Work and politics can be a bad mix — but it's hard to know where to draw the line

• Talking politics on the job can hurt worker relationships and even team performance.
• Yet many of us are trading barbs at work. Some workers say they'd consider quitting over politics.

Free speech ain't free — especially at the office.

As the US hurtles toward yet another divisive election, it could become harder to sidestep political talk at work.

That's a problem because mudslinging on the job can make it harder for coworkers to get along and can cut into how well teams perform.

The answer, difficult as it might be, is to leave politics at the cubicle's edge.

Joe Galvin, chief research officer at the executive-coaching firm Vistage, told Business Insider that managers must look out for political speech at work just as they would hate speech or discrimination.

The goal, he said, is to make clear to employees that talking politics at work — beyond policy discussions that might affect the business — isn't worth the cost.

"If it's connected to your business, it's appropriate to discuss it in the context of the business. Otherwise, it doesn't belong in the workplace," Galvin said.

But in a time when the bring your whole self to work trope persists, leaving politics outside the job can be hard. In a recent Indeed survey, about a third of respondents said they openly discussed politics at work.

That behavior wasn't a winner for most workers. Fifty-four percent of those surveyed reported being uncomfortable when political talk worked its way into meetings. The online survey, conducted by Harris Poll, involved about 1,100 working adults in the US and took place from late July to early August.

Making teams work better

Finding a way to ditch politics during business hours can benefit workers by giving them a break from exhausting conversations.

That's important because having political conversations at work typically leads people to feel depleted, according to Jake Telkamp, an assistant professor at the Hull College of Business at Augusta University in Georgia. And when workers feel drained, they might be less inclined to help their colleagues, he told BI.

In research he's conducted with colleagues, Telkamp found that teams comprised of people with diverse political viewpoints tend to have more disputes, which in turn makes them less effective.

"That had a really bad impact down the road on team performance, rated by their leader," he said.

But, Telkamp said, there is a way to guard against this pernicious drag on team performance: Fostering a culture of respect. He said workers benefit when they believe that people with differing views will be treated the same.

"That's the buffering effect," Telkamp said. "We can reduce those interpersonal issues that have such a negative impact."

It's not always easy to say what's political

Political chatter at work isn't a concern just because it can lead to clashes among coworkers. It can also be difficult for employers to cordon off.

Domenique Camacho Moran, an employment attorney with the firm Farrell Fritz in New York, told BI that when it comes to private employers, workers generally don't have a right to broadcast their political views on the job.

She said most employers don't tend to tell workers what they can talk about. Instead, private employers more often focus on what's off-limits. That often includes language that would harass colleagues based on a list of protected categories like race or religion.

Camacho Moran said employers can prohibit political conversation, but one risk is inconsistency in enforcement.

Besides, she said, determining what is political speech can be difficult. Camacho Moran pointed to a recent dustup over the opening ceremony at the Olympics. Some religious conservatives decried the performance for making what they saw as disrespectful allusions to Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper."

"Am I allowed to talk about the Olympics, or is that political speech?" she said.

"So, it's a slippery slope for an employer to start going down the road of no political speech," Camacho Moran said. Instead, she said, employers can enforce "reasonable standards" that might prohibit people from having arguments or distracting colleagues.

"If we have employers who are more focused on conduct, not content, they are better served," she said.

Stomping out political brushfires at work might also help employers hang onto their people. In the Indeed survey, about a quarter of workers — and about four in 10 Gen Zers and millennials — said they would think about quitting over political discord on the job.

Telkamp, the Augusta University researcher, said that another reason trading political jabs at work is a bad idea is because doing so is unlikely to change anyone's mind.

Instead, he said, leaders and workers should focus on making people feel like they're valued regardless of their background.

"When there was a high level of that, it reduced that negative effect of having liberals and conservatives on a team together," he said.