Canadian HR Reporter

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Price subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. Visit carswell.com or call 1.800.387.5164 for a 30-day no-risk evaluation Perfectbound Published December each year On subscription $77 One time purchase $80 L88804-677 Multiple copy discounts available. Plus applicable taxes and shipping & handling. (prices subject to change without notice) But that would be quite unusual. "I've never seen one of those complaints, so it would be novel," said Whitten. And the behaviour would have to be fairly signifi cant to qualify as harassment — simply expressing a preference for a political candi- date isn't harassment, he said. "Me walking around with a Stephen Harper hat on, that's not harassment," said Whitten. "Em- ployers are really free to express their leanings, as are managers and any other employee." Treading carefully To manage the potential risk of a political smackdown in the offi ce, employers in provinces with no political belief protections in the human rights code might con- sider a non-solicitation policy, said Kuzz. "In Ontario, what I'd say to an employer is you have the right to — and you probably should strongly consider — having a non-solicitation policy. And that could include things like soliciting for support for a political party, for charitable functions," she said. "But it's important to make sure that if you have a policy like that, it's clear, it's communicated to employees… And you have to en- force it consistently — and that's a really big one because that's where employers can get into some trou- ble: If they have this policy sitting there, they rarely if ever enforce it, and they selectively decide to en- force it when they hear something they don't like." And while employers can pro- hibit those types of speech during working time, they really don't have the right to control what people talk about on their lunch hour, she said. Employers might also consider how the code of conduct is word- ed, said Susan Heathfi eld, con- sultant and owner at TechSmith in Lansing, Mich., and a human resources writer. "There should be a written statement… in the code of con- duct (about) respectful treatment of our colleagues. is would be very commonplace in a code of conduct. It doesn't necessarily need to address politics directly, but just respecting one another's beliefs, opinions, values," she said. Also, clarifying expectations in a written policy is never a bad idea, said Whitten. "A best practice for an employ- er, if they're at all concerned about this happening, is to come up with a policy that clearly lays out what your expectations are (and) what the consequences for not follow- ing the rules are." Employers can also exercise progressive discipline if their pro- vincial human rights code doesn't cover politics, said Whitten. "It's open to an employer to say, 'Look, I don't like the fact that you continue to recruit for the Conser- vative party, so I may take disci- plinary action against you,'" he said. "I can say, 'You're wasting com- pany time when you should be fo- cused on your work and instead you're recruiting for the NDP.' "An employer can progressively discipline an employee for virtu- ally anything as long as it's not a human rights code issue." Relationships, power dynamics One more element to consider that often gets overlooked in the legal talk is simply that of positive working relationships and pro- ductivity, said Heathfi eld. Politi- cal talk at work can really damage productivity if confl icting beliefs arise between co-workers. "It polarizes people and it's not good in a work setting where people have to work together to produce results," she said. "If they have negative feel- ings about each other because of political positions, or the fact that a colleague won't keep their mouth shut about their beliefs, it interferes with the ability of the employer to off er a work setting in which people can actually ac- complish things and feel good. "In a workplace, where relation- ships actually matter more than one might think for accomplish- ing work, anything that is polar- izing should not really take centre stage." Also, relationships with a power dynamic — such as manager-sub- ordinate relationships — should be handled with particular care, said Kuzz. "We usually counsel employers to do their best to make sure that their senior team or members of management aren't doing any political 'pushing' in the work- place, simply because when you've got that kind of uneven power relationship, a lot of peo- ple aren't going to feel like they have the right to say, 'No thank you,'" she said. "You're better off if you just keep it outside the workplace." Confl icting beliefs can impact productivity POLITICS < pg. 1 When politics go viral One particularly tricky element for employers to consider is the issue of policing political debate online, said Erin Kuzz, founding partner of Sherrard Kuzz in Toronto. Employers never want to be seen as the social media police but, at the same time, they want employees to be aware of how their online activity may refl ect back on the organization, she said. "One thing employees need to understand is that if you identify yourself as an employee of a particular organization, that any communications you make through social media can become relevant to the workplace. It doesn't mean they always will be — but they can be. And so the best way to prevent any issues like that is if you're going to be blogging or you're going to be on social media, don't identify yourself by your employer," she said. "If you do and you say things that could, for instance, interfere with your employer's obligations to its customers or the public perception of your employer, then you as an employee can (face) ramifi cations back in the workplace for that." Infl ammatory statements might also come back to haunt workers who are on a job search, she said. "More and more employers are now getting savvy about looking at people's social media presence when they're thinking about hiring them. So if people are making political statements in their social media, it may not matter to a prospective employer the content of those — whether you support a particular party or not — but if you are out there being aggressive and rude or just downright obnoxious in how you express that view, then that might turn a prospective employer off." " ere should be a written statement... it doesn't necessarily need to address politics directly but just respecting one another's beliefs, opinions, values." Credit: Chris Wattie (Reuters) Liberal leader Justin Trudeau serves a customer during a campaign stop at a Tim Hortons in Gatineau, Que., on Sept. 1.

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