Office Politics: How to Thrive in a World of Lying, Backstabbing, and Dirty Tricks—Navigating Power, Manipulation, and Survival in Workplace Hierarchies
 
Office Politics by Oliver James is a deep exploration of the hidden power struggles, psychological manipulation, and status games that define workplace environments. It provides a framework for understanding how deceit, sabotage, and hierarchical positioning impact career progression, social standing, and personal well-being. At the Center for Integrative Neuroscience, this book is highly relevant to our theories on group power dynamics, whistleblower retaliation, and the psychological warfare embedded in professional hierarchies.
 
How This Book Connects to Our Work
✔ The Workplace as a Battlefield for Power & Influence—Office politics isn’t just about career advancement; it’s a complex web of social dominance strategies, reputation management, and psychological control. 
 
This explains how power is stolen, exchanged, or hoarded in hierarchical settings.
✔ The Neuroscience of Manipulation & Workplace Stress – Constant exposure to lying, backstabbing, and toxic work environments leads to chronic cortisol elevation, nervous system dysregulation, and long-term metabolic dysfunction. This supports our research on how workplace mobbing, status attacks, and systemic corruption create lasting health consequences.
✔ Identifying Narcissists, Sociopaths, and Machiavellians in Leadership—The book explores how certain personality types rise to power by exploiting psychological weaknesses, gaslighting subordinates, and eliminating competitors. This mirrors our work in exposing corporate corruption, institutional betrayal, and the strategic targeting of ethical disruptors.
✔ Why High Performers & Truth-Tellers Become Targets— Employees who challenge unethical behavior, outperform dominant figures, or resist manipulation often find themselves marginalized, sabotaged, or pushed out. This aligns with our experiences in whistleblower retaliation, reputation destruction, and how powerful figures consolidate control through deception and exclusion.
✔ The Energy Economy of Toxic Workplaces – Office politics isn’t just about strategy; it’s an energetic battlefield where people steal status, drain others’ power, and enforce dominance through psychological games. This supports our research on how group dynamics, social entrainment, and power theft impact career trajectories and personal sovereignty.
✔ How to Navigate & Protect Yourself from Workplace Power Games— The book provides strategic tools for outmaneuvering deception, resisting psychological manipulation, and maintaining autonomy in a politically charged environment. This aligns with our focus on cognitive resilience, trauma-informed leadership, and psychological self-defense in toxic workplaces.
 
Essential Reading for Those Facing Workplace Mobbing, Status Attacks, and Institutional Power GamesFor individuals who have witnessed or experienced betrayal, sabotage, or exclusion in professional settings, Office Politics provides a critical framework for understanding the hidden mechanisms of power and how to navigate them strategically. It reinforces the mission of the Center for Integrative Neuroscience to help individuals recognize and resist manipulative power structures using neuroscience-backed strategies for resilience, empowerment, and career survival.
 
A fascinating exposé of office culture, in the style of the bestselling Affluenza, from popular psychologist Oliver James

The modern working world is a dangerous place, where game-playing, duplicity, and sheer malevolence are rife. Do talent and hard work count for nothing? Is politics everything?

In this fascinating exposé, Oliver James reveals the murky underside of modern office life. With cutting-edge research and eye-opening interviews, he highlights the nasty practices that propel people to the top and shows how industries and cultures are fostering this behavior.

He then divulges strategies and techniques for not only surviving but thriving in these difficult environments. With the right mindset, you can distinguish and deal with toxic and overpromoted colleagues, charm your way through interviews, and use office politics to your advantage.

Office Politics will overthrow your perceptions of office life and set you on a new path to success.

Oliver James trained and practiced as a child clinical psychologist and, since 1988, has worked as a writer, journalist, television documentary producer, and presenter. His books include Juvenile Violence in a Winner-Loser Culture, the bestselling They F*** You Up, Affluenza, and Contented Dementia. He is a trustee of two children's charities: the National Family and Parenting Institute and Homestart.