Video by thrivewithrhys

You're not bad at office politics. You're just refusing to lie fluently. Let's be honest, a lot of office politics is just people saying the safest thing. Not the clearest thing. Not the truthful thing. The safest thing. And if you're neurodivergent, that can feel like trying to play chess while everyone else is pretending they're playing Connect Four.

You say, that deadline isn't realistic. They hear you're being negative. You say, we haven't been given enough information. They hear, you're not a team player. You say, this process makes no sense. They hear, someone has escaped the spreadsheet and must be contained. So suddenly, you're now the problem. Because you said the thing everyone else was thinking.

Office politics rewards fluency in vague nonsense. Phrases like, please take this offline. Thanks for your passion. We need to be mindful of tone, all of which usually means please stop being accurate in front of witnesses. Here's the bit I wish more neurodivergent people were told. You may need to learn the language You do not have to believe the performance There a difference between lying and translating So instead of this makes no sense try I struggling to see how this works in practice

Can you walk me through the decision process? Instead of, that deadline is impossible. Try, to hit that deadline, we need to remove something else. Which priority should we move? Instead of you're being vague, try I need the specific outcome you want, otherwise I'm guessing. Same truth, less chance of being marched into a quick chat with someone holding a notebook like it's a weapon.

You're not bad at office politics. You're probably allergic to pretending confusion is strategy. And frankly, fair. But if you want to survive work without spending every lunch break drafting a resignation email in your notes app or crying in the loo, learn the translation, keep the truth, lose the unnecessary disciplinary side quest. I'm Rhys. I make plain English work survival tools for neurodivergent adults