Politics and Work? Think Oil and Water.
This year is an historic year in politics. Never before has the United States had such strong presidential candidates who don't fit the traditional mold. Geraldine Ferraro - though only a vice-presidential nominee under Walter Mondale - and Jesse Jackson didn't pose nearly the threat to their Republican counterparts as do Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to theirs. Even if the general election in November closes with yet another Republican president voted into office, a precedent has been set. Girls and minorities can dream of maybe one day becoming president, too.
All this brouhaha over the primaries and upcoming general election serves as a great topic of conversation around the proverbial watercooler. Unfortunately, this could cause problems for many who are politically active either in the workplace or on their own time.
According to a recent article posted on MSN Careers, only California, Colorado, New York and North Dakota provide protections for employees who are politically active away from their jobs.
While I agree that openly campaigning on the job should be prohibited - it's as much a form of solicitation as selling candies for a child's school program - I disagree that expressing a certain political leaning, on or off the job, should be considered grounds for dismissal.
One instance mentioned in the article involved a woman being fired because she had a John Kerry bumper sticker on her car, and her boss was a George Bush supporter. When she protested his command that she remove the bumper sticker from her car, he fired her. That's more than a little bit extreme. For one thing, her car is her personal property, and for another, as long as her support of John Kerry didn't in any way interfere with her ability to effectively do her job, it shouldn't make any difference.
Because of this threat of being fired, more and more people are reluctant to discuss politics at work, the article went on to say. In fact, a poll conducted by a leading job board revealed that out of 26,000 respondents, 46 percent agreed that they would "listen, but keep your opinions to yourself," 30 percent would take the "don't ask, don't tell" stance and 22 percent said they would "stand up and be heard." A survey conducted by the American Management Association (AMA) discovered that managers are a little more willing than regular employees to talk politics at work.
Of those the AMA surveyed - primarily supervisors and upper level managers - 39 percent said they felt comfortable talking politics with their coworkers and their supervisor, 35 percent felt uncomfortable having political discussions with coworkers, and 38 percent didn't feel good about talking politics with their boss.
The bottom line is simply this, if you work for a company, be it large or small, that seems to be okay with employees talking politics, provided they still get their work done, go ahead and voice your opinion ... within reason. You still have to remain politically correct while talking politics. But if you work for an employer that clearly frowns upon political discussions in the workplace, it's better to keep your political views to yourself.
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