We have gone through a nasty political season, for the last four years. We just went through an election that was probably the most corrupt political scene we have seen from all sides of the political parties. And maybe some of that politics crept into the office and created an even more stressful workplace environment. The question is how did companies manage politics from not disturbing the workplace?

In march of 2020 I received an email requesting mediation in a company located in Oakland California for political and employee workplace conflict, all geared to politics. The story - the manager of the company had one employee that was right leaning and expressed his views on politics. The other two employees, who were left leaning, wanted the other employee fired. They did not agree with his political opinion and wanted him gone. There were a lot of hostile threats against the one employee, so much that the manager requested mediation to resolve the political hate in the office. Is this harassment? Yes, it is.

If you have workplace conflicts, especially if it revolves around politics, resolve it quickly. Bring in a mediator. Conflict is very expensive to the company, it reduces productivity, everyone stops communicating, work is delayed or done incorrectly because of the stress pressures built up in the office. Millions are lost each each year from employee conflicts. Resolve them quickly. Business has to take a pro-active approach in having a clearly stated company policy on politics in the business.

If you have any questions or comments, send me a text at 818.252.5682 If you want to know about my day job go to www.lodge-co.com