(^136) BODY LANGUAGE SECRETS
Why Office Politics? The only function of office
politics is to get what you want instead of what they
offer:
- Biggest raise possible,
- Quickest promotion possible.
- Assigned tasks you enjoy or with the best visibility.
- Moved to the best office with the best equipment.
- Transferred to a department with the best future.
- Not laid off until you can find a good job elsewhere.
To profit from this book, you must know what you
want, when you want it and what price you're willing
to pay to get it.
Your Goals. Your immediate goal is to make as
much money as possible doing something you can tol-
erate. Your ultimate goal is to make enough money so
that you can live comfortably while doing something
you enjoy.
Who Should Read This Book? Anybody, male or
female, from 18-58 can profit from it. I've aimed at a
young woman of about 24. You're ambitious, conscien-
tious and unafraid of hard work. You have some col-
lege or a degree. You're experienced enough and bright
enough to have an uneasy sense that intelligence,
dedication, hard work and fair play are not all there is
to success. You're right.
This Book Is Realistic. This book is not about
how to do what you like to do, it's about how to get
enough money so that you can do what you want to do.
It's about how to achieve a long range goal one step at
a time. Learning how to get what you want out of life
is what this book is all about. Learning to stop want-
ing to have your cake and eat it too is what this book
is about,
The Secret They Will Never Tell You. Because
they have been led to believe it, most women, young
women in particular, think it takes a college education
plus years of training and experience to make big
Office Politics: The Woman's Guide^137money working for a corporation. Nope! A high school
grad of average intelligence can do most jobs. Some
tasks can be done by chimpanzees or trained dogs. In
short, business is nothing more than common sense.
No wonder they keep it a secret, right?
Everyone realizes this after a few companies and a
few years. But, to preserve self-esteem and keep oth-
ers from taking their jobs, people pretend the work
they do is mega complicated, requiring years of expe-
rience and an MBA.
Bullshit! Paper pushing is paper pushing. That's all
anyone does other than attend endless meetings and
talk on the phone. Ninety percent of the job, your job,
any job, is communicating clearly while getting along
with people.
Office Politics Required. To drive your salary
from $20k to $60k before you're 30, you have to get
promoted quickly and often. But, every ambitious per-
son wants the same promotions you want. And, since
most jobs can be done by average high school grads,
the promotion always goes to someone half as compe-
tent as you but twice as skilled in office politics.
That's not news, is it? Who got the best grades in
college? Was it the girl who worked the hardest and
did the best job? The girl who went to see the professor
when he had office hours? How 'bout the girl who went
to dinner with him? Who else got good grades? Who
else made cheerleader? Who else made class president
or whatever?
Hey! Out here in the business world it's far worse.
But it's out here where you can make the big bucks.
Money, alone, makes it possible for you to be the per-
son who determines your future. But, you're going to
learn how to make big bucks without doing the
equivalent of going to dinner with the professor.
After you have money, you can choose to stay in the
corporate world or you can choose something else, like
starting your own business or starting a family or be-
coming a consultant or whatever you want. The point