[sgtnoodle]

I think there's negative connotations about "politics" that people are implying within the context of corporate work environments. Specifically: arbitrary beurocracy, fragile personalities, back-channel communication, ego stroking, chest thumping and back-stabbing.

From a pure textbook definition of politics, yeah there's politics everywhere, and folk need to learn how to interact with coworkers in a healthy, productive manner. For folk going into engineering, I really like competitive student projects as a way to learn those skills.