The presidential election is right around the corner, and this year is proving to cause extreme divides as political views and opinions have become increasingly strong. Differences in opinions on candidates and various measures are bound to spill over into the workplace, creating the potential for hurt feelings and multiple distractions. As supervisors and HR professionals, how do you manage political banter at work, ideally before productivity is affected, tensions escalate, and discussions need to be halted?

It is unreasonable to assume that there will be no chatter of politics at work, since the majority of our time is spent at work during the work week, and typically with the same people with whom we’ve become comfortable working and conversing with for years. Since politics can also play a significant role in both our personal and professional parts of life, it can become natural “water cooler” conversation for some employees. However, while a healthy debate about politics is necessary to work through our own beliefs and come up with new concepts for the betterment of all, in the workplace they can lead to major distraction from work.  This distraction can be anything from employees no longer talking to each other to taking time away from actual production. 

Whether you are an executive, manager, HR professional, or an employee, you have the ability to be a leader in your workplace.  Sometimes that means you either avoid political conversations or defer the conversation to a better time and place (e.g., not during work hours).  This can be difficult when you feel that your strongly held political beliefs are under attack. An effective leader should try to encourage others in a positive and productive manner, while remaining genuine.  This doesn’t mean you need to dismiss or lie about your beliefs, but rather appropriately evade what you know can be unproductive for the workplace.

It’s best to keep political conversations in the workplace to a minimum. If, however, despite your best efforts, a discussion becomes heated and gets out of hand, try to help employees find a common ground by validating each employee’s right to their opinion, acknowledging their differences, then reminding them to leave it at that. Do not take “sides” with either employee; simply encourage those with differing viewpoints that it’s okay to “agree to disagree,” and that it’s best to table that political conversation.

Ultimately, the workplace is a place for work. Politically-charged conversations, while not illegal in the workplace, are best left for after-hours discussion. More times than not, they can lead to disagreements which can offend others, possibly ruin relationships, and lower workplace morale and productivity. It’s important to exercise one’s freedom of opinion, but best to treat political discussions with respect, or, whenever possible, to avoid these discussions altogether.