Five Steps to Cool Down Political Dustups in the Workplace

November 6, 2012 or Election Day is just over a month away and with that comes an increase in the workplace talk of politics. As everybody knows, politics can always generate strong emotions from people. This seems especially true this year as the partisan banter and divide is at an all time high.

Political Speech in the workplace can present difficult challenges for employers that can create an unproductive and divided workforce with lower morale. Also, strong political debates can offend clients whom disagree and take offense.

The question then becomes how can you tame down a politically charged conversation in the workplace without violating a person’s First Amendment rights?

Private employers have an easier time regulating political speech during working hours than their public counterparts. This is because free speech in the workplace is different than free speech outside. There are several laws that help break down the differences and where the limitations lie, such as the First Amendment, National Labor Relations Act, Election Laws, State and Municipal Laws, Civil Rights Act, etc.

So, what is an employer to do to protect themselves from the pitfalls of workplace political comments? There are five steps you can start implementing today.

1) Education is key to a lot of things, political speech is no exception. Start with retraining all of your employees on the basic and relevant policies on anti-harassment, anti-discrimination, equal employment opportunity, etc.

2) Encourage accountability. Have employees help be your eyes and ears by reporting anything they feel is politically harassing or violating, so you can take steps to cool down political tensions.

3) Add to your corporate code of conduct. Let employees know they need to be respectful of their fellow co-workers political opinions and values; therefore failure to do so could merit disciplinary action against them.

4) Cover political apparel in your dress code. Political buttons, stickers and/or other campaign paraphernalia can spark a heated debate, so consider putting a clause addressing this in your dress code.

5) Do not push your views. Feel free to encourage your employees to partake in their civic duty to vote but be careful not to cross the line in convincing them to vote or financially support a particular candidate and/or cause. The persuasion could be viewed as a coercive activity by some and run in violation of federal and state election laws.

Workplace political dustups can be cooled down by being aware and following the five aforementioned steps. For more information on how to reduce political distractions in your office, contact Todd Weyandt at todd@laihr.com.