Life · Office politics gauge
Office Politics Damage Gauge
Is office politics costing you enough to justify leaving or changing approach? Podge returns: manageable, worth addressing, or the environment is the problem.
Blank until you answer
Plain-English why
Copyable takeaway
What this means
This instrument starts blank so it does not judge a made-up example before you have entered your own situation.
Formula used
Damage score = career impact + psychological cost + duration + scope + adjustments for senior involvement and failed resolution attempts
Worked example
Significant career impact + high psychological cost + 2 years + department-wide + senior management aware but ignoring it = the environment is the problem.
Common questions
What counts as office politics?
Behaviour that advances personal agendas at the expense of others or the organisation — credit-stealing, exclusion from decisions, deliberate undermining, information hoarding, or managing perceptions rather than performance.
What does 'the environment itself is the problem' mean in practice?
It means the political behaviour is systemic rather than individual. Addressing specific instances is unlikely to change the culture. The practical options are: change your approach to operate within the culture, escalate formally, or leave.
Plain-English summary
Fill in the questions on the left to generate a verdict card.
This section translates the result into a short, direct takeaway rather than leaving the page at a bare number.
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