I’m not apolitical, I do have my opinion and quite a strong one. Yet, I don’t let it interfere with my job. I don’t think that one should talk about his or her political agenda at work or that one should ramble about politics in the (virtual) office or at a conference.
In this article, let me share the 5 main reasons why you should keep your opinion to yourself. If you think that you don’t have anyone in your life who you can tell your political opinion it either means that you don’t have the right friends or simply there is nobody interested in that. But if you cannot talk about it with your friend, why would you do it with your colleagues?
If you think that you must share your opinion despite having friends who you can talk to about it just means that probably you’re on the wrong career path and you should become an activist in your free time or even a professional politician.
Being an activist or a semi-professional politician does not mean that you have to keep talking about your political convictions at work. You can draw a line. Believe me. I worked in and next to politics for long years, and you might understand how I see life, but in my articles or conference talks you won’t find anything about current political issues.
And that’s good like that. Let me tell you why.
You’re not right, no matter where you stand
I know this is hard to accept, but you are not right. No matter where you are on the political spectrum. You cannot be absolutely right for different reasons.
Even though I do believe in some values that I consider universal, others might believe in other values that they consider universal. Or they simply don’t believe in universal values. We all have our values and we can only be right in the context of those values.
But values and politics are not the same. You can always speak about values in a way that it directly involves politics, but that’s not necessary. At the same time, why would you even talk about them at work? Just live by them.
The problem is that too many people can only think in a black-or-white way. Even people who are otherwise smart in their work. They don’t see the nuances, they don’t want to accept the subtleties and they can go mad if they are reminded about other aspects.
Just remember, not everyone believes in and lives by your values. Oh, also don’t forget that life is complicated. Extreme opinions are almost always incorrect.
Why would you share them at work?
You make people angry one way or another
If you keep talking about politics and you show how much you are correct, you’ll simply make people angry. Probably you’ll make people angry who think the same way as you because you’ll make them think about “those other bastards” and how wrong they are. You make them angry and you also make them switch contexts for no good reason. As such you indirectly set back the team.
But this is not dangerous for you. What is more dangerous is that you make people angry who don’t agree with you. They will ask themselves “what is this jerk doing here? Why can’t (s)he shut up? Why do we have to talk about politics even at work? Why do I have to listen to this f*cking nonsense?”
I think they will be right. We live in a polarized world. The last thing you want at work is to feel further polarized. So don’t contribute to it.
You harm your relationships more than you help them
If you still decide to talk about politics at work, you have to accept that you are going to harm some of your relationships. People will think about you more or less in three different ways.
Some - who agree with you - might think that you’re a good warrior for whatever cause and that it’s good for society what you do and there should be more people like that. At the same time, you won’t be seen as an integrator person. You’ll be seen as a warrior.
Some people will be neutral about what you fight for, they might or might not see it important, but they will think that you’re just one more person bringing politics to the table. To a table which is meant to discuss different things than politics.
And there will be those who are outright hostile towards you, most probably under the hood. For the reasons already described, they either want to live outside of political polarity at work or they simply disagree with you. Maybe both.
If you act as an activist at work, you will only get the goodwill of other warriors and wannabe warriors who are simply too coward to become warriors. If you manage to get the goodwill of anyone else, that will be despite you bringing politics to the table and not because of it. You’d need a much stronger performance than otherwise.
You waste time and energy
We always have more tasks to do at work than time to complete that work. It’s almost like a natural law.
Do you really want to waste your time and energy at work talking about politics instead?
At most companies, there are way too many meetings and they are too long. And no matter what is done, there will be still people who think that there are still meetings that are not needed, meetings that last too long.
If people have to sit at meetings longer just because you ramble about politics… You know exactly how they will feel. Even if they agree with you!
You might say that oh well, but you only talked about it in the beginning while you were waiting for others to join. That doesn’t matter. That doesn’t change people’s feelings. Besides, you could have talked about either a related professional topic or something that integrates more people and help form bonds in the team.
Why do you waste your and others’ time?
You don’t show empathy
There is one last thing connecting to this. If you keep talking about politics at work, you show a lack of empathy. There are very few people who feel comfortable about showing their political opinions, especially at work. There are also very few people who enjoy listening to differing political opinions. Especially if they don’t even want to argue and defend their own opinions because they fear it would hurt their careers!
Are you so selfish that you want to make them feel worse at work?
Show some empathy not bring such divisive topics to the table.
Conclusion
We often feel tempted to share our opinions. Even the political ones. Even at work. Well, we should not talk about politics and today we saw some reasons why not. First, we have to understand that we cannot be right in everyone’s eyes. Politics is not math. Besides, politics hurt relationships more than it helps. Not to mention that we all have so much work to do, why would we waste our time talking about politics at work?
Instead, be more empathic and talk about topics that help the team bond, and help the people to actually feel like a team. That will help both your and your colleagues’ careers!
You can still and probably should talk about politics outside work with your friends and family as long as you can all stay respectful.
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