The 2024 presidential election is just around the corner — and young employees are threatening to quit if their bosses express a political belief they disagree with.
In fact, a new poll found that nearly half of workers under 35 say they’d quit a job over political differences at work.
In an era of polarization, Americans have cut ties with partners, friends and even family members over political disagreements, but now it seems they’re even willing to leave a paycheck behind.
It’s a sign that politics has become all-encompassing — and that there’s no place in society left that it hasn’t penetrated. Worse yet, young people are totally intolerant of people they disagree with.
According to a Harris Poll commissioned by the job search company Indeed, 60% of employees would prefer to work for a company with a CEO that shares their political beliefs.
But some workers go even further: Some 28% would resign over political differences at work, and 32% would walk out if the CEO said something they disagree with.
Younger employees are even less tolerant of other points of view. A staggering 40% of employees aged 18 to 34 would walk out over political differences in the workplace or with the CEO.
That demonstrates a remarkable disregard for other viewpoints, and a total lack of curiosity about how others think and why they believe what they do. And that’s dangerous for a diverse democracy like ours.
“The fact that almost half of us would rather quit our jobs over politically charged factions than be open to respectfully coexisting is a telling sign of just how divisive we’ve become,” Indeed said in a statement about the poll.
It’s no wonder, considering Zoomer and Millennial employees were raised in an era of institutional activism — where their colleges and universities have taken stands on all manner of contentious political issues.
From the overturning of Roe v. Wade to the election of Donald Trump and even the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, schools have taken stands on issues that divide Americans, assuming that they could speak for the entire “community.”
Coddled kids were even offered counseling by their schools after Trump won in 2016. No wonder they can’t imagine interacting with diverging views in the workplace now. They’re merely replicating the “safe space” culture of college campuses.
Why shouldn’t former students demand the same of their workplaces — especially after companies bent over backwards to make self-flagellating corporate statements in the summer of 2020?
Kids have been convinced that it should be their way or the highway, even if it means being unemployed. Campuses might be ideological safe spaces for the close-minded, but offices surely aren’t the same.
Companies like Goya have suffered boycotts as a result of its CEO’s support for Trump, and employees quit gigs at Equinox over the CEO’s fundraiser for the former president — not that beans or workouts have anything to do with politics.
It’s just a symptom of our sickly polarization.
“Despite often conceiving of themselves as being extremely tolerant, the kind of campus activism that has migrated into the workplace is anything but. It is extremely intolerant of political differences,” Greg Lukianoff, FIRE CEO and my co-author of the book “The Canceling of the American Mind,” told The Post.
“This is unhealthy for democracy and it’s also quite elitist and arrogant.”
As the election nears and the polls remain close, surely every workplace of decent size will have political disagreement.
Any adult worth their salt should know that, for the sake of cohesion and productivity, politics should stay out of the workplace — and the majority wish it would.
According to the same survey, 54% of employees say they’re uncomfortable with politics coming up in the workplace, while just 35% admit to discussing politics at work.
Worse yet, 39% said they feel pressure to conform to a political point of view, and 29% also said they’ve been discriminated against or harassed for their beliefs in the workplace. A few squeaky, ultra-political wheels can really ruin it for everyone.
It’s time for workplaces to define themselves as an apolitical safe space. There are some glimmers of hope coming out of corporate America.
In 2020 Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong required a political ceasefire in the office — and lost 5% of his most activist employees as a result.
More recently, under pressure to take a stand on the Israel Palestine conflict, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai told staff not to use “the company as a personal platform” or “fight over disruptive issues or debate politics.”
That should go without saying but, with the woke workforce that academia is churning out, it apparently needs to be spelled out.
This election shouldn’t cause mass resignations. It’s time to learn how to share a workplace — and a country — with those who we disagree with.
