Politics in the Workplace

As Election Day looms closer and political ads continue to fill the airwaves (those folks with DVRs are exempt from watching), political conversations in your firm may be reaching a boiling point. Politics can provide fodder for some very spirited discussions, and that can be a good thing for Creatives, who ideally are seeking out new perspectives and broadening their horizons. Politics, however, are pretty emotionally charged, probably second only to religion. An awful lot of people aren't too interested in simply sharing ideas, but instead are trying to convince others to accept their own strongly-held views. Add in the natural passion many Creatives bring to work and this sets the stage for some potentially loud and ugly confrontations, which could even disrupt working relationships. And you don't need that.

What to do? Well, simply telling employees they can't discuss politics isn't really going to work. There are some legal issues there to consider, and it's not the most ethical thing, either. Plus, you'll just end up creating the very tension you're trying to avoid. No, you're just going to have to resort to leadership.

Leading by example would be a good start. Try not to start political discussions yourself. It can be tough, but really, isn't that something best left to the non-workplace? You run a particular risk because, as the person in charge, you have a lot of power over your employees, and the last thing you want is to look like you're using that power to bully or intimidate. Not good, and totally disruptive to your relationships.

If you find yourself in a discussion you don't need to be in, don't be afraid to try to change the subject. It's easy to go from talking about Sarah Palin's latest rally, to Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, to SNL, to "What's Bill Murray doing these days?," to Bill Murray's new movie, to living in California, to home prices, to politics, to...actually, you should probably stop at one of those intermediary points. The idea is to defuse a potential bomb before it goes off, particularly if you can see things turning bad.

But if you're too late, if things have gotten bad between people, you're going to need to fix it. It's bad enough to have bad blood develop between your employees, but when it's over something dumb like politics as opposed to, say, creative differences, that's even worse. It's a little tougher to fix because it's not like there's some sort of compromise position you can negotiate. You're just going to have to try to smooth out some ruffled feathers.

If this all sounds like no big deal, believe me, it can be. I'm sitting here looking at two of my co-workers who sit in cubicles next to each other, and who will NOT talk to each other because of political differences. This is awkward for everyone around -- especially me, since I have to walk between them to get out -- and since they work in the same division it's affecting their work and others'. This is bad, and their boss' response is to just laugh it off nervously. We'll see if she's still laughing on November 5th, when things haven't gotten better and work still isn't getting done. Frankly, politics seem to be best saved for the voting booth.