Politics at work :-/

[PepperElf]

In general because it involved my former boss, his wife, and a supervisor/coworker but not really a "management" issue.


All three of them are Political Party "X". This in itself wasn't part of the issue because I myself am also "PPX".

At that time I wasn't really comfortable discussing politics at work - and even now, I'm still not so comfortable with it. This was my first civilian job post-military and I was still of a mindset that such a topic wasn't a professional one. Plus, just because the 3 of them were happy talking politics it doesn't mean all the other employees are, and so... I tended to keep my mouth shut.



What annoyed me though? Not that they talked politics... but that the supervisor/coworker liked to target me with it. "Oh you're one of those Political Party Y people!"


Boss was mostly quiet about it, unless a conversation was already started. The Boss's Wife wasn't as direct about it... except once when I was discussing a musician I liked with another coworker. The story was that the musician was shut down by the police ... because he didn't want to stop his concert at 11pm.

Me: ... shut down by the police...
BW: *walks in* Good! That's because he's a PPY idiot!
Me: ....


anyway yeah. politics at work wasn't my cup of tea.

and yeah it was kinda ironic... being accused of being PPY when I'm really PPX like they were.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Unless the job is overtly political (i.e. working for a party itself or a politically-connected organization), politics shouldn't ever be a topic of discussion.

It just leads to fights, hurt feelings, and an us-vs-them mentality.

[AyreBiskits]

Unless the job is overtly political (i.e. working for a party itself or a politically-connected organization), politics shouldn't ever be a topic of discussion.

It just leads to fights, hurt feelings, and an us-vs-them mentality.

politics and religion. i'll discuss politics when i get ready to vote, otherwise leave me alone! it's my business, not yours. same with religion, you don't need to know anything about what side of the force i follow, you won't change me.

[PepperElf]

indeed. and this wasn't a political job - it was an electronics job, calibrating testing equipment (like multimeters).


and ... I've never seen a voltmeter that gave a flying fuck about political parties.


now granted, for the boss (and wife) politics would play a big part for them since it could affect how their business ran. but that has nothing to do with the employees, at least not directly.

and of course in a professional setting political affiliation should never be used as an insult.
not to mention sup should have at least gotten it RIGHT first.

[Dilorenzo]

The most political discussion I've ever had at work? "Damnit, I've had it with these political ads already, wish the election would hurry up and get here." That's one that everyone seemed to agree with.

I've heard a few discussions going on here. I keep my head down and my mouth shut at those times, as, as has been noted, it's a bloody powder keg.

[draftermatt]

At my last 2 jobs I have been an assumed member of political party "a" when I'm actually "b". I never bring politics up at work and tend to steer clear of discussions of politics (at least getting involved when they're going on anyway).

It always amuses me that people look at me and say "he's an 'a', let's go on a rant about..."

Does make for some quiet car rides when I'm on site visits with certain co-workers though.

[Jay 2K Winger]

At the wholesale club, when I'd chat with my friend CR (who is Party B, while I'm Party A), occasionally politics would come up, but when we started to argue too much, we'd both stop and agree to move onto a different subject, because we didn't want our friendship to get strained too much over something we knew we weren't going to convince the other over.

[Cooper]

My friends are all political party B. I view myself as political party A, but apparently I'm somewhere in-between the two. We usually could find some sort of common ground, even if it was that we were going to vote for x because we couldn't stand the idea of y getting into office (inverted for them). It was more of a discussion of what we were going to do for our first presidential election than anything else.

Basically we all had to learn how to play nice. We'd usually make jokes about extremists and it would work out just fine. I've never had the mistaken for B, though, just because I'm kinda obvious.

[pltkcelestial18]

I don't affiliate myself with any specific political party TBH. I know what my views are and they're kind of all over the place, although I generally prefer candidates from one party versus the other. During the month leading to the elections, people were always going on about who they wanted to be in office and how the country would go to hell if they weren't and blah blah blah. I just kept my mount shut and let them ramble. People never really asked me what I thought and I never offered up my opinion.