> Believe it or not there are plenty of people who live their lifes outside of politics.
Nobody lives their life outside of politics. At best, they ignore partisan politics. But they can only do that because the political status quo is one that favors them and the people they care about.
I agree that an "office brawl about politics" is bad. But that's because brawls are bad, not because you can somehow have an office untouched by politics.
Take the very simplest example: how many hours do you work a week?
That number is determined by a political process. It always has been. When it was set purely by the rich people who owned businesses, 80 to 100 hours work weeks were common. Workers pushed back over decades; eventually we ended up with things like a 40-hour work week and overtime pay. Due to politics, that number has been rising in the US, with legal protections for workers decaying. Meanwhile, some people with more political and economic power have been pushing for shorter weeks. There's a long history to this, and it's all political: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/03/how-the-8-hour-workday-chang...
You can still do politics before and after work at your workplace entrance. You can even stage a walk-out where you demonstrate outside the office/factory/etc. But loudly spraying your opinion into your workmates ears who have no choice to be there is a form of torture. If there happen to be opposing loud "enlightened" people it will be a brawl. Although sometimes it's so one sided that the office can turn into a sort of one-party state. Politics is best kept out of the actual workplace
If your only understanding of how politics can function in a workplace is "loudly spraying your opinion into your workmates ears who have no choice to be there" then that's your problem right there.
Note also that your insistence that no "politics" happen in the workplace is political. So you can either hold true to your views and stop mentioning it or give it up and instead advocate for some more reasonable change.
I am not asking people to shut up. As it happens, I always am the one that shuts up. Just the other day a guy was loudly explaining why free healthcare is such a bad thing right behind me. What did I do? Shut up. I had work to do. Perhaps in a different setting I would have discussed politics and offered an alternative view. But I had no choice but to shut up, because I was working, which is what I have to do to provide for my family. Needless to say, I felt aggravated by not only his politics which argues that I shouldn't have healthcare, but the fact that he cared to violate my right to be undisturbed while working. Just look at it this way: would you find it OK if people started talking religion at work? Like "my religion is right and yours isn't". Or would you find it OK if people started advertising brands? Like "Good morning. I don't care you guys are working. I'm going to stand here and talk for 15 minutes to tell you how product XYZ is exactly what you need".
Politics is today's religion, and in religion there will always be zealots who put their idol above everything (and everyone) else. All I ask for is respect. Today's open offices will turn into torture chambers if we bring politics there. Please use restraint, be kind to others
I agree that off-topic conversations at work can be a problem. I think your coworker shouldn't have done that. But your coworker could have been just as much of a pain talking about his car or his wife or his opinions on sports teams. The problem is not "politics".
There are also plenty of on-topic conversations that will get ruled out under a "no politics" rule. For example, the question "Why is everybody here white?" is an important workplace conversation, as is "Why do we pay women with similar experience less money?" and "Why are we letting the VP of Sales bang the interns?" But these are seen as highly political. And I think those are the real target of "no politics" bans.
Just look at Basecamp as an example. Turns out they had for years been making fun of customer names. When that was brought up, one of the complaints was that making fun of ethnic names can be racist, and that low-grade racism lays societal support for the more obviously dangerous kinds. That so enraged one of the powerful white dudes in the company "politics" was banned and the DEI committee was scrapped. Which in turn led to more than a third of the company quitting. They're bidding those staff goodbye and sticking with the ban on "politics".
Refusal to discuss racism is an obviously political move, so if anything the quantity of "politics" at Basecamp has increased. I think the real meaning of the bans is "the comfort of people doing well under the status quo should be preserved", which is deeply political.
Nobody lives their life outside of politics. At best, they ignore partisan politics. But they can only do that because the political status quo is one that favors them and the people they care about.
I agree that an "office brawl about politics" is bad. But that's because brawls are bad, not because you can somehow have an office untouched by politics.
Take the very simplest example: how many hours do you work a week?
That number is determined by a political process. It always has been. When it was set purely by the rich people who owned businesses, 80 to 100 hours work weeks were common. Workers pushed back over decades; eventually we ended up with things like a 40-hour work week and overtime pay. Due to politics, that number has been rising in the US, with legal protections for workers decaying. Meanwhile, some people with more political and economic power have been pushing for shorter weeks. There's a long history to this, and it's all political: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/03/how-the-8-hour-workday-chang...