Help for New Teachers: Navigating Office Politics When You Don’t Even Work in an Office

There’s something about working on a high school campus that makes you feel like you’re stuck in a time warp, reliving high school over and over again. And it’s not just because you live on a bell schedule and an academic calendar. Cliques, dynamics between popular and unpopular kids, and long, complicated relationship histories seem to play out in faculty and staff interactions as well. Maybe it’s like this at every workplace. We’ve watched workplace dramas and comedies. Bring together a diverse group of adults and inevitably there will be office politics. But it seems the close proximity to actual high school drama affects the way the adults on campus relate to each other in ways you might have thought (prayed?) you left behind when you picked up that diploma. 

We’ve discussed tricky situations like how to respond to criticism on our podcast, Answers May Vary, but we thought there was an important topic that often goes unaddressed in teaching; it is certainly not covered in teacher preparation programs: how to manage and navigate office politics as a teacher. Quinta Brunson’s Abbott Elementary is not too far off as long as the people you work with actually like one another, care about students, want to do their best job every day, and are kind, sweet, caring individuals. Real life, however, isn’t quite so idyllic. After plenty of years watching new teachers navigate these politics (successfully and not so successfully), we’re sharing some top tips to keep in mind.

1. Know that campus politics exist. It’s easy as a new teacher to assume everyone is as eager to welcome you into the fold as you are to be welcomed in. In an effort to make friends and be considered part of the group, you openly share your thoughts and opinions with your new colleagues. And while it is important to be friendly, there may be decades-old dynamics at work, and even a casual comment that seems like no big deal as you say it can get blown way out of proportion. It’s natural to want to join in on a complaint, especially if it’s something that bugs you, too, but it’s probably safer to be a listening ear and keep your thoughts to yourself for a while.

2. Veteran teachers have more influence than you might think. They are generous with advice for helping to get tenure. They’ll remind you never to say no, or not to be the one to approach an administrator about a department-wide issue. What we tend not to talk about is the fact that your colleagues can indirectly affect your tenure as well: everyone on a high school campus has the ear of someone, and inadvertently stepping into a complicated situation with messy dynamics you aren’t aware of can have long-lasting consequences. 

3. Assume that nothing you say to anyone, even an administrator, is confidential. Be careful with flippant comments or the temptation to spill your guts when you’re angry or upset. You don’t know which teachers are friends with other teachers and administrators, and you’ll have a much smoother experience if you don’t say anything to anyone on campus you wouldn’t be comfortable sharing in a department meeting. This may feel obvious to you in negative situations, but you also want to keep this advice in mind for those colleagues who will be well-meaning and try to help. If you go to your administrators to share a struggle, they may connect you with other teachers, intending to provide you the support you need, but potentially embarrassing you if you weren’t prepared to share your vulnerability with others.

4. Assume your students are listening and will repeat what you say. It’s easy to forget your students are present and eager for good gossip themselves or to believe your voice is low enough and your comments are “encoded” well enough for students not to catch what you’re saying. But your students are savvy, and they are quick to repeat what you say, whether it’s about other teachers, political issues, campus issues, or even your tendency to sneak out on your prep for a coffee run.

5. Be aware of hot-button issues at your school. More often than not, it’s the seemingly inconsequential things on a campus that can start a war. Maybe it’s parking spaces. If the majority of your building hasn’t gone digital, there’s a good chance it’s copier etiquette. Maybe, like us, you have one bathroom stall for 20 teachers, and you’re trying to decide just how many times you can be the first one in during passing period without causing hellfire to rain down upon your head.

6. Stay out of the drama. We get it. Drama is fun to watch [insert any number of popcorn-eating gifs here]. But trust us. You do not want to get involved. Really, you don’t ever want to get involved, but especially as a new teacher, you want to steer clear: you don’t know the background, you don’t know where things are headed. You need friends, not mortal enemies.

7. Cultivate good relationships with everyone, especially your custodian and office manager. Obviously, you want to get along with everyone on campus (check out our blog on building professional relationships for our favorite strategies), but when you go out of your way to be kind to the custodian and office manager, they can make your life on campus so much easier.

8. Build relationships with teachers outside of your department . . . but don’t discuss your own department. It’s helpful to know what’s going on in other departments and be a well-rounded member of your staff, but there are dynamics between departments (who’s the best, who has the most resources, who has it easiest) that you don’t want to inadvertently make worse.

9. Be a positive force for good at your school and in your department. Teachers like stability, and there’s a good chance you’ll be working with the same people for the next 20 or 30 years. It’s inevitable that we will all get along better with some people than others, and it’s inevitable that we will make blunders. But the more goodwill you build up among your coworkers, the more likely they will be to forgive those blunders. The more you can demonstrate you’re successful at navigating all kinds of interpersonal relationships, the better impression you will make at your new site.

Every site has its own unique situations: do you have a tricky situation to navigate that we haven’t addressed here? Do you have advice that you wish someone told you when you were a new teacher? Email us at [email protected], DM us on Instagram @threeheads.works or start a conversation yourself (and be sure to tag us!).