Politics, Religion, and Sex in the Workplace (Roundtable)

There’s an unspoken rule at holiday dinners; don’t talk about politics, religion, or sex. Most people would [and do] apply this to their work life as well. But what happens when unspoken rules get spoken about?

In a world where we’re seeing major divides when it comes to just about everything [add decisions on your candidate, employee, and recruiter experience into the mix] and just when you thought you could keep work sacred, you found out you were wrong.

What happens when someone comes to work and starts sharing their thoughts on the things we don’t normally talk about at work or worse – in an interview? And what happens when those opinions cause a divide between your employees or impact your hiring decisions?

Maybe they posted something on social media that your employer disagrees with.

Maybe they don’t see eye to eye on the issues of comprehensive healthcare.

Maybe they voted third party and not for the party everyone in your office thought they ‘should’ have voted for.

Can dissention cause a ‘cascading impact of decisions’? Once your employees start to put up walls with each other the blame game starts. Someone disagrees about politics so now they get the blame for processes going awry. All of a sudden you’re faced with a mound of issues you have to navigate through in an attempt to keep everyone happy and at ease. But if everyone you hire is the same – group think sets in.

We were joined by the brain behind Recruiting Brainfood, Hung Lee, for our upcoming roundtable and addressed some hard-hitting questions.​

• How do you deal with a divided office?

• How do different opinions on hot topics affect your recruiters and how you hire?

• What are some of the unintended consequences of the decisions your employees make when it comes to things they ‘shouldn’t’ speak about at work?