Politics in the Workplace
For starters, I’m a leftist. I grew up and still work in the South, in the heart of the Bible Belt. I’m still too poor to move where I want to go. I’d say 95% of our clients are conservative baptists, as to be expected from my region. After many years of literally being preached at in my office by clients, and being expected to just agree with their bigoted jokes and hatred, I put a rainbow flag and a free Palestine sticker on my desk to hopefully give these people the memo that I’m not the one to talk to about their beliefs. But still they persist. Keep in mind, it’s just me and my attorney in our small town firm.
I try to remain professional, but I definitely get sarcastic with these people. For instance, today an old man tried to give me marriage “advice” (saw the ring). He essentially promoted spousal abuse and lying to your partner to “keep a healthy marriage” (wtf dude?!). I cut him off mid-sentence and said something along the lines of “I’m pansexual, and he’s the only man I get along with, so I think we’re good”. I know that’s not the correct thing to say professionally, but it shut him up and he was out the door in less than 5 minutes.
How do you deal?! I want to keep my job, and definitely don’t want to get fired for having a smart mouth. But am I just supposed to sit here and literally let these men try to tell me how to live my life? Or when they say something racist, homophobic, ableist, etc. and they expect me to laugh, can I just sit there and glare at them and say that’s not funny? Basically, how do I deal with people that don’t get the memo to leave that stuff at the door?
P. S. I really don’t want this to turn into a political debate. Just advice on professional decorum :)