With barely a year to go before the 2020 presidential election, debates among hopeful candidates and rallies to reelect President Donald Trump have already begun.
Source: GaudiLab / shutterstock
As the election cycle fires up once again, some managers are left to navigate delicate situations when political discussions end with hurt feelings.
A recent survey found that problems related to political conversations at work are relatively rare. In fact, two-thirds of employees say they’ve never felt singled out due to their politics. Still, employees are only one uncomfortable conversation away from changing their answer to that question at any given time.
For example, it’s not hard to imagine that employees who have a good relationship could lose that after discussing Trump’s immigration policies. If some employees express support for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, they could make an employee with undocumented relatives feel unsafe.
In the face of increasingly splintered political discourse, companies may find it helpful to proactively develop policies guiding political speech.
Keep the following three things in mind when creating a political discussion policy.
-
Establish a Clear Definition of Workplace Harassment
Today, many companies rely on sexual harassment training to empower managers and establish clear boundaries around misconduct.
Similarly, companies should develop a clear definition of what kinds of conduct constitute harassment over political issues.
According to legal analysis by the University of California, Los Angeles, political speech at work crosses the line into harassment if it singles employees out according to their race, nationality, veteran status, or similar factors.
It’s crucial for companies to communicate that constitutional protections such as freedom of speech don’t protect employees from retribution if something they say violates a company policy or is considered harassment by others.
Repeated, persistent behavior might also validly be considered harassment: An employee who badgers colleagues to donate to a political cause or campaign for a certain candidate could be considered a harasser, depending on how your company’s policy is structured.
-
Distinguish Between Written, Verbal, and Political Discussions
Differentiating between political speech that plays out in verbal communication, written messages, and other formats can help companies establish clear boundaries without making employees feel that their privacy is being invaded.
According to experts at HR Daily Advisor, setting boundaries around nonverbal political speech is generally more straightforward.
Companies can easily establish policies that prohibit the use of company e-mail accounts to send political messages, along with rules against displaying campaign pins or posters.
Establishing that your company’s digital and physical spaces can’t be used for political campaigning or debates will create an environment with fewer catalysts for verbal conversations.
Even if your company’s political discussion policy falls short of regulating conversations, limits on political e-mails and ephemera signal boundaries that make it easier for managers to intervene in political conversations gone awry.
-
Clarify How Social Media Fits into Your Political Expression Policy
Virtually everyone would agree that managers should step in if employees engage in a shouting match over a political topic. But what if a similar level of vitriol unfolds online?
Social media complicates businesses’ policies on employee conduct because it can impact employees’ relationships yet typically exists outside the office.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the National Labor Relations Board has established protections that prevent employers from limiting employees’ freedom of expression on social media.
Most importantly, employers cannot interfere with their employees’ ability to organize for better working conditions or union activity.
However, your business may still be able to establish guidelines for employees’ conduct on social media. For example, an employee who posts in support of white nationalist movements would clearly violate most employers’ ethics and endanger relationships among colleagues and clients alike.
Social media can be a tricky space to monitor, but employers that establish clear policies about what is and isn’t OK to post can avoid even more fraught situations later.
Consult Local Laws and Define Parameters for Political Discussion at Work
While each of these suggested considerations can help you develop a political discussion policy for your business, it’s important to always check local laws before rolling out a new policy.
Some states have strict rules that protect employees’ ability to discuss politics and other topics freely, while other states support employers’ right to set guidelines for how they would like employees to handle sensitive conversations in the office.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that political discussion policies can act as an insurance against difficult situations in the future.
Instead of waiting until you’re put in a situation that requires you to react under pressure, create a sensible political discussion policy today to protect both your company and your employees in the future.
Grayson Kemper is a Content Manager at Clutch, a ratings and reviews site for business-to-business services, including HR and legal services.