Surviving “Watch your back” companies

"Watch your back" companies are the companies in which the main focus of the employees is to protect their positions and built safety nets everywhere, with everyone. In this work environment, there is no such thing as trust, every discussion must be backed up by its written form and generally the main focus of every employee is to look good in front of the managers.

The objectives of the company become secondary and a huge amount of time and energy is wasted in avoiding or feeding conflicts. This is definitely not the ideal company to work for but what can be done if you end up in one?

One possibility would be to move on and try to find a company with a healthier work environment.

The other option is to stay and try to adapt while applying your own work principles.

In order to adapt you will start learning about your colleagues, the interests in the company, who is with who, who can be trusted and in what matter, with whom you need to speak in order to get things done and most importantly you need to position yourself somewhere in this battle camp. With perseverance, diplomacy and very good knowledge of your domain you can perform even in this environment. The general principle of doing your best regardless the situation can work here as well. But, the question is: Is it worth it all the supplementary stress and effort?

Who faces such a situation should first answer this question and then decide accordingly.

In theory, if you don't feel good at your workplace you should change it, but in fact these decisions are not that easy to make. Most of the people have responsibilities, family to provide for, monthly expenses and above all the fear of failure, fear of failing again in finding an environment good for them. So what can be done to survive and perform in a "watch your back company"?

Here are some ideas:

1. Avoid conflicts. Reply neutral and professional to all job related issues. You are paid to focus on your professional duties, not to show your strength.

2. Don’t spread the rumors. This can only bring you trouble. Even if it looks like an innocent chit-chat, sometimes people can try to use you in order to get what they want. Not playing their game will keep you on the safe side.

3. Focus on your professional objectives. This way you can learn and get results that will help you in the future.

4. Take responsibility for your actions. You will be in an environment where only a few do that and those are the people you need to work close with.

5.  Filter the information you receive. Most of the times people give us lots of subjective and unnecessary information that needs to be filtered as much as possible.

6. Watch your back. Be careful with whom you share your personal opinions, ideas, details regarding your projects. Words fly. When working with other for a project, make sure there is a written form of what was verbally agreed. This will save you from a lot of trouble.

I like to believe that companies like the ones I described above are the extreme cases and there are not too many of them. However, what I can tell for sure is that “backstabbing” colleagues are everywhere and they can do pretty much harm if not identified and handled accordingly.