How to navigate differing political opinions in the workplace and avoid conflict with colleagues

By Katy McGuinness

European workers have had a lot to contend with over the last four years.

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From the upheaval to daily schedules unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic, to navigating often unwelcome return to office (RTO) mandates, there have been a number of workplace issues that have caused differences of opinion.

In 2021, for example, European Central Bank staff protested at RTO plans, with 61 percent saying they were unhappy with having to go back to the office. 

Another 26 percent said that while it wasn’t ideal, they could live with the decision, and tellingly, only 12 percent were completely happy with returning to the office.

This is the kind of workplace-related discord that’s frequently the subject of those oft-quoted "watercooler moments".

Where leaders imagine collaborative conversations sparking creative outcomes, often workers simply use their in-office time together to grumble about management.

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Employee disgruntlement can be tackled with a careful approach from leadership and genuinely hybrid working options that take diverse needs into account, as well as true flexibility and thoughtful benefits.

Global unrest in recent years

But what isn’t so easy to deal with – for both employees and their bosses – is the rise of often highly contentious social and political issues that have arisen over the past number of years.

At a time of global unrest, there are huge, divisive issues playing out on the world stage, with both the Israel-Hamas and Ukraine wars emerging as the largest two.

Stories of people who lost their jobs because of expressing unpopular opinions on the war in Gaza have been in the media recently, while Meta, for instance, banned its employees in 2022 from discussing abortion.

Other hot potatoes both in and out of work are any topics falling under the "culture wars" banner.

Most people have discussed these around the dinner table in the privacy of their own homes, or have had conversations with friends.

Now, many are wondering if it is wise to talk about such topics at work with their colleagues, or share those views on social media accounts.

When human resources teams issue blanket bans on talking about specific topics, as Meta did, workers don’t like it. And companies can take this further, which Citibank did in 2023 when it fired an employee for making an antisemitic comment on their social media.

With no failsafe blanket approach to tackle the issue, this means that the onus for navigating tricky ground at work often falls back on the individual.

In the EU, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union states that "everyone has the right to freedom of expression. 

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This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers".

But this does not give people carte blanche to just say what they want: Hate-motivated crime and speech are also illegal under EU law.

Biases in the workplace

At work, openness and transparency matters, and workers may feel personally motivated or even morally obliged to advocate for what they see is "right".

But colleagues and co-workers are not necessarily friends with sympathetic moral and political views.

Employees may want to consider that it isn’t their job to make their colleagues see things the way that they do. 

Further, there is a risk inherent in expressing strongly-held opinions in that frictions and biases may develop within the workplace, which can negatively impact on career progression.

On balance, many people will make a pragmatic decision to keep their opinions to themselves at work when it comes to anything controversial. But there is often one person for whom the working environment is a place to openly express differing political opinions.

This can be a challenge to negotiate too, with research showing that employees are happier working for companies with values that align with their own. Gen Z workers in particular are more aware about this than older employees.

In order to mitigate the thorny problem of clashing opinions in the workplace, one of the most helpful things workers can do is research.

From the organisation’s policies on DE&I, the causes they support, and their social media presences, you can learn a lot, and talking to a current employee will tell you even more.

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