Learning to Use the "P" Word Safely at the Office

The votes have been counted.

The train has left the station. The die is cast. Whichever cliché you prefer, there’s one reality you can’t escape after the 2020 election:

The wall that once separated work and politics has been torn down – and will never be rebuilt. And, my company, and most likely yours, will never be the same.

My late business and life partner, Michael Cohen, and I had always encouraged people to vote, and we even gave them paid time off to do so. This 2020 presidential election, however, required more urgency. The company ran an internal campaign to educate previously indifferent team members that their right to vote is power, and we also ran a nationwide voter registration initiative with Gloria Steinem, #TheTeeInVote.

I admit the whole thing was a little scary – even for a progressive company like ours.

I know I’m not alone in that thinking. Many senior human resources (HR) leaders and legal counsel at various companies are considering how to “control the flow of politics” in the office. There’s fear that politics in the workplace can become a slippery slope leading to candidate posters, buttons, and bobble head dolls in cubicles, followed by conflict and disrespect for colleagues.

No business leader wants a polarizing, hostile place like the one reflected in the current outgoing administration.

In fact, a friend recently relayed a story about how an email a New York Times article to office peers generated a few hostile responses about sending fake news around the office. Her follow up actions included sending a company-wide memo urging people to respect each other post-election.

So what can you do about it?

On the bright side, the impact of politics in the office can have positive life-changing effects.

Our campaign flushed out a team member in her early 30s who revealed that she’d never voted. She was embarrassed about it, but after she registered, became excited. She got caught up with in the passion of her teammates, and vowed she would never take her vote for granted again. I was proud of her. She was ready to make voting a permanent condition in her life.

Another team member admitted she had always ignored politics and elections. What did they matter since she didn’t have the right to vote as a permanent resident of the United States? After she realized what was at stake, she wanted to share her feelings with her 18-year-old daughter, an American citizen who would be voting for the first time in 2020. They began researching the issues together and made a date to watch the presidential debates. For the first time, she engaged with the political process and was proud that she was able to motivate her daughter to join her.

Avoid a “no politics talk” edict.

Issuing a “no talk” order reflects poorly on company leadership and culture, signaling to employees that they are out of touch with the real world. And that’s not a good thing, especially considering that incoming Gen Z employees will make up 30% of the workforce in the next four years. They are considered the first generation of worker who prioritize purpose over pay. They’ll bring politics to work, whether you want them to or not.

Co-create and collaborate.

Our internal voting registration and education campaign was designed and implemented by a taskforce that was made up of different areas of the company. By the time we launched, we had good support from various teams, and people were encouraging their colleagues to participate.

Embrace incentives and fun.

We turned voter registration into something fun. By offering incentives through contests and other fun ideas, we created a sense of community among our team.

Discover potential leaders.

This kind of campaign can reveal hidden potential in team members. After we added a referral component to the campaign, one of our team members seized the opportunity, and encouraged quite a few others to register to vote. She demonstrated an ability to motivate others that we hadn’t seen before.

Be crystal clear about privacy and provide non-partisan trusted information.

We stressed the right to privacy and made it clear that our campaign was about participating in democracy, not about specific candidates nor political parties. We discovered that people were confused about where to get reliable voting information. So we provided them with non-partisan, trusted sources to learn how to register, to make a voting plan, and to understand measures on the ballot.

Civil discourse is a way to handle conflict.

Discord around politics can quickly turn disrespectful. Think about your worst family dinner that involved politics -- then vow never to have that happen in your workplace! If people can learn to be respectful of each other’s politics, then they can be respectful in other areas in which they disagree.

Inspire engagement and empathy.

When company team members gain knowledge about how politics, it can help them understand how policies and issues affect your company and their communities. It can even help them become more empathetic to the challenges that colleagues and customers may face.

Courtesy of Rogers Movie Nation: The Oath (2018)

Lead the Way

In the end, how you respond to the “p” word at the office comes down to whether you seek to control or to lead your organization. Leaders help their teams develop informed perspectives on important political issues, especially those that affect your company.

And remember, they don’t have to think like you do. They just need to realize that by becoming involved and educating themselves, they have the power to shape the future.

By Suzanne LernerNovember 2, 2020