This is the Business English Podcast Episode 321.
Who are you voting for?
Questions to avoid at work.
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Hello, Lindsay. How are you?
Great Aubrey. How's it going today?
I'm great. I have a question for you.
Yes. Would you ask someone at work who they're voting for?
Oh, gosh, no. I would definitely not straight up ask someone who they're voting for.
No, no, no. Yes. That is the correct answer.
I think as well we're going to go into why at least in the States.
You would not want to ask someone who they're voting for, which is interesting.
This is part two of a series leading up to the election in the US.
Part one was on Allers English, Democrat versus Republican, how to talk about American politics, where we went into a lot of the terms, a lot of the vocabulary that you need to understand in order to talk about politics.
Yes, we're getting our listeners ready for the election, the first Tuesday in November of this year is going to be a big one.
Very important election.
And I think everyone knows that.
And so we're giving you these building blocks for the conversations you will have or maybe won't have about politics, right?
In some cases, we do want to avoid that direct question at work, Aubrey.
Yeah. This is what's tricky is, yeah, politics might come up at work and it can, but there are certain questions you really want to avoid asking.
We'll share which those are and we'll share what you can talk about at work because this is an interesting conversation that might come up at work.
And a lot of the ways this conversation could go are perfectly appropriate for work.
Totally. And so, guys, go find the Allers English podcast first, hit follow now, and then go back and check out that other episode and just make sure in general you're following both podcasts, Allers English and Business English to get the full series.
Yeah. Because we often do that where here we're sharing how do you talk about politics at work?
What questions should you avoid?
And on Allers English, you're going to get a lot of the vocabulary, a lot of the we're going to go into some of the issues.
Why? Why are people so divided about these issues?
Right. And I just want to follow up on my answer.
So not only would I not ask someone at work physically who they're voting for, I also wouldn't ask coworkers at like a happy hour or a holiday party who they're voting for, right?
It extends outside of just the workplace is what I'm trying to say.
Absolutely. I agree.
I think it's because many people are private about their political opinions and a question, especially a direct question like this, might make them very uncomfortable.
It's uncomfortable to ever have to answer, I don't want to tell you or I want to keep that private.
You don't ever want to put someone in that position.
Yeah. And just to give a little context, I think some of the reason that this is so private for some people, I was just listening to the daily podcast, which I think a lot of our listeners listen to.
It's the New York Times podcast.
We're listening to that today where they interviewed swing voters in Pennsylvania.
And you know, one of the voters they were interviewing, just undecided moderates, didn't want to admit that she was thinking of breaking with hundreds of years of her family tradition of voting Republican because it felt to her, she articulated this.
It felt like she was being disloyal to her family.
There was some shame there, but she was just feeling like she just couldn't do it.
You know, I have a lot of solidarity with her.
I grew up conservative.
We don't talk much about our actual political opinions here, but that was very much for me where I grew up in the Northwest was very conservative.
And it is if you ever do start having different ideals from your family, it's very difficult to break with tradition and know that now you'll maybe disagree with other people.
So I think a lot of people can can feel that or maybe in her situation if they ever start disagreeing with how they were raised and how their family still believes you know, it's strange you feel sort of other sort of outside.
So that's the context, right?
It's really, it's that maybe shame, maybe there's just emotions.
I think in other parts of the world, it might be more intellectual.
I'm not really sure.
It's just more on the surface.
I feel like people talk about politics more globally than we do.
So that's why we really don't approach this.
And something else here might be that you just never know who agrees with you and you never know who is extremely passionate one way or another.
And some people are just not confrontational.
They like to keep the peace.
So they might just want to keep their opinions to themselves to avoid any possible confrontation.
Yeah, for sure. For sure.
All right. So then let's go through the list of what not to ask.
We're doing a lot of what not to do today, Aubrey, I like it.
I like it. So first is just the, you know, who are you voting for?
This is a no -no. And then what do you think about blank for any hot button issue?
Like what do you think about abortion?
We should not specifically ask someone this because for the same reason, it might make someone uncomfortable.
