any advice? politics create problem at work

[oldlady]

I'm a little cautious about posting this-- because of my low posting numbers. Even though I've been reading daily for about six months, there is so much wisdom here I almost always find someone has said what I would say.

So, yes, I'd like some advice/input. Four co-workers were talking today & the subject turned to the election. Two white women, one old (that's me) & one young and two black men, one old like me, one not yet 30. From all prior conversations, I'd think all are voting Dem. One man said that he didn't really like Kerry, because he didn't have any black staff and wouldn't appoint any high-level black staff. The young woman said that she had seen Kerry traveling with black staff. The man then said he admired Condi and Colin because they were black and had achieved a high level of success. The young woman said, "what? how can you admire what Condi has done?" We older people were staying quiet while they went back and forth a bit. I did ask if he admired Keyes. Yes. The young woman asked if he admired them just because they were black & he replied that they were role models and mentors to him because they were successful and black. The young woman said that his respect and admiration for them based on their color, not their character, was racist. He became very upset, refused to speak to her any further and even left work for the day.

Trouble is...I supervise both of them & now I have a meeting with the boss tomorrow. I called him to apprise him of the trouble & the man had already called. Actually, he had gone shouting into another department and used their phone and complained in a somewhat out of control way that he'd been called a racist. I talked to both of them & tried to chill the situation out, so I don't think I'll get slammed, but I'm truly confused. Our workplace is extraordinarily casual and congenial...so this wasn't a weird conversation that I thought I should halt. My boss is a clear thinking progressive, so it won't be a "political" crisis.

I hate to see us censor discussion. I think what would happen is that the young white woman would be the only one censored because she's a bit more left than the rest and passionate/creative. I LOVE MY VIBRANT WORKPLACE...where deep conversations take place everyday. This guy's only been here 3 weeks, maybe we freaked him out... *sigh*

What should I keep in mind while talking to the boss?

[fortyfeetunder]

1. a situation got out of hand

I think the young white woman does have a bit of an issue here. She took the young man's statement personally and implied racism, when it really wasn't.

My personal policy about workplace conversation like that - I won't discuss race, religion, politics and sex just to prevent scenes like what you just described....

[crispini]

2. oooooooEE, tough call.

I would first of all emphasize what you think of as your normal office culture: political and deep thinking discussions have been allowed and respected and that you value this culture because of X, Y, Z.

Then I would point out that, you know, the guy IS new, and he's not entirely used to the way that the coworkers interact, and that he probably needs some time to get used to the office. (I'm thinking here of my very first meeting at my current job. Coworker repeatedly dropped the F word and even told a pretty offcolor joke in the meeting. I was shocked as hell and found it pretty offputting, but I was the new girl so I kept my mouth shut. A few months later I came to realize that the crudity was simply a (somewhat coarse, admittedly) manifestation of everyone in the office's open-ness and basic willingness to call a spade a spade.)

Then I would decide how you want to handle it, and tell the boss. I would give BOTH of them a little talking to. I would tell the girl concerned that maybe she needs to watch her step around this guy for a while, and I would tell the guy concerned that your office, free dialog was valued, no slam was meant, etc.

I would be fairly concerned with the guy's immediately going over your head to your boss, though. IMO people whose first reaction is to ESCALATE, ESCALATE instead of calming down and dealing with the problem themselves... are usually kind of jerky.

Just my two cents, HTH! :D

edited for lack of matching parenthesis. :D

[JHB]

4. Not much to add to cripspini...

...except maybe to remind the young woman that you can admire some people for certain qualities without forgetting or excusing other less honorable traits. (What people does she admire, and how many of those have somewhat more complicated histories than she thinks?) By forgetting this point, or not applying it here, she created a false dichotomy and accused the young man of something much more severe than any sort of "lazy thinking" that he might have actually been "guilty" of (and many times when we're accused of "political correctness", it's precisely because of this sort of error).

[crispini]

3. So, report back. What did you do? n/t