What is in common between politics and religion and why they both fall into the most basic office etiquette prohibition? They both lead to discord, resentment and destroy productive harmony in a workplace. What makes them similar?
Both politics and religion are persistent life long allegiances. Both require devotion to a set of static assumptions, both are in conflict with the fluid uncertainty of the shifting world. Indeed Marshall McLuhan wrote that “most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness.” Adherence to these assumptions requires the following technics:
- Realization that the fragility and uncertainty of your worldview can be protected amongst a clique of like-minded individuals.
- The need to create an ideological opposition, the need to soothe the inner ambiguity with unambiguous hate of the infidels. And since hating all infidels is exhausting, it is always handy to have one single leader of the infidels to hate [insert your personal favorite here].
- Realization that one can lose at lot socially by abandoning the imperfect beliefs.
Further Reading:
The Intersection of Politics, Religion and Stupidity
Belief and Religion as Love and Marriage
Office Politics
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
You make lots of great points. Religion is often discouraged from being discussed at work because it's a private matter, and people should have their privacy respected. Also, religion and politics often have little or nothing to do with the substance of the work being done in most professions, so there should be no reason to bring up these potentially divisive and highly personal, private topics.
There is less and less reason to bring up anything lately and there is more more subjects that are “potentially divisive and highly personal”.
Religion doesn’t have to be divisive and highly personal. For many employees, it’s part of their identity and they want to feel comfortable bringing their whole selves to work. While religion may have little to do with the substance of the work, it often affects how the work gets done. Employees may need to take time off to pray during the day. Or they run into scheduling conflicts when important meetings happen while they’re out for a religious holiday. It’s in employers’ best interests to start paying attention to religion.
Rachel, the point of this post was to draw a psychological analogy between religion and politics in a workplace not to define how a religious or a hyper political person is treated at work.