A Valuable Lesson In Office Politics

Remember that one time I twitted about being underrated by the boss despite working like crazy? I never really managed to get it off my system. I haven't got the chance to speak my mind about it, and yesterday I got the chance. I was at the Operations room, discussing and chatting with the process manager (let's just put him as PM) about the event we're organizing in two weeks time, which is the 1st anniversary of our commercial operation. Along the way, the topic just surfaced. 'I heard that he (my boss) rated you guys harshly, really?', PM asked me. 'Well, let's just say that some of the comments that he put in, he can personally talk through with us and we'll get around it to improve, but no he has to put it in the system so that all people in the bloody refinery can look at it! It feels like a slap in the face", I told PM. PM heard about it from our senior manager, which then he commented as being totally uncalled for and biased. Personally he (PM) thinks that for a young engineer like myself and my colleagues here in the maintenance team, we did a fantastic job. Fewhh, I'm glad to hear those words. PM then talks about his past, having fair share of working with shitty bosses and all, and how he worked around it. Man, he was quite a bad ass, even till now! But if you ask me, he is a bad ass knowing exactly what he wants and fought for it like hell, which I think is a quality to be admired for. Bottom line, before we ended our chat, he gave this advice. 'Know your allies (be it your senior manager, or other senior colleagues which you are clicked with, they can be very valuable when it comes to year end feedback), if you know that your boss is not on your side. So what if you're called a stupid son of a bitch, as long as what you did was right, fuck those guys'. Wow, I did learn something today, something which may be worthy over the next few years. Something you actually need to master if you are to survive the world of office politics...