It’s a Presidential election year, and the campaign season is already upon us. Do you have employees who are politically active or outspoken? Are political discussions distracting you from your core mission, or negatively impacting employee engagement?
Politics can evoke strong emotions and those seemingly unavoidable political discussions in the workplace can become problematic by creating tension among employees, undermining the workplace culture, creating interruptions in productivity, lowering morale, and even resulting in complaints of discrimination or harassment.
But, it’s not enough for employers to simply hope that employees will think before speaking or avoid talking about politics to prevent negatively impacting relationships with co-workers or the workplace culture at large. Employers need to set an example from the top and ensure that management and employees are given guidance for how to steer conversations away from politics or how to respectfully disengage when conversations become heated or uncomfortable. Some simple, but effective suggestions that you can share with your employees include:
Should an employee find themselves in an uncomfortable or unwelcome discussion, encourage them to:
Make sure you've taken the steps to ensure that employees know how and to whom they can raise a concern about unprofessionalism or harassment in the workplace.
In addition to providing tools to disengage, employers should to be proactive and address potential discussions with written policies that tie into the principles of the company’s culture and values.
A specific policy on politics is not generally recommended for a variety of reasons, but you should keep in mind that there are other policies that can help provide guardrails for political discussions in the workplace. Employers should already have a well-defined Code of Conduct, a policy against discrimination and harassment, and similar internal policies which set out expectations of professionalism and respect — if you don’t, that’s step 1. But you may want to also consider:
While it is not uncommon for employees to question whether such restrictions inhibit their right to free speech, it is a common misconception that employers cannot address political speech in the workplace because of the First Amendment. Freedom of speech is actually the prohibition against the government curtailing speech, not private companies or individuals. This means that more flexibility is afforded to private sector employers to impose reasonable restrictions on political discussions in the workplace.
However, employers will need to balance the steps they take to ensure their policies do not have a chilling effect on their employees’ ability to engage in otherwise legally protected activities.
For example, employers should be aware of what protections exist in any given location, as some jurisdictions protect employees who engage in lawful, off-duty conduct, including political activities in support of any candidate or political party as well as other similar forms of advocacy. Likewise, employers should review any time off policies (paid or otherwise) to ensure they are in compliance with any state voting leave requirements applicable to their employee base.
As noted before, the NLRA also provides employees certain rights to discuss their working conditions. Working conditions involve things such as rates of pay, benefits, safety, and other terms and conditions of employment. To the extent that political discussions are occurring that have to do with topics that implicate working conditions, the enforcement of policies that may otherwise implicate a heated discussion should be navigated carefully.
Similarly, most states have enacted laws to establish parameters on the type of prohibitions an employer can assert over employees. Some common prohibitions include:
So, assuming you've got the right policies in place, and you've properly calibrated them to avoid any overreaching, the next consideration is educating your employees about how their political discussions can implicate those policies. Employers should ensure that employees:
Politics will always create emotional reactions, but by implementing policies such as these and educating your workforce on workplace expectations for professionalism and respect, employers have a greater likelihood that this political season will not negatively impact their workplace.
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