Taming a firebrand: Employer and employee battle over political outspokenness

Question:

I supervise a talented employee who’s passionate about his work. Unfortunately, “Johnny” feels equally passionate about political issues. He floods his co-workers’ inboxes with unsolicited, strongly worded emails about Palestine. If he encounters colleagues in the breakroom, he initiates strident conversations that he dominates. When others try to interrupt him or voice contrary views, Johnny grows increasingly didactic and self-righteous.

I’ve attempted to rein him in, but it hasn’t worked. Our last discussion ended in a stalemate, with him saying, “If there’s no space for me in this workplace as a person who cares about what’s happening in the world, you won’t need to fire me. I’ll leave.” He then began pushing our executive team to take a strong public stance in favor of the Palestinians in Gaza.

If Johnny leaves, it’ll be hard to replace his technical skill set. Also, I agree with many of his views, and he’s done great things for our company, from getting us to recycle to improving our social media visibility. But those forced to interact with him daily complain about him, and it’s coming to a head. The chief operating officer recently told me, “Leash him or get rid of him.”

The HR manager and I plan to meet with Johnny tomorrow, and I don’t want to lose him. How do we proceed?

Answer:

Frame the discussion you have with him in positive terms. You respect Johnny’s passion, advocacy and talent. He needs to respect others. His colleagues aren’t his acolytes. Give him guidance on when and how to share his views.

As I wrote last year, employees care deeply about climate change, abortion, gun control and the homeless situation in Anchorage. We all care about the horrific Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, the devastation in Gaza and what’s happening in the Ukraine. As a result, highly charged discussions will occur because employees don’t shut off their emotions or brains when they enter the workplace.

Employers and employees thus need to up their game. Although others in the workplace hold views different from our own, we can respectfully talk with and not at each other. We can’t remain a country in which we avoid differences of opinions because we don’t remember how to exchange ideas without attacking others’ views and each other as people.

So, tell Johnny he’ll be more successful in advocating his views if he improves how he presents them. Can he understand others don’t share his views, and many of his colleagues don’t want to discuss these issues at work? Can he stop flooding others’ inboxes with his opinions?

Meanwhile, similar fierce battles now rage in many workplaces. Employees proclaim, “I’m a person who cares about what’s happening in the world, and the world is self-destructing with climate change and violence. I don’t leave my brain behind when I enter the workplace and need to speak out to create positive change.”

Employers present an equally legitimate view. “We pay employees to work. We don’t want them disrupting their workplace by foisting their opinions on co-workers who hold different views.” Many of these employers fired employees who wrote contentious social media posts about the Hamas attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Starbucks sued the union representing employees at 410 of its U.S. stores after local affiliates made pro-Palestinian social media posts that angered hundreds of customers.

Further, multiple employers have lost patience with employees pressuring them to take public stands on issues such as the war in Gaza. Google fired 28 employees who disrupted their workplace when protesting their company’s cloud-computer contract with the Israeli government. Google’s CEO emailed Google employees reminding them, “This is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform.” In contrast, an employee said, “I wasn’t expecting that my labor would be going toward aiding a genocide.”

Finally, if Johnny refuses to change, he gives you an ultimatum you might need to accept, so he doesn’t continue holding you and others within earshot hostage to his soapbox.