There’s no shortage of brawl-worthy political issues. But no matter how right you think you are, the workplace probably isn’t the place to duke it out.
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I was a consultant working on-site in a client’s office on November 7, 2000, and things were a little tense.
But, in spite of the fact that rules and I aren’t usually on speaking terms, I’ve set five rules for myself to keep from committing professional suicide.
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My client was a hard line Republican, his office manager was an equally committed Democrat, his executive assistant was on any side that was winning, and the clients were almost as vocal as anyone else on his team. We hadn’t yet heard the phrase “hanging chad,” but by mid-afternoon the election was heating up and so were tempers.
We had a team meeting at 3:00 PM. I was tired of biting my tongue and my nails and was seriously considering giving them all a piece of my mind along with my political views, when the voice of one of my earliest mentors drifted into my mind.
“You aren’t being paid less because you’re having a bad day. Your boss, your clients, your co-workers – everyone has the right to expect you to earn your salary no matter what. That means you have to be productive, creative, professional. All the time. And if you can’t do it then you need to go home. Otherwise, it’s stealing.”
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There have been a lot of politically charged and emotionally treacherous days since that one. We’ve had 9/11 and Sandy Hook, “Obamacare” and Trayvon Martin. Recently the conversations boil around the Hobby Lobby decision, same-sex marriage, and the fighting in Gaza.
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With so many issues to take sides on, and emotions running high on all of them, I don’t always feel like being “productive, creative, and professional.” I’ll admit I don’t always manage to act like it either.
But, in spite of the fact that rules and I aren’t usually on speaking terms, I’ve set five rules for myself to keep from committing professional suicide.
1.) Don’t add fuel to the fire.
Getting into politics in the office is a lot like being in an old-fashioned bar brawl. Your punch isn’t always going to land where you intended, but it’s guaranteed to escalate the violence.
While the movies make brawls look like a darned good time for everyone except the saloon owner, relationship damage from a politically charged altercation is much harder to mend than the MGM set.
2.) Don’t lose your compassion.
You don’t have to understand where the other person is coming from to remember that they not only have a right to their point of view, they also have a reason for it. Even if their reason isn’t (in your eyes anyway) reasonable, they most likely have an emotional attachment to being heard and believed.
If you can see the world through their eyes you might find that even if the view makes you slightly sea-sick, it explains a great deal of their attitude and behavior. Once you have a better understanding of where they’re coming from, you can continue to reject their opinions without rejecting their value as a person.
3.) Don’t make it personal.
I know, you’re attached to your ideology too, so when someone attacks it, or just spouts off an opposing belief, it feels pretty personal. But really, unless they’re just taking the opposite view to get your goat (in which case it it’s about office politics, not politics in the office) they’d take the same stance with anyone so it isn’t about you.
And of course, falling back on the old “how stupid do you have to be to believe that hog-wash?” isn’t a strategy for being “productive, creative, and professional.”
4.) Don’t compromise your ethics
Just because I have rules for myself about not getting into the equivalent of a boardroom brawl, doesn’t mean I bite my tongue or play both sides if I’m asked directly what I think. I have my own point of view about most issues, and I’ll share it in a respectful dialogue between equals.
Bottom line, we’re all people. We have differences, and we have commonalities. We also have choices. We can focus on the areas where we don’t agree, or we can focus on our shared objectives and opportunities.
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Hopefully, your ethics not only include not harassing others because of differing beliefs, but also not allowing anyone to be harassed in your presence. Even if you’re on different sides of an issue, I hope you’ll defend the right of anyone to have an opinion without being threatened by anyone they work with or for.
5.) Don’t expect agreement (but always demand respect.)
Sometimes it’s the hardest part of earning that salary; having respect for someone whose beliefs, opinions, attitude, and behavior, violate your sense of truth. I’ve rehearsed some pretty clever repartees, and even a few resignation letters, because I thought I just could not respect anyone who didn’t see the world through the same filter as I did.
I have left a few positions over ethics, and I’ve “fired” a few clients because our ideological differences made me uncomfortable working with them. But usually I only terminate a relationship when I sense they don’t respect me, not because they don’t agree with me.
Bottom line, we’re all people. We have differences, and we have commonalities. We also have choices. We can focus on the areas where we don’t agree, or we can focus on our shared objectives and opportunities.
And if we choose the first, we might as well go home.