The results of yesterday’s Iowa caucuses are still up in the air, but a new Glassdoor survey released this week shows 60% of U.S. workers think talking about politics at work is unacceptable.
Despite the majority opinion against it, 57% of workers also reported doing so.
“People, on an ideological level, say you should keep politics out of the workplace,” Glassdoor career expert Alison Sullivan tells USA Today. But, ”lots of political events are happening every day. It’s probably hard not to talk about it.”
Other findings in the Glassdoor survey include:
• 28% of employees say a co-worker has tried to convince them to change political parties;
• 21% say they don’t want to work with someone who plans to vote for a presidential candidate they don’t like;
• 60% say talking about politics at work could hurt their career opportunities;
• 25% would consider leaving a company if most of their co-workers had different political views.
Other survey results reported by USA Today say those political conversations have grown increasingly common over the past four years, whether they’re taking place at the traditional water cooler or extending to modern office communications like Slack.
There is also a generational divide when it comes to an employee’s willingness to discuss their political opinions. Millennials and younger grew up with social media encouraging them to share their views, while many baby boomers and those in Generation X were taught to keep politics out of the workplace. That divide can further intensify debates.
Ali Fazal, a senior director at HR software firm Hibob, tells USA Today companies should establish policies to deal with this, one that allows employees to decline to participate so that employers can mediate if a political argument affects working relationships or productivity. Read the full story and other tips here.
