Should your office be a ‘no politics’ zone?
(LifeWire) — At her previous job, Samantha Smith, was the lone conservative in a 10-person office — something her more liberal co-workers were happy to tease her about after she shared her views on hot-button issues like same-sex marriage and the Iraq war.
[One April Fools Day] one of my co-workers sent an e-mail to the entire staff that called me Nancy Reagan and suggested I ‘pretend to be a Democrat for the day’ because that would be really funny, says Smith, a registered Republican.
Because the Foxboro, Massachusetts resident liked her co-workers and the office was small, Smith says she stayed silent on the matter.
I didn’t want to make waves, says Smith, who’s now director of communications at an online gaming company. But I thought, if we were a bigger company with an HR department, this would have never flown.
Smith, 31, doesn’t debate her colleagues’ right to politick outside the workplace. It’s fine if people want to talk about it over lunch and beers, she says. But I don’t think it should be done in the office.
San Francisco employment lawyer Shanti Atkins agrees.
When I get asked what you should share with coworkers or a supervisor, I always say, ‘It sounds really conservative, but I wouldn’t share beyond what you shared in the interview or what you shared when you met the parents of your spouse,’ says Atkins, president and CEO of ELT, a consultancy that educates employers about ethics and legal compliance.
