angry, resentful coworkers is to kill them with kindness, but I do not believe that is the solution or the only solution. I can still be mad at someone that is being kind to me, can't you? Coming to the office has become a game of 'Survivor', you need to out wit, out last and out play the next person to survive...somedays I just hope that I can keep my head above water.