4 ms·

I see a lot of anti-politics-at-work commentary here. This makes me wonder what the posters would do working for companies that have an explicit social agenda.

I see a lot of anti-politics-at-work commentary here. This makes me wonder what the posters would do working for companies that have an explicit social agenda. If the politics are baked into the company, does that void the "politics and work should be separate" point?

filleduchaos 5y ago
Politics has become a dirty word in the US, so people simply don't think of their pet political causes as politics. In my opinion, many Americans especially do not know how to talk politics (in large part because of how much of a dirty word it has become, and also for a bunch of historical reasons) and instead of addressing this - which, to be fair, is extremely difficult to do - people would simply rather sweep it all under the rug. It's even more complicated when it comes to the workplace because if you don't know how to talk politics you definitely won't know how to compartmentalise political debate and professional duty. To have politics in the workplace you need to be able to passionately, even furiously disagree with someone in one moment and pleasantly collaborate or offer assistance in the next. Either that or maintain a business where everyone has the same political leanings. There aren't really any in-betweens.
- deleted 5y ago
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PeterisP 5y ago
I'm not sure if it should void that point. For an example of "an explicit social agenda" I'm thinking about the various cases of explicitly Christian companies with a business that's not directly religious (i.e. not a church or the like) but with an explicit agenda of strictly keeping to the social values of their particular choosing. Should all employees share their values? IMHO not. Should they be able to require that employees share their values? IMHO not. Should employees with contradictory values (in that particular example, let's say abortion policy) be able to feel psychologically safe working there? IMHO yes. So from that perspective, if we consider some company with an explicit "woke" social agenda, the same things should apply - in my view, an anti-abortionist campaigner should be able to work for a feminist boss in a feminist company just as a pro-abortion-rights campaigner should be able to work for a Mormon boss in a company fully owned by a religious fundamentalist family, and the same for any other politically charged topics. Obviously, that doesn't work well now, especially in all the "fire at-will" USA states, but that's how I feel it should be.

filleduchaos 5y ago

Politics has become a dirty word in the US, so people simply don't think of their pet political causes as politics. In my opinion, many Americans especially do not know how to talk politics (in large part because of how much of a dirty word it has become, and also for a bunch of historical reasons) and instead of addressing this - which, to be fair, is extremely difficult to do - people would simply rather sweep it all under the rug. It's even more complicated when it comes to the workplace because if you don't know how to talk politics you definitely won't know how to compartmentalise political debate and professional duty. To have politics in the workplace you need to be able to passionately, even furiously disagree with someone in one moment and pleasantly collaborate or offer assistance in the next. Either that or maintain a business where everyone has the same political leanings. There aren't really any in-betweens.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

PeterisP 5y ago

I'm not sure if it should void that point. For an example of "an explicit social agenda" I'm thinking about the various cases of explicitly Christian companies with a business that's not directly religious (i.e. not a church or the like) but with an explicit agenda of strictly keeping to the social values of their particular choosing. Should all employees share their values? IMHO not. Should they be able to require that employees share their values? IMHO not. Should employees with contradictory values (in that particular example, let's say abortion policy) be able to feel psychologically safe working there? IMHO yes. So from that perspective, if we consider some company with an explicit "woke" social agenda, the same things should apply - in my view, an anti-abortionist campaigner should be able to work for a feminist boss in a feminist company just as a pro-abortion-rights campaigner should be able to work for a Mormon boss in a company fully owned by a religious fundamentalist family, and the same for any other politically charged topics. Obviously, that doesn't work well now, especially in all the "fire at-will" USA states, but that's how I feel it should be.