As much as we all want to find like-minded people around us, discussing politics at work is nothing but a recipe for disaster. Discussing politics at work can have multiple negative impacts on workplace culture, which can destroy the harmony and bonding between employees and create an ideological divide among them. Furthermore, it also affects the quality of work produced by employees.
Let’s look at all the negative impacts that discussing politics at work can have on work and workplace culture.
Affects Employee Productivity
As a general rule, anything that doesn’t contribute to employees’ productivity shouldn’t be discussed at work. However, discussing politics at work should be discouraged as it can easily divide employees with different ideologies.
Since political opinions are usually based on personal experiences, some employees might not be willing to work side by side with employees who don’t share the same political ideologies as themselves.
Forcing these employees to work together will also result in poor quality work, resulting in decreased overall employee productivity at the workplace.
Creates Biases
Biases among employees affect more than employee productivity. Besides not wanting to work together, employees may not want to socialize with each other. They might only communicate essential bits to each other, leaving out the details. A workplace where employees stop talking to each other based on their political beliefs can hardly stay in business.
Such behavior by employees can also create a challenging environment for new employees or even customers. Employees at higher positions or administration and HR may also reflect their biases against other employees during increments, promotions, granting leaves, or other administrative processes.
Makes Employees Feel Isolated
Even if most employees in your organization feel strongly about the same causes, discussing politics at work is still a bad idea. It can make those employees who don’t feel about the particular causes as firmly stand out among the crowd and make them feel isolated.
These employees in the minority may even have to tolerate others insisting them to be on their side. They might also experience bullying from other employees.
However, their hesitation or refusal to join the majority’s cause can make them feel even more isolated. These employees can feel demotivated to work or put in their best efforts. They might also lie about their personal lives to keep people off their backs, which might affect their productivity even further. If it gets too much to tolerate, these employees in the minority might even end up quitting.
As an employer, you set your business or organization up for failure when discussing politics at work. Your focus should be on finding and retaining the best talents to grow your organization. Their personal opinions and political ideologies should not matter to you. You should also allow only those topics of conversation that can bring your employees together.
As an employee, avoid and discourage discussing politics at work altogether to keep a positive workplace environment for yourself and your teammates. You wouldn’t like working with people you resent or those who resent you.