Sidney Bruce is Head of Customer Success and HR at Everee.
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If you want to stay away from conflict, they say you should avoid two topics: religion and politics. Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially during an election year. It’s hard to avoid the topic of the 2020 presidential race, and social feeds and the media certainly don’t help much.
It’s not just the online political discussions with your social circle. There’s also the work environment to consider. Any company can establish policies that stop the discussion of politics in the workplace; however, the reality is we are all human, and we all have opinions.
Conversations that include politics or politically charged issues happen a lot, be they in-depth discussions or passing comments. This can result in hurt feelings, damaged working relationships and decreased productivity.
When these conversations turn personal and adversarial, as they often do, little that’s productive or constructive results. In some ways, working from home can make the situation worse. Employees may feel they have more time to discuss these issues and feel even more pressure from the uncertainty and challenges presented by the pandemic. With more time at home, workers may be making more of these comments. When employees are friends on social platforms outside of work, there’s no policy that can intervene when potentially offensive things are said.
A survey by Gartner this year found that nearly half of today’s office workers feel distracted by on-the-job discussions about the presidential election. Thirty-six percent of employees surveyed said they avoided talking to or working with a co-worker due to political views, while 31% felt frustrated or stressed out about political conversations that take place at work. This all heavily impacts productivity levels.
Knowing these conversations will occur during this election year, it’s important to have a plan in place to deal with them and their repercussions.
Address Now
Political talk isn’t going away. It’s already here, and if anything, the dialogue will only increase and become more intense as the election nears. Handle these conversations head-on now. Also, be transparent about how your company views these discussions in the workplace. Explain your preference for minimizing political conversations as much as possible.
Remove Temptations
There are ways to nip political debates in the bud. Companies once used things like nonsolicitation clauses that stopped any campaigning in the office. I wouldn’t recommend this to companies nowadays, though, as it has the potential to be poorly received. In a time when people are increasingly concerned about their rights being taken away, a policy like this might amplify that.
I recommend focusing on mutual respect. You want to be an example and provide employees with an environment that encourages open and respectful dialogue.
Focus On Mutual Respect
As part of all this, ask your team to remember that differences are what make us unique and valuable contributors to the team and society. That’s true even when we disagree. With the focus on embracing differences, you can stress to your team that you can agree to disagree while maintaining mutual respect for colleagues.
If and when these discussions do surface, help your team find common threads between one another. Sharing stories about why they believe what they do can be a powerful exercise. There’s so much power in storytelling. If one employee shares, follow it up with questions. As Stephen Covey said, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
Be The Example
If you lead, they will follow. Don’t let adversarial political debates ruin the company culture. You shouldn’t necessarily avoid sharing your opinions, though. Instead, set an example of how to disagree respectfully. The reality is that no matter what policies you put in place, co-workers will still post political opinions on social media. Rather than try to unfairly control your team members, provide them with the tools and training to better understand one another.
Consider Unconscious Bias Training
Unconscious bias training is a hot topic in the HR world right now. While this type of diversity education can be extremely beneficial, it can be even more detrimental to your culture if you take no action afterward. It becomes a dog and pony show, rather than a meaningful step.
Before rolling something like this out, make sure you have buy-in from the entire executive team. You not only want buy-in, but also commitment to action. Be sure to follow through by making changes to procedures. For example, you may want to review promotion and hiring initiatives to use objective, measurable variables rather than subjective variables where bias easily creeps in.
Changing The Conversation
While we can’t ban political talk at the office altogether, especially in the year 2020, we as leaders can help create an environment focused on empathy and compassion.
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