According to a survey from Glassdoor, 60% of respondents said they believed political discussions at work were “unacceptable,” though 57% said they engaged in them anyway.
With a highly contentious election looming in November, 28% of respondents said they had a co-worker try to get them to change political affiliations.
Still, researchers learned that 54% of employees felt companies should encourage political activity or going to the polls outside of work.
There’s a common belief that in the pantheon of conversation topics you shouldn’t bring up in polite conversation, politics ranks right up there next to sex and religion. Yet as the 2020 election grows closer, it’s become nearly impossible to escape our firebrand Republican president and the large group of Democrats vying for their chance to oppose him in the polls. People’s feelings on the matter are red-hot, and if you’re running a small business, you’ve likely overheard potentially contentious discussions among your employees.
Earlier today, Glassdoor revealed data that shows just how prevalent political discourse in the workplace has become. In an online survey conducted by The Harris Poll last month, more than 1,200 employed American adults shared their experiences and preferences with workplace political banter.
With politics serving as an ideological wedge throughout most of the country, you may want to stymie the conversation at your company altogether. Given Glassdoor’s latest findings, as well as existing legal standards, there may be some steps you can take to bring the workplace Overton window back to the middle.
Employees see political conversations as a negative
While nearly every part of the country is embroiled in what feels like one massive heated debate on the future of its democratic beliefs, Glassdoor’s researchers found that most respondents wanted little to do with it in the workplace. While 60% believe the topic is “unacceptable” for the workplace, women were more likely to want to avoid the topic than their male counterparts by a margin of 66% to 54%.
Researchers also found that employees in some states are more likely to talk about politics at work, with 58% of employees in blue states (according to the 2016 election) and 56% of employees in red states saying they’d talked politics at work.
Further, 57% of respondents said they discussed politics regardless of the topic’s perceived negativity at work. That kind of disconnect can introduce unwanted tension into the workplace. As a business owner, if things are getting tense in the office, you can try to set boundaries to potentially avoid such a situation.
“The amount of casual [political] conversation should be consistent with what that workplace has done traditionally,” Sandra Spataro, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Yale University’s School of Management, told Monster. “What you don’t want to do is introduce 10 minutes for politics talk in banking when that has never happened before. It should be something that occurs naturally or doesn’t happen at all.”
When considering their potential career opportunities, 60% of respondents said discussing politics at work could negatively impact their prospects, with 63% of employees aged 18 to 34 feeling the same way. Additionally, 62% of Democrats and 58% of Republicans polled said sharing their political views could hurt their career opportunities.
Political headhunting can cause further issues
It’s not much of a stretch to say that the current political landscape can be compared to a sporting event, with both “teams” looking to score “points” against one another. One way that people often engage in this back and forth is by trying to pull someone over to their side. Using persuasive arguments and their own political beliefs, people can often try to brow-beat a person into joining their cause.
According to researchers, such situations have occurred to 28% of respondents, who said they had at least one co-worker try to change their political preferences in the last year.
Such actions could be seen by some as a way to end any possible political squabbles through assimilation. Researchers found that 21% of respondents said they “would not want to work with a co-worker who plans to vote for a presidential candidate they don’t like in the next election.” That sentiment could also be drawn along party lines, as 24% of Republicans and 23% of Democrats felt the same way.
When you should step in
As a business owner, you’re likely aware of the problem facing you for the next nine months. With tensions continually ratcheting up in Washington, things are likely to boil over if you don’t address existing fault lines in your workspace. You may want to help, but can you? Should you?
It’s important here to note that First Amendment protections do not extend into the workplace. Attorney Grant Alexander told the Society for Human Resource Management that “employees working in the private sector often [don’t understand] that the constitutional First Amendment right to free speech applies to government employees but not employees working for businesses.”
With that in mind, you are within your right to set boundaries for the kinds of political dialogue you allow in the workplace within reason, or in accordance with local or state law. Having an honest conversation with your employees about the problems such conversations can bring to the office can be one way to set expectations.
“As a manager, if I saw that there was an issue, I would remind people that there are standards of professionalism and common courtesy,” Spataro told Monster. “What you don’t want to do is introduce differences between employees that are going to bring in more conflict or negative sentiment.”
While it may be tempting to stifle political conversations in the workplace, you could benefit from encouraging political activism outside the office. According to Glassdoor’s data, 54% of respondents said they felt companies should “encourage their employees to vote or be politically active outside of work.”
Creating a workplace culture where people can freely exchange ideas without being overly judgmental or prejudiced can be a tough yet rewarding experience. How you handle the current political climate in your office is ultimately up to you and your employees – creating an environment where people listen more to one another can go a long way. [Read related article: Are Workplace Politics Destroying Your Business? Here’s How to Fix It]
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
