Dear Ms. Aninditta Savitry,

I thank you for your great writing in The Jakarta Post. I’ve experienced the following matters, sadly.

Previously, I worked for a joint Chinese and Indonesian company based in South Jakarta.

After almost a year of working there, I began to feel that the two halves of the company were sharply politically divided. Of course, this is a business matter, and each party had their own interests, but it greatly affected me and others in our duties as lower-level employees.

After all, as you’ve said before in this column, it was affecting me personally, and my wish from the very first day was to carry out my responsibilities to finish all the work assigned to me. It was so terrible. I strove to work professionally, without distractions, even from my fellow Indonesians. I just worked and worked.

After two years, I resigned from the company. I felt I could blossom elsewhere. I’m so sad, but this was my own decision and was 100 percent not about technical but about political matters.

Ms. Aninditta, was I wrong in my decision to try to remain neutral, to focus on my responsibilities, to resign over the toxic situation even though I don’t have a job to this day?

Thank you for letting me tell my story. Please keep me anonymous, have a good day and always stay happy, Ms. Aninditta.

Best regards,

DT

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Dear DT,

Thank you for writing, and I am sorry to hear that you had to endure a seemingly toxic environment in your previous workplace. Any decision to quit a job is a personal one, but if you felt that the toxicity there was already at a level where it was dangerous for your mental health, then you did the right thing. I wish you the best in finding your next role and hope you thrive in it. Let’s take a look at how you could do better in your next role, learning from your past experience.

Being caught in the middle of office politics can be a very daunting moment. Your decision to be professional and continue doing your work well is admirable. Perhaps this was one of the big factors that helped you survive for two years in that company. Without that, and if the situation was as bad as you describe it, you might have left sooner.

Let’s talk about being “focused” at work. Many have mistakenly interpreted focus as withdrawing to themselves, minding their own work and – that’s it! Unfortunately, the office environment doesn’t work like that. While it is indeed a place where people go to work, there is also a huge social element to it. Being too focused on one’s own responsibilities might make one “disappear” from the social scene, hence losing touch with supportive people who might be able to help with one’s situation.

And what about being “neutral”? What do you mean by that? Probably what you mean is not taking sides, either with the Chinese or the Indonesian stakeholders. Perhaps this is clear to you, but is it clear to others? Sometimes the dynamics in the office make it such that being neutral is perceived as still taking side, a third side, in addition to the Chinese and Indonesian sides. It’s complicated, but human interactions are rarely easy to understand.

Now, in the sea of misunderstanding and misalignment in the office – also known as “office politics” – what can you do better on top of consistently being professional and doing your job well? 

• Communicate better, not only verbally and in writing, but also through gestures. For example, instead of avoiding people so as not to “take sides”, be friends with both sides. It is easier to show everybody that you are neutral that way rather than withdrawing to yourself and insisting you are “neutral”.
• Find a trusted and supportive circle. It is unlikely that you are the only one caught between the conflicting parties. Being with like-minded people will reduce the stress and improve your mental health.
• Prepare an exit plan. A toxic environment can escalate quickly, and you need to have a backup plan so that you can avoid a situation where you become jobless.

Hope this helps you thrive in your next job. Good luck!