Make America Great Again! I’m with her! Feel the Bern. … If it seems like this year’s presidential election is seeping into everything, including your design room, you’re not alone.
One in four HR professionals say employees in their organizations are more riled up about this year’s presidential election than elections past — with tension, hostility and arguments flaring up because of political affiliation, according to a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
“In general, the rhetoric during the Republican primary was more hostile than before, which set the tone,” said Evren Esen, director of SHRM’s survey programs. “ Trump as a political outsider means that it is not politics as usual. This, coupled with a two-term president on his way out, makes the stakes higher.”
The high stakes election can also put employers in an uncomfortable position; however, it’s important for business owners to understand worker protections when it comes to free-wielding political talk. Although nearly 75 percent of survey respondents said they discourage political activities at work, workplace policies cannot prohibit such discussions, nor can managers tell employees that they aren’t allowed to have these kinds of discussions. (The National Labor Relations Board classifies political activity at work as a “protected concerted activity.”)
“But it is important for employers to monitor such discussions to ensure that they do not lead to bullying or threatening behaviors between employees or become a significant drag on productivity,” said Edward Yost, HR business partner at SHRM.
Because political discussions can touch on issues related to workers who are protected from discrimination by federal law, those conversations “must therefore be treated with caution,” the survey report authors wrote.
“Candidate platforms are sometimes directly or indirectly related to a protected class,” the authors wrote. “Thus, discussions of these topics could create a situation where employees could feel discriminated against or bullied. HR professionals and managers must therefore exercise good judgment about when to step in to quell discussion that is becoming heated, inappropriate or impeding productivity.”
