A Politics Free Zone

Recently I’ve needed to delete, un-follow and even block a disturbing number of politically oriented posts in my Linkedin feed. In one way, it’s not surprising, given how polarized, passionate and deeply dug in people are currently in their political views. But it does astound me that some people just can’t resist the urge to pick a political fight in a forum that people frequent principally for business reasons.

But it got me thinking about how as a manager and then as a CEO I was so determined to keep acerbic political discourse and debate out of the workplace. My first career mentor made it clear to me early on that there were three things absolutely not to be discussed in the workplace: sex, religion and politics. To maintain decorum, civility and a focus on the business matters at hand, these were areas into which you just didn’t venture in discussion. Ever. I found it to be excellent advice.

Nonetheless, some people, managers, executives and sometimes owners just can’t help themselves. I remember having to bite my tongue a lot when an associate I worked with made it a point whenever possible to make a disparaging comment about a political figure I happened to support. It really made it hard to work with this person because the cutting remarks were so incessant and thereby aggravating. And we all know of the totally inappropriate instances where employers or managers actually pressure their employees to vote a certain way. That is grotesquely over the line, but it does happen.

So, if you haven’t already, in the run up to the November election you might do your best to make your professional interactions, whether virtual or in person, a “Politics Free Zone.” People are just getting enough of it in the news and with their families and friends, and the work environment is a good place to get away from all the divisive chatter and focus on something everybody can exert a measure of control over: personal and team productivity.

I say this not because I’m not passionate about my political beliefs. I am intense about what and whom I support, but always outside of the workplace. I always found that any political discussion there usually ended up being heated, became a productivity–sapping distraction and the people in a position of power, if they were participating, tended to use that power to intimate others. Especially as a leader, it just struck me that it was a particularly poor idea to express a political viewpoint because there was a high probability you would alienate about 50% of your audience, and that’s never a good thing.

I made a mistake once and succumbed to a board member’s pressure to sit on the welcoming committee for a fundraising speech by a presidential candidate. Once word got around that I was on the committee and my position and company was associated with my name, I was amazed at how many business associates found it necessary to inform me of how poor my choice was in presidential candidates. Live and learn.

I felt the same about political donations, and even when it became legal I advocated for such donations to be made personally and not with corporate funds. The other thing that concerned me was that people have a tendency to be very thoughtful about how they spend and invest their money and will avoid doing so with companies and people who are highly visible politically in a way with which they disagree. So, there was no good reason that I could think of to possibly alienate employees, customers or prospects by broadcasting your political engagement in the business environment.

The good news is that companies can and should support the political process in a non-partisan way, and they can be encouraging their employees to be civically involved by helping them to register and vote. Many companies are providing voting information to their employees, encouraging early voting and providing paid time off to vote if needed. Some are also helping to mobilize their employees to provide support at the polls, given the pandemic. That’s a great way to channel their employees’ political energies in a universally positive way: getting out the vote and helping to assure that each vote gets counted.

No matter your political preferences, you would probably agree that this will be an historic election for many reasons in a country that is presently experiencing both social and economic traumas. With all that is going on politically, keeping the focus in the workplace on productive efforts may be a challenge in the next few weeks, but one that every company can meet by trying to avoid fractious political debate amongst its employees and helping them engage in productive civic activities that support democracy for all.