I admit I’ve considered “don’t talk politics at work” to be wise counsel.
Not this year. How can we not talk about an election so important?
What if our coworkers, operating on limited or distorted information, make choices that later prove treacherous? What if that’s true of us? Have we lost the belief that we can have an enlightening discussion that might allow us to reconsider our initial position? Or that might persuade someone else to reconsider theirs?
I believe we can talk politics and in fact need to. Despite the reality of a world in which our colleagues hold different views, we can respectfully talk with, not at each other. Our conversations need not escalate into polarized verbal duels.
We can’t remain a society in which we avoid differences of opinions because we don’t remember how to exchange ideas without attacking each other’s views, or worse, each other as people. We need to learn that others can hold a different opinion without considering it a personal affront. We need to openly and honesty talk with and listen to each other so we can learn what we need to to make the right ballot choices.
We need to step up our game. The stakes are high.
Readers, I’d love to learn your thoughts on this topic.
© 2020, Lynne Curry
Lynne Curry is the author of “Beating the Workplace Bully” (AMACOM, 2016, https://amzn.to/30V5JO6) and “Solutions”, https://amzn.to/2GYlnAN (both books are rated 4.8 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com). Send your questions to her at lynnewriter10@gmail.com, visit her @ www.communicationworks.net or follow her on twitter @lynnecurry10.
Where I used to work ( I consider myself retired now), the policy in place was ‘no discussion of politics at work.” In part, the reason for this policy was that it was a government agency; in part, we were in customer service, and any discussion could be overheard by customers, who might not take kindly to government workers expressing opinions in a government space. Also, it was a politicized workplace were members of the dominant party were sometimes known to oppose and even threaten the continued employment of any showing the “wrong” sympathies.