You may hate it ? but office politics can?t be avoided.

So says Pamela Simons, chief executive officer of Bermuda Learning Solutions.

Ms Simons will be presenting a seminar on Workplace Politics And Personalities on Wednesday at the Bermuda College, a pilot programme being introduced by Bermuda Learning Solutions for the first time for human resource professionals and managers.

?In our jobs we are proficient in a variety of different skills and come to the workplace being able to do a job but that is only a small part in whether or not we are successful,? Ms Simons said.

?Office politics means being able to play the game but doing it in a way supportive of the organisation and ensuring you are successful is really important.

?You will come across politics in an organisation, you can?t avoid it.?

?Each one of us needs to take a politics 101 class when we are first hunting for jobs and when we are being interviewed for a company.?

The seminar covers company politics and careers, corporate politics, handling the difficult personality, the workplace bully, avoiding relationship pitfalls and workplace romance, among other related topics.

?The seminar will force people to think how their values and the values of their organisation they currently work for or planning to work for marry well.

?If they don?t you have to consider if this is going to be a place to be successful.?

?Organisations don?t hire people to have them fail, they hire people because they have talent and skill but they still have to make sure they are going to be a good fit within the organisation and that?s where politics comes in.?

Ms Simons said people can either play the game of office politics to win or to lose and playing to lose is more of a selfish or me focused approach.

?When we play to win, we are saying we are professional at whatever level in the organisation, part of a team and establish a good reputation.

?We can all identify co-workers that gossip or have some bad work habits and they have a developed a reputation that is not a positive one.?

?We want to make people aware of building a good reputation, valuing and respecting others and building political capital.?

She said political capital can be used to obtain favours and secure promotions and help employees in their professional development in the long term.

There still remains a few more spaces for people interested in attending this seminar and more information can be obtained by calling 747-8833.