National Politics in Office Politics?

So, you're a democrat. You absolutely love Hillary. You can't believe legislation wasn't enacted to allow Bill to stay in for four more years. The democrats taking back the hill has sent you to the moon with elation. The only lead weight dragging down your happy balloon is that die hard conservative in your office whose bubbler rant on bleeding heart liberals makes you so angry you can feel your blood pressure ticking up quicker than hostilities in Iraq.

Or you're a republican who, while not exactly elated that we're still in Iraq, supports the president and the difficult choices he has made. You are proud that your president takes no guff from anyone. What do you do when someone at work just won't shut up about what they see as a lack of intelligence and go on to say incredibly cruel things about him as a president and as a person.

What do you do when personal politics threatens to bleed over into office politics?

There are a few things you can do.

Mum's the Word

The first, of course, is to never talk politics at the office. In my experience however, that's just not possible. Someone, somewhere, sometime and especially as the next presidential election looms, will spout his/her opinion, and loudly. Invariably someone else will spout off in answer. It may be the opposite opinion or it may be more of the same. If you're a member of the opposition, should you, can you, remain quiet? The ramifications for staying quiet are few. So you're not involved in the office debate. In this situation, putting your head down and plowing through any work, including detailing your desk, will keep you "clean."

The Diffuser

In the second scenario, you try to interject a mild comment here and there to diffuse the situation while perhaps tacitly making your opinions known. A "well, none of our choices are the best," or a "at least it's not as bad as the last election." This tact isn't the best choice as the minute things get heated, you'll back down so as not to fuel the fire into a full scale war. You've left your coworkers, at best with the impression that you are a wishy washy weakling whose likely to vote for whoever you think is going to win instead of taking a stand. Not a good impression to have in the corporate world.

Bring It On

Say you're not afraid to let your opinions be known. Come hell or high water you know you're right and can turn the staunchest democrat into a republican if only they'd shut up for a minute and let you speak. In a full scale war of words, however, things can get very heated, very quickly, often escalating into yelling to be heard over each other. Although I've been witness to several of these verbal jousts, even been a part of them, I've never seen anyone "turned," from one side to the other. Before you engage in this kind of wrangling, you better be working in a newsroom or a similar venue where loud voices aren't enough of a reason to get hauled into the supervisor's office for a stern talking to. You also better be sure you work in an environment where different, and what even may be termed dissident beliefs are tolerated. Otherwise you may find that you are labeled a zealot, or just a plain lout and your supervisor, who holds the polar opposite belief than you, can make sure your voice is silenced.

So where does that leave us? Simple. If you want to hold onto your job or get that promotion, keep it shut. Yes, make your politics known, in the voting booth, in your community, on your lawn but not in the office.