IIDA Perspective - Spring/Summer 2016 - 49

Well there is that aspect-
people can overshare!

SILVERMAN Well, you know, since we were just talking about "actual politics"-
that's one area that I'm really careful to not bring into the office. But its coming,
it's happening during this election. And people are posting about certain candidates,
opinions are out there. It's very transparent, it's about as transparent as it can
possibly be. (Ahem, Tom!)
MARQUARDT Well, I'm not a shrinking flower! It's an interesting thing for me to think
about. When it was my firm and my reputation, good or bad, I'll take the hit, I'm not
going to edit myself. But now being back in a large corporation after thirty years at
my own practice, I walked in and social media discussion was part of my orientation.
At first I sort of said, "Really?" But there wasn't anything they said that was cause for
concern. And at sixty-years-old and making this change in my career, I went into it
looking not to compromise myself. I couldn't do it. I don't edit. But I think you can do
it and still do it with respect, that's just a reflection on each individual. If you hire
well and people understand that, you can respect people for having their differences
and just be with that. And part of the joy of working in a big firm is that the diversity
increases, which is great.
ENIGL You know, social media is such a dominant force in everyone's life. At work
we have internal accounts, external accounts, we're all encouraged to use Twitter to
promote our firm and for recruiting. It's a powerful tool, and it's hard to hide behind
it. You have to put your best face on, you can't say disparaging things, politically
incorrect things, no matter the size of the firm, somebody's watching what's going
out on social media. That makes it kind of a hard area to carry a lot of politics into....
maybe it goes back to the whole transparency thing.

Advice time. What should
someone just starting out
in their career know about
workplace culture and
navigating office politics?

SILVERMAN Engage and don't hide. Don't let emotions take over. Listen and don't react.
Think about what you say before you say it, and about how people may interpret it
differently than you intended.
ENIGL Work is not school. You need to know what your own moral compass is, and
if you see something that makes you uncomfortable, then that's your line. You have
to make those decisions for yourself. Know exactly what it is that you can tolerate.
MARQUARDT Be honest, with yourself and with your supervisor. People shouldn't be
afraid to discuss things. I think from the interview you can ask questions. Ask an
interviewer "What are some of the issues that may come up for me working here?"
It would probably floor half the people, but those are the kind of people that I'd prefer
to hire. Because they're coming in with their eyes wide open and I can be extremely
honest with them and they can make an informed decision about where they want
to be, and in the end that's better for the company and the employee.

PERSPECTIVE

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