Politics Poisons Working Relationships

This 2016 presidential election promises to be an especially exciting and event-filled campaign. Many people are bound to get caught up in the excitement and fury to come. However, please do not make the mistake of discussing politics at work. People can get emotionally wrought up in their politics, causing unkind remarks that are impossible to un-say. Discussing politics at work can poison a healthy working relationship.

Several years ago a student went to work for a local company. At first all was bliss. The student talked about how nice the owner was and how much he was learning. The company owner remarked on how smart the student was and how quickly he learned. Then all of a sudden the reports changed. The student now called the owner a racist bigot and the owner said the student was lazy and stupid. Digging a little deeper I discovered the core issue: one day at work the student had offered his negative opinion of then president Ronald Reagan. He had made the assumption that because both he and his employer were on friendly terms and were polite to each other, that they felt the same way regarding politics. However, the employer thought Reagan had saved the country. The ensuing discussion left both of them so angry that the student could no longer work there. The student really needed the job, and truth be told, the company really needed his help. Both parties lost a valuable working relationship because of a casual remark about politics.

If you are an employee, offering your opinion on politics to fellow workers or your boss can jeopardize your relationship. If you are the boss, think about the effect offering your opinion has on your employees. They can’t safely disagree – so you won’t likely get honest discussion. They may quietly agree, even if they don't agree. Or, they may decide you're a racist bigot and quit. And of course you should NEVER start a political discussion with customers. If the customer starts the discussion, agree with whatever they say and get out of the discussion as quickly as possible. Who loses if the customer gets upset because of political differences? You and your company.

I know you probably feel that the country’s existence depends upon your candidate winning. But the truth is whoever is elected president will be there four years, maybe eight years. Hopefully your career will extend far beyond eight years. The president will come and go and you will still be making the world a better place by keeping folks comfortable. So what happened to the two techs in the story? They are both doing fine – separately. I am sure that they support different candidates. They each are fine men, good techs, and do our trade proud – I just won’t discuss politics with them.

Essential Skills

When many employers are asked what they feel is most lacking from their recently hired employees, the most common answers fall into what are generally considered soft skills. “Soft skills” refer to how you interact with other people while “hard skills,” are the nuts and bolts of actually performing your job. Together with work ethics, I refer to these soft skills as essential skills because they are essential to most types of work. Nowhere is this more true than in an industry that deals with the public on a daily basis, such as HVACR. I have known technicians who lost jobs because of their lack of these essential skills. You can readily see the effect of essential skills in fast food restaurants. While most servers now say something to the effect of “thank you, have a nice day”, that is not always the meaning that is conveyed. The tone of voice and flat delivery sometimes convey the message “god I hate this job, please go away.” Since I have no desire to torture anyone by purchasing something from them, I find somewhere else to go. Why should they care? If enough people are made uncomfortable by the greeting, the company can lose enough business that employees will lose their jobs. In HVACR, customers need to trust you with much larger decisions than what to have for lunch. They want someone who is professional in appearance, attitude, and behavior. They really want to trust you because they want their problem solved. But if you convey the message that their troubles are a nuisance to you, they will feel uneasy asking for or accepting advice from you. As a service tech you might feel that you work on machines, and you do; but you work FOR the customer. The condensing unit is not going to write you a check.  So make sure and make time to listen to and communicate with the person writing the check. After all, getting paid is a pretty essential skill.