Political Activities

You may find that you have some employees who are politically active. Most employers are glad that their employees take an active part in their communities. However, employees can sometimes get overzealous and may spend work time on their cause.

Peter is active in a local politician's campaign for office. On several occasions, you see him at other employees' workstations engaging them in political debate and trying to persuade them to vote for his candidate.

While Peter's activity may seem harmless enough (especially since he's not asking for money), he isn't doing his job and is interfering with the work of other employees. If Peter were doing this kind of thing on his lunch time or break times, it would be okay, but during work time, you can require that Peter not engage in political activities.

Harassment. If Peter continues to hound people to vote for his candidate after they have requested that he stop, his actions could be construed as harassment. Take action against this behavior.

If you have to chastise an employee for this kind of behavior, be sure to discourage the behavior, not the involvement. Explain that the employee can do whatever he or she wants when not on the clock, but that your policy limits that behavior during work time. Do not discourage the employee's activity or choice of causes. You don't want it to seem that you have a personal bias against the employee's cause. It could lead the employee to believe that some kind of discrimination is taking place.

Activities outside the workplace. Handling political activity can be tricky because, while you can restrict employees' behavior during work time, some employees' off-duty conduct may reflect negatively on your business. Your ability to control those activities is limited, and in fact many conversations are protected by the First Amendment. While you can't prevent an employee from expressing his or her beliefs, you can focus on the fact that your workplace may not be the appropriate forum for such conversations.

What you can do. While you need to be careful when addressing an employee's political activities, there are some things that you can do:

• Prohibit any political activities on company premises.
• Do not permit the company name to be used in any political activity without your approval.
• Require employees to ensure that their participation in political activities does not reflect unfavorably on the company.
• Encourage running for public office if time requirements do not interfere with the employee's job and there is no conflict of interest. Suggest that prospective candidates discuss their plans with you to resolve possible conflicts ahead of time.

If you anticipate that this could be a problem for your workers, you might want to consider having a work rule covering political activities in the workplace. Some specific examples of political activity clauses follow. You may modify them to suit your needs and incorporate them into your own policy.

The following clause imposes a prohibition of political activities on company premises.

We encourage all of our employees to take an active interest and participate in political affairs. However, political activities may not be conducted on facility premises. You should not identify yourself as a representative of ABC Company in any political activity, nor in any letter to any news source.

This clause addresses how political activities can reflect on the business.

Staff members are encouraged to stay well-informed on local, state, and national affairs. Staff members should be sure that their participation in political activities in no way reflects unfavorably on the company.

This next example addresses the prospect of employees running for office and how it may affect their work.

Employees may want to offer themselves for elected or appointed public office. Such activity is encouraged if the time requirements do not interfere with the employee's job and if there is no conflict of interest. Prospective candidates should discuss with ABC Company any plans to qualify for or accept appointments to public office in order to resolve possible conflicts.