"DEAR HARRIETTE: I was at a happy hour for my company's end-of-year holiday party, and since I recently joined the team, I was looking forward to getting to know everyone better in a relaxed setting. At first, I was enjoying myself and everything was going well. Then one of my colleagues started talking about his political views, and the way he spoke made me and the others in the group uncomfortable."
"It felt inappropriate to bring up at a work event, especially one meant to celebrate the holidays and bring people together. I tried to redirect the conversation, but he kept going and became louder, too, which only made the energy in the group more tense. I barely know these colleagues, so I did not want to cause conflict or seem rude so early on in my time at the company,"
"Broken Boundaries DEAR BROKEN BOUNDARIES: You are new to the company. Observe how the team members interact with each other. Pay attention to casual conversation so you get a sense of other people's views. If you find yourself in a situation where just the two of you are together, you may mention to him that you thought things got awkward when the conversation got political at the party."
A new employee attended a company holiday happy hour and felt uncomfortable when a colleague raised political topics loudly, making the group tense. The employee tried to redirect the conversation but avoided confrontation because they are new and want to build good team relationships. Advice is to observe how colleagues interact, note norms in casual conversations, and if necessary speak privately to the colleague to say the political turn felt awkward and suggest leaving politics out of social functions. Alternatively, directly ask for a subject change, walk away, or refuse to engage to maintain boundaries.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]