Why you should be talking about politics at work

Turns out discussing the news and politics at work can actually foster wellbeing

ONE MUST ALWAYS be a bit cautious talking about the news at work — you never really know, after all, what might be a third-rail topic for your coworkers, what kind of reaction you’ll get from your boss or whether your IT guy believes the earth is flat.

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But some new research suggests the way many workplaces have tried to navigate this — with blanket ‘no politics at work’ rules — are neither effective, nor helpful, especially at times when the news is creating a high degree of stress.

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The gist of the research, conducted by Washington State University academic Kristine Kuhn, found that not only were prohibitions on or guidances against discussing politics and news at work ineffective (people do still talk about these things), but that they were actually causing staff to be more stressed, since they were losing out on an opportunity to process the events by talking with like-minded colleagues.

“In our studies, people who talked about breaking politicized news with their coworkers found it to be more helpful than harmful,” Kuhn told the Academy of Management (AOM) Discoveries publication, which published the paper. “Overall, discussing the news with coworkers was associated with less emotional exhaustion, improved mood and greater social support.”

Their research tackled this topic by focusing on a few key events, including the 2020 and 2024 U.S. presidential elections. They asked survey participants to fill out two surveys — one in the morning that asked them how they were feeling about the news, and one in the evening, asking them how or if they discussed the news with colleagues. While people’s individual reactions to the news depended on their personal political views, it didn’t lead to the kind of conflict or incivility that is often cited as the reason for keeping the discussion away from work.

“Results suggested that sharing reactions with coworkers may have helped buffer the effects of negative emotional reactions to political news,” wrote Kym Liebler of the AOM. “In this study,” Kuhn said, “we found that talking about the election was associated with receiving more support from coworkers, not incivility.”

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Perhaps this kind of research can’t come too soon. Of late, the news has not been all that easy to process, and many companies have adopted uncritically the belief that political discussions are net-destructive to company culture and workplace satisfaction. But this research suggests the opposite: that for many people, their coworkers are people they turn to already.

One aspect of this is that people are good at self-selecting who they talk with about these sorts of topics: most staff are able to avoid conflict when it comes to talking about the news in part because they know intuitively who they can talk to safely and without starting a fight.

“Most people do not want to make themselves feel worse by sparking confrontation,” Kuhn pointed out. “When they do share, it seems to be more helpful than not. Employees can find support during tough times that weigh heavily on people.” Kieran Delamont