They might, their answer might be, I don't want to talk about that, which is a very awkward situation to put someone in.
Oh, for sure. For sure.
And it's also just way too blatant a question.
You know, it's just it's yeah, on this it's too direct.
Avoid those two questions completely.
But what can we do, Aubrey?
I'm curious. I mean, does this mean we are going to completely stay away from politics at work?
I mean, what do you think?
Yeah. And this is interesting because, you know, sometimes you've probably heard this expression, like avoid talking about politics and religion.
So it really depends on the person.
You might be the type of person that doesn't want to ever get into politics and religion.
That's OK. But if you are the type of person that likes to have these intellectual conversations, you can at work.
But we have to think about which questions work.
Right. General questions that don't ask directly for personal opinions are great.
Like, for example, what did you think about the debate?
Yeah, exactly. Or are people where you live interested in politics?
So that's kind of interesting because you can learn a lot and it doesn't mean it's also why do you have to know what that one person's political orientation is?
Right. It's more interesting, actually, to know about their region where they live.
Maybe you work remotely.
And so they represent a region.
I would be more interested in that so much.
Yeah, I agree. Right.
And when it comes to at least political opinions or, you know, religion similar that I agree with you that that's not always the most interesting thing.
Like a lot of people want to keep these things personal.
But there's a lot of other things to talk about.
Right. You can ask questions about how the system works.
And you can just ask them if they are willing to get into heated political conversations.
I find this interesting just to ask someone, do you ever get into heated political conversations?
Just finding out what type of personality are they?
Are they like willing to to go there?
Yes, I love it. Interesting.
And, you know, and a caveat to the top one, you know, if you feel like you've been working with someone for a long time, you know, and people have you already kind of understand where they stand.
Yeah, there may be situations where if it's a close coworker, you might say, what do you think of the debate?
And then what you expect to hear is somewhat partisan and that's OK.
Maybe you see eye to eye with them.
There are cases where maybe you've gotten a basic sense of what they think and they might share more, and especially if like you're not, neither of you are really confrontational around that, that might be OK.
So around the edges.
Yeah, it really does directly saying, who are you going to vote for?
No, exactly. Yeah. That's a really good point that the more you get to know your coworkers, there may be little hints and signs that you'll know if they want to talk about it.
They're open to a conversation and be how passionate they are about their side.
Are you if you disagree, are you still going to be able to have just an interesting question about the debate and how you thought it went or could it potentially get controversial and divisive?
And if so, maybe the workplace isn't the best place for that.
Yeah, and some of what we do to put those signals together, maybe looking at people like people the way they live their lives.
But that's not always a direct correlation out.
You do have to be careful.
Sometimes it will be surprising at times.
Really interesting stuff.
So where else do we go from here, Aubrey?
All right. So I think the other really interesting thing to get into is just our questions about how the system works.
So, for example, you might say, you know, I'm not sure I understand the electoral college system, do you or or if you do understand it and just find it interesting and want to know what someone else thinks, you could just say, what do you think about the electoral college system?
Mm hmm. Love it. Just avoiding lecturing, I guess, for sure, because then people kind of like lose interest and, you know, delivering that in a way that you're not lecturing someone.
Right. Yeah. This is where it is.
It's going to be tricky.
Like if you're you're kind of wanting to talk about the system, how it's set up.
Is this the best way for it to work?
That can be an interesting conversation.
But if it's something that you're already an expert in, you'll need to gauge right away.
Are they interested?
Do they want to have this conversation?
And if not, you'll pivot to something else.
Totally. And then a question you might ask on the voting week, like right in that moment, you know, do you usually fill out a mail -in ballot or are you going to vote in person?
It means maybe it's on that Tuesday, that day.
Are you are you going to vote tonight in person or do you do mail -in?
Yeah, this can come up, right?
You're not saying who are you voting for?
It's just like, oh, how do you usually vote?
Do you do a mail -in ballot now or where do you go to vote?
Like this is just, you know, a regular conversation and you could totally ask about this.
I mean, the truth is it just, you know, if you do try to figure out someone's political orientation, it's not what you agree with.
