09/03/2024

How to Keep Political Talk Civil

Political conversations don’t have to be contentious

An old saw says that you should never talk about religion or politics in polite company. But when it comes to politics, it appears that a lot of people talk anyway: According to a Gallup survey conducted earlier this year, nearly half of U.S. workers (45 percent) said they had discussed politics with a coworker. That percentage has likely only increased in the run-up to a tight presidential election where the rhetoric has often been (to put it politely) heated.

Is it a leader’s job to police this? Outright bans on political conversation at the office, all the way down to saying you can’t pin a candidate’s button to your cubicle wall, aren’t illegal, but a SHRM article notes that gag orders like that get tricky.

In addition to hurting morale, they can put leaders in hot water: "While employers can prohibit employees from having certain discussions, it’s illegal to ban them from talking about their work conditions,” the article notes. Given how tightly bound political conversations are around the economy, healthcare, and opportunities for advancement, it’s not hard to look at just about any political conversation as about “work conditions."

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.