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Following on from the other thread. I thought I'd start a new one, so how much politics is discussed where you work? Strictly off limits or similar to here, could you for example know easily which way many people at your place of work voted?
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I stopped work before the referendum but tbh we didn't chit chat much at all, though it's fair to say neither did we spend much time in the office (all were expected to work from home much of the time as there weren't enough desks to go round by a long way!!). I don't think we had the time for it mostly.
But when we did get together the chat wasn't really about "current affairs" - some computer "geek" chat, stuff about work, what we'd done the night or weekend before - pretty much like you said in the other thread.
Mind you, if I go back a number of years to a job where I'd been for many years and was closer with my colleagues (still not really quite close friends, in that we rarely/never met outside work) and we smoked, we'd often chew over all sorts of things in the smoking room - including, sometimes, a tricky work problem - but I never remember discussing politics. I don't think I, and others, were as interested or aware then - or maybe there was just more interesting stuff to discuss...
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I can tell you exactly how all my colleagues voted in the referendum - a mixture - and their political inclinations.
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Until now, politics were in my experience a totally taboo subject at work, and it would have been grossly impolite to ask or to express an opinion.
Now we have gone to the other extreme, and it has become the norm to cross-question and abuse anyone one suspects of disagreeing with one's own view.
In the old days we happily spent our long lunches in the pub enjoying ourselves before rolling back for a bit of work in the afternoon. Now drinking is the new taboo and we have all learned to backstab and villify each other over politics instead.
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I've never really noticed politics as a conversation at work unless there was a particular issue gripping the media, and even then I have never noticed it being a particularly significant conversation.
>>we have all learned to backstab and villify each other over politics instead.
Not in any place I have every worked. In what type of organisation(s) have you encountered this extreme behaviour?
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>> In what type of organisation(s) have you
>> encountered this extreme behaviour?
>>
I meant in general, but I'm sure the attitudes will spread to work. In fact they probably are - someone here made the remark that if a firm has to make redundancies, Brexit views will be looked at. I don't think anyone would ever have dared say that before now over political opinions - they were private.
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>>political opinions - they were private.
In the bad old days, political opinions were far from private.
Voters were registered and had to mark who they voted for in a book / ledger and anyone could examine who you voted for. Employers often used to threaten workers to vote a prescribed way or risk losing their jobs.
I mentioned what my boss said re Brexit voters. I don't have any strong opinions as to the morality of it TBH and think its better not to discuss certain things at work, but it does happen and several vocal shop floor staff had made their views on Brexit very clear.
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Seems like very much a mixed bag, some have very open discussions about politics others never touch on it.
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Voters were registered and had to mark who they voted for in a book /
>> ledger and anyone could examine who you voted for. Employers often used to threaten workers
>> to vote a prescribed way or risk losing their jobs.
When and where are you thinking of?
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>> Voters were registered and had to mark who they voted for in a book /
>> ledger and anyone could examine who you voted for. Employers often used to threaten workers
>> to vote a prescribed way or risk losing their jobs.
How did the employers check that the employees did actually vote for the party that they claimed to vote for?*
*My apologies for finishing a sentence with a preposition. I haven't had any breakfast.
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Secret ballots only started In 1872
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>> Secret ballots only started In 1872
At which point (out of a population of 30 million) the total franchise was 2.5 million - having increased from 1.4 million following the Reform Act of 1867.
I'm not convinced that Driver's assertion would have affected that many 'workers'. Only the middle classes had the vote. It was not until 1918 that all *men* obtained the vote. (And women over 30 and some other women.)
Do tell what more you know about the topic of intimidation of the workers, Driver, this is interesting as it does not accord with my understanding.
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politics at work - smokie
