Office politics can be a tricky game. If you know what you’re doing, they can help you do better work, accomplish more and get ahead. If not, you might feel like the world is against you, and everything you do ends up wrong. So it’s important that you have an elementary understanding of how they work, how to work within them, and how to make the whole system work to your advantage.

Now before we get started, let’s address the mythical unicorn that is an office without workplace politics. I’ve worked with countless bosses and colleagues who would quickly denounce politics in the workplace; but as you got to know them, they played the game in their own way. Any sizeable office will start to cultivate its own differing camps of thought and priorities, and even these apolitical types would eventually filter into one group or another.

If you personally feel like you can rise above the fray, I hope you are unimpeachably good at your job and fast to make friends. If not, this article might have some takeaways for you.

First, get to know your office, and gain allies