During the early 1950s, my mother was employed in an office where she felt she was among family rather than bosses and coworkers. But in this collegial environment, there was one unwritten rule: People kept their political opinions to themselves.
However, one woman named Katherine occasionally forgot that unwritten rule and offered supportive comments regarding the controversial then-Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Katherine’s opinion was very much a minority view in that office, but what was wonderful was how her coworkers responded to her — they didn’t. They listened, sometimes nodding politely to acknowledge the sincerity of her opinions, and after a pause, they shifted to another topic. While her coworkers may not have liked her politics, they liked Katherine as a person — and, thankfully, she was smart enough to retire her advocacy of Sen. McCarthy when her remarks failed to spark a discussion.
Now, try to imagine that situation in a contemporary workplace, with a solitary employee offering praise of an extremist political figure. If Katherine were in today’s office, she would probably become the workplace pariah with her coworkers demanding that she be fired.
I’ve lost friends who discovered my preferred political candidates were not theirs, and I’ve opted to cut ties with an acquaintance who called for members of my political party to be exterminated.
Even worse, no one is truly “out of the office” anymore, thanks to social media; there are plenty of kooks who try to get people fired for remarks made on personal social media pages. I can attest to that — about a decade ago, some busybody who took umbrage with mildly negative comments I made on my personal Facebook page regarding a political figure tracked down my then-employer and said I should be fired. Mercifully, that did not occur.
But not every boss is as holistic. I’ve been in offices where managers have made unsubtle and often outrageous statements about political leaders whom they abhorred but whom I admired. When confronted by these situations, I took the old-school approach of saying nothing and waiting for the next conversation to arise.
Ultimately, politics should be kept out of the office unless a civilized and invigorating exchange of views can take place. Absent of that utopian setting, it helps to remember that not every comment requires a response — especially when it is laced with politics.
“Today, it seems impossible to have a spirited exchange of ideas with people of different political views.”
