Unofficial PhD in Workplace Nepotism

This is a fictional story inspired by common work experiences. Names, organizations, and situations have been changed.

Mina had worked for many different companies, but she noticed one thing was always the same: workplace drama. At one company, she discovered that several "coworkers" were actually family members of the owner. The organizational chart looked more like a family tree with job titles. Then, there were two people doing most of the actual work... and five supervisors watching them. Five supervisors. For only two workers. There was a lot of gossip, micromanaging, office politics, and occasional backstabbing. Real management seemed optional.

At another company, the "board of directors" was mostly family. Mina thought, "So this is what they mean by corporate structure." Years later, she worked at another company with unhappy customers, good employees leaving, and certain people who seemed impossible to fire. She just wanted to do her job, yet always seemed to find herself in the middle of a political cage fight. It seemed she was trying to fix a house while everyone inside was arguing about who owned each room; as the Titanic foundered, the staff were rearranging deck chairs.

There were alliances, power struggles and enough office politics to feel like a corporate battlefield. Mina finally learned an important lesson: sometimes the biggest problem is not a lack of talent. It is a lack of accountability. In response to this, she had to develop a whole new career skill: Professional Workplace Survival. Sometimes, knowing how to do your job is not enough. You also need to know how to survive the office.