Play Nice - Personal Beliefs Should Not Prevent Job Duties

If you listen to the Vice-Presidential candidate debate between Palin and Biden, you should have noticed that in spite of their differences, they had common etiquette guide their responses to the moderator, and each other, when the debate began and ended. 

In the workplace, we often disagree with our peers or supervisors. For example, in the political climate, many are talking about who is qualified to be the next President of the United States. I work with a gentleman who is close friends, and former business partner of Jim DeMint. That lets me know up front who he respects politically. What if I don't like what DeMint holds dear? Do I blurt it out to my colleague and then get "into it" with him or do I respect that we live in a democratic society and we can each have our own point of view?

When opinions hurt performance...

If you do not agree with a supervisor or peer on deeply personal issues, you are still expected to carry out the duties of your job without bias, as they are required to do the same. I once had a supervisor who said to a secretary, "I can't believe a woman with  your (insert religious affiliation) would actually have a bumper sticker for that candidate. Of course, you know you cannot put that on your car. As a representative of this company, we are expected to not display our political affiliations where our customers can see them." 

The supervisor was inappropriate for her personalization of her attack against the secretary's reasoning and equally out of line for the comment about her religion. However, she was fully in bounds to state that company representatives were not allowed to display bumper stickers for any political candidate where customers might see them as long as this was a clear policy that applied to ALL employees in ALL elections. 

If this supervisor had treated her secretary unfairly due to her political views, the supervisor's job may have been in question. Would the secretary be free to "blow off" work because of her hurt and disappointment in the supervisor's comments? Absolutely not. However, she did have full recourse to make a report to a human resources representative about what was said for the record, especially if she feared the supervisor would retaliate based upon who she believed the secretary intended to vote for. 

The bottom line is this: Your personal beliefs should not prevent you from doing your job, or you may lose your job for failure to follow your duties. If you know up front that you have objections to duties that the job requires, you might want to consider a different employment option altogether.