The New Meaning of “Office Politics”
August 14, 2023
Let’s face it, we’re living in politically fraught, divisive, and often volatile times. Even at work, it has become more and more commonplace for people to express their political opinions—especially about hot-button issues—with a belligerent tone, a sense of aggrieved anger, and a lot of frustration rather than engage in a civil and respectful exchange of ideas with even a little tolerance for differences of opinion.
Employees often take a stand on one side or the other of our national political divide and may go so far as to insult or taunt one another when politics comes up. While many have gotten the message about the importance of diversity, respect, and inclusion within the frameworks of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, ability, sexual orientation, age, and so forth, they’ve somehow missed it when politics comes up.
What’s the best response to employees not speaking to, or conversely, shouting at, one another over, say, the appropriateness of COVID mask mandates, gun control, immigration policy, or political candidates? Do your organization’s DEI policies cover political persuasion as well as the aforementioned Title VII protected categories?
There are two very effective ways to minimize political conflict in the workplace. The first is to foster civility, that is, a culture of polite interaction at all times. An organization policy of being civil, speaking respectfully, and disagreeing without being disagreeable can be promoted and modeled by managers and supervisors. The second is to include political orientation in discussions of unconscious bias, and to make sure that employees aren’t excluded or otherwise penalized at work for their politics.
Specific skills to minimize conflict can be taught, such as supervisors being proactive about identifying potential or arising conflict and knowing when to distract, intervene, or keep employees apart from one another.
Political conflicts may arise on-site, when working remotely, via social media, at a work-related event or an after-work social gathering with coworkers. Employees should be told that wherever such disagreements occur, a certain level of decorum is expected and that behaving disrespectfully toward colleagues is never acceptable. Unnecessary provocations such as displaying a degrading depiction of a rival political candidate or an insulting slogan in a workspace can be prohibited as a disrespectful display rather than an expression of free speech.
While employees sometimes voicing their political opinions is inevitable, especially in today’s highly charged climate, it should be stressed that for things to work at work, we should strive to leave our differences at the door as much as possible, focus on our common goals, and come together as a team in order to be successful and get along.