It's going to make business harder for you, especially right now if you're really passionate about one side or the other.
So it's better in some ways to not know sometimes.
Yeah, potentially it depends on people's personalities, too.
Right. If they don't agree, but they're able to still have either like a polite, respectful conversation or they just don't ever bring it up.
Both work. You can know someone's political views and both of you just don't ever talk about it and that's fine.
Yeah, that can work too, for sure.
What about questions about things you hear in the news on social media, Aubrey?
What do you think? Absolutely, right.
This is an interesting thing to bring up.
If you heard something on a podcast, you see posts, you might say, I've been seeing a lot of posts on social media about the election.
What about you? And that's just an interesting I like this question to just find out if they're interested in politics, if they're paying attention to the election because the way someone responds to this is going to let you know if they're interested in the conversation at all.
Oh, for sure. This is one of those questions where you can if you do want to learn more, you can one of those questions you can ask to try to learn a little bit more and just see what they say.
Right. They might say like, I got to show you this meme I just saw or I got to share with you this or they might just say, no, I'm not really following it.
Right. You could learn everything you need to know at that point.
OK, Aubrey, a little role play where we are going to go into politics at work, treading lightly here.
Right. So you and our coworkers eating lunch in the break room want to start us out?
Yes. I'm seeing so many political posts on social media these days.
It's exciting to see so much interest.
I agree. People seem really divided.
I know a lot of people who still aren't sure who to vote for.
Do you ever get into heated political conversations?
I try to avoid them.
I don't love controversy.
What about you? I love to chat about politics, but I definitely prefer when everyone is open minded and respectful.
Nice. And then even even conversation.
Right. Sorry. Well, I was just going to say, I feel like this is such a great foundation to start the conversation and you're sort of giving each other the chance to share if you're interested, if you want to have this conversation.
And then one of you could, of course, pivot away if you don't want to get into anything else or you could, you know, get deeper a little bit about something interesting related to it.
Oh, yeah. There are a lot of opportunities for pivoting away.
We've done other episodes on all ears.
English about pivoting in a conversation to other topics, which I think we should come back to that, Aubrey.
Well, don't miss. There's a really good one.
Twenty two. Oh, eight was politics or pivot English conversation tactics for divisive topics.
That was amazing. That sort of goes along with this series because you need to read the room with these kind of conversations.
If you're going to go there, be ready for someone to not want to talk about it and be ready to pivot.
Well, you gave you phrases in that episode to do that.
Yeah. I mean, just to give an example here, you know, at the very top of the role play, you know, I said I'm seeing so many political posts on social media.
It's exciting to see so much interest.
You could have said, I agree.
And I also saw this other meme about, you know, I don't know, some other famous celebrity or some movie.
Right. That's true.
I could have immediately pivoted to pop culture or something.
Or I could have said, oh, I haven't I don't really pay attention to that.
And then maybe you'd say, oh, what did you do this weekend?
You know, right away.
So I think the key here, the key connection skill for work is leaving lots of white space and opportunities for the person to pivot away.
And also, it felt very kind of objective and broad.
And it wasn't specific about your views or was more broadly about politics, I think.
Yes, this is a huge takeaway here at work, especially and often in your private life as well.
You don't want to ask people directly for their political opinions, whether that's about the issues or who they're going to vote for, because it can create awkwardness and discomfort that you especially don't want to create at work.
Yeah, that's the key takeaway.
So, you know, this is how we can take what we're learning in this series on politics.
But be careful when we go to work, right?
Do it the right way.
It can build a relationship.
Do it the wrong way.
It could be bad. Exactly.
It could create a wedge that you don't want to be there when you're trying to work with someone.
Yeah. And I think that's the takeaway for today, Aubrey.
I mean, that's it right there.
We just have to know it's the art of how to broach the topic.
Exactly. I'm excited for you guys to potentially have conversations about politics, especially leading up to the U .S.
election. Be sure to hit follow here and on Allers English so that you can get this whole series.
All right. Sounds good.
We'll see you next time.
Aubrey, have a good one.
Awesome. